DESIGN LIMITATIONS OR DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES?

This time I'm introducing an intermission in the Faces Tutorial to talk about something that has been weighing on my mind of late: the limitations imposed on design by the way we work. Clint Eastwood, in one of his gajillion movies, once said that a man has to know his limitations. Well, a lot (by no means all!) of my limitations can be summed up in the fact that I don't use power tools: band saw, scroll saw, circular saw, table saw, router, sander, Dremel, Foredom, Weecher, etc. Another of my limitations is that I don't like to use gouges. The worst cut I ever gave myself was with a gouge. Irrational, I know, but . . . .

Take a look at old 9-Toes Nelson here. I carved him from a 1-1/2" square by 6" long piece of bass wood. He is all one piece of wood, including the rifle. Since I don't use a band saw to cut out the basic form of a piece, I am limited to smaller carvings if I don't want to spend more time hoggin' off waste wood than I do carving. Nor do I clamp things to a bench and work off the wood with gouges. If a design requires that kind of thing, I don't do it. I have to be able to hold the piece in one hand while I work on it. That's a limitation. Isn't it?

Let's talk about painting a minute. Old 9-Toes up there is just about my most ambitious painting effort to date, what with that striped shirt and all. If you want to see some real painting go to Lynn Doughty's website and look in his gallery. THAT's what I call painting! I would love to produce pieces of that quality, but I find that I just don't enjoy painting. Even the limited painting I do takes as long or longer than the carving. Why spend all that time doing something I don't enjoy when I could be carving, something I do enjoy. There's another limitation. Right?

I call this my Birds & Fishes Love Spoon, one of my early efforts. It's 11" long and about 2-1/2" wide. There are some pretty complex and small celtic knots in that piece. Pay particular attention to the necks of the cranes. All done with a drill and a knife. (A battery powered drill is the only concession I make to the no-power-tools rule, since I can use it anywhere and hold the piece with one hand and drill with the other.) Took for-freakin'-ever! Even though it's done in poplar, which is a pretty soft hardwood.

Now go take a look at some of David Western's love spoons. I admire his work more than I can say. And, boy, would I like to be able to do that kind of complex work. But I've come to the conclusion that if I stay with using only hand-powered tools I'm going to be limited to only doing things like this.

That's a real limitation. Isn't it? Somehow I don't think so.

I didn't always think that way. For a long time I wanted so badly to do all the beautiful, complex things I saw people like Lynn and Dave do. And I was frustrated. Lately I have come to my senses. I think.

Of late I have come to see my limitations, the constraints I impose on my way of working, more as opportunities than as limitations. I don't have to paint like Lynn Doughty. I don't have to do complex knots like Dave Western (though I still find myself wanting to!). What I have to do is improve the skill with which I do what I want to do. I have to develop designs that make the most of the hand tools I use. I have to find the opportunities that exist within the constraints I have imposed upon myself and use them to do things no one else does. Only in this way will I grow as an artist, a carver.

Design limitations? No! Design opportunities.

I want to encourage everyone who reads this blog to evaluate how you work, what you really like to do. Develop your own designs to make the most of your tools and your methods. Don't let these things limit you. Find the opportunities that are there and grow!

[Rev] By all this I don't mean to imply that those who use power tools are any less an artist than the mossy-backs like me that just use hand tools. Artistry is artistry whether you use a chainsaw or a pocket knife. Use whatever makes you happy and to hell with those who say you're wrong!

Until next time, let the chips fly!