HarveyWildes
Member
- Joined
- May 3, 2016
- Messages
- 984
Just got back from a tour of Spain. I loved it, except for the fact that they had the hottest June ever, with multiple days over 100 F. Iberian ham is really good.
Here are some observations that might apply to woodworking.
* Sagrada Familia is awesome!!! The design is organic, and there is hardly a straight line in the place. I've seen many pics of the outside, but did not realize that the inside was even in play - not only is it in play, it was completed several years ago. Regardless of your craft, it is well worth the visit to look at the design, especially if you want to avoid straight lines. Thirty years ago they were say that it might take another 100-150 years to complete. Now they are making so much money from tourism (it's not funded by the Catholic church) that they are predicting that it will be finished by 2026. I'd post pictures, but the professional ones online are better than mine
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* The Alhambra (Grenada) and Alcazar (Seville) both have doors that the guides claimed were still the original Lebanon cedar doors, with the wood being imported to Spain by the Muslims who built those palace-fortresses. Many of the frame mortises still looked tight and sturdy to me. I'm not sure how much of that is due to clever maintenance, but it's impressive nonetheless, given the weight of the doors.
* Both places also have amazing wooden ceilings, using Muslim geometric designs. I want to say that they were parquet construction, but didn't get close enough to really see. The design motif also showed up in a synagogue in Toledo that pre-dated the expulsion of the Jews in the 1500's.
* I got lots of pictures of wood doors. One design was to do frame and panel, where the frame was not rectangles but 6/8/12 pointed starts, octagons, etc. Challenging angle work. Another type of design included panels that had intricate parquet designs. A couple of doors in the Alcazar were maybe 12-15 feet tall (the Lebanon cedar ones), and had decorated panels that had been worn away at elbow level - I was disappointed to see that they were replacing the carved panel pieces with plastic.
Here are some observations that might apply to woodworking.
* Sagrada Familia is awesome!!! The design is organic, and there is hardly a straight line in the place. I've seen many pics of the outside, but did not realize that the inside was even in play - not only is it in play, it was completed several years ago. Regardless of your craft, it is well worth the visit to look at the design, especially if you want to avoid straight lines. Thirty years ago they were say that it might take another 100-150 years to complete. Now they are making so much money from tourism (it's not funded by the Catholic church) that they are predicting that it will be finished by 2026. I'd post pictures, but the professional ones online are better than mine
.* The Alhambra (Grenada) and Alcazar (Seville) both have doors that the guides claimed were still the original Lebanon cedar doors, with the wood being imported to Spain by the Muslims who built those palace-fortresses. Many of the frame mortises still looked tight and sturdy to me. I'm not sure how much of that is due to clever maintenance, but it's impressive nonetheless, given the weight of the doors.
* Both places also have amazing wooden ceilings, using Muslim geometric designs. I want to say that they were parquet construction, but didn't get close enough to really see. The design motif also showed up in a synagogue in Toledo that pre-dated the expulsion of the Jews in the 1500's.
* I got lots of pictures of wood doors. One design was to do frame and panel, where the frame was not rectangles but 6/8/12 pointed starts, octagons, etc. Challenging angle work. Another type of design included panels that had intricate parquet designs. A couple of doors in the Alcazar were maybe 12-15 feet tall (the Lebanon cedar ones), and had decorated panels that had been worn away at elbow level - I was disappointed to see that they were replacing the carved panel pieces with plastic.
