Geometric Structure

The things you find in the attic...

My obsession with Hyperbolic Paraboloid's...

The wonder of Anticlastic surfaces.

 

 

My attic is packed with stuff I have made and then just put into storage.

The jig for making these balls took a lot of working out.

I made the balls from Spray painted Plaster filled Ping Pong balls.

 

The weaving took hours and hours and hours.

The interference lines were supposed to make a sphere...

But I ran out of enthusiasm and patience and said 'that will do!'

 

We had some great tutors at college.

I could not figure out how to hold a sphere and accurately drill the holes.

So I went to the 3 best and each did me a set of sketches.

First the head of furniture design, Philip Hussey

(he has his work in Joyce's Furniture 'Bible')

Then the head of design and a metal working specialist,

Then the head of technical drawing.

Then my friends and family...

 

Every solution was really complex, what to do?

A big walk in the woods was always my way of figuring out the truth.

So off I went for a full day adventure...

 

And came up with something totally simple.

Easy to make, very accurate.

It taught me a lot this experience.

I was only 20 after all.

 

I have had similar experiences where a 15 year old

come up with better solutions to problems than me.

I spend every day solving huge numbers of making problems

with many materials and processes.

Do not trust that the older and wiser have the right answers.

Ignorance can be helpful when solving problems!

If you have too many tools at your disposal it can slow you down,

mind you the whole point is to speed you up...

 

We over complicate so many things in life.

What is the obsession with having the most tools?

I used to import and sell the most brilliant carvings,

these were done in Indonesia with ground off nails,

wood held with strong toes and carved with precision.

 

I don't mean go back to the woods,

go all primitive and that.

But it might save us all a few quid.

 

The idea of craft for the traditional Japanese craftsman

was to produce every day objects every day.

It is hard, messy work for little pay.

You did not choose to be a craftsman 

under any guise of romantic idealism.

You had to follow your Dad into business.

Simples.

 

So many need to take off their

tinted work goggles and look at the dust settling.

What has happened to Japan is unbelievable.

Just read 'The Hare with Amber eyes' a very good read.

You could but Lacquer boxes for a dollar and sell them for silly profit.

I have been looking into the history and it scares me.

I have been looking into the Nanking Massacre that scared me too.

Must stop looking, must stop getting scared.

 

Why am I making so many mallets?

I think I have 8 on the go at the moment.

I am not even going to ask.

It does not even matter,

they are making themselves really.

 

Which is what it has always been about.

When you can stop thinking and it just happens right there...

Just at the edge of the blade, where the mind lets go,

because it is too fine to hold onto,

that is the point (pun intended)