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Thread: "Live edge lumber" musings

  1. #61
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    65,688
    Fred, I've sat in several different Nakashima chairs...they are available in the Nakashima Reading Room in the nearby Mitchener (yes, "that" Michener) Art Museum. (https://www.michenerartmuseum.org/ma...-reading-room/) They also have some at the Nakashima compound. Rago Auctions in nearby Lambertville NJ gets quite a few pieces through from time to time, too.

    Most that I've sat in are comfortable. The one you portray isn't likely ideal, but he did pay good attention to keeping the back parallel to the front edge so that seat depth was somewhat similar across the seating area.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  2. #62

    "If You Have to Ask"

    Yes, you missed the whole point of that piece.

    There's some irony to this piece which I personally find works well. I had this same feeling when visiting the Picasso museum in Barcelona. His later, abstract work is impressive in the context of what he painted when he was young. He was traditionally very talented before he started breaking rules. Nakashima was a trained architect. The end spindles on the back of this piece show us he knows what he was doing. The elimination of a bottom stretcher or way to otherwise stabilize the base is a conscious choice in the context of his ability.

    He made plenty of large pieces with more traditional bases like the Conoid dining table. If you've ever REALLY sat down and tried to design something like a Nakashima, you can appreciate how very difficult it is to be simultaneously minimalist yet structurally sound - or knowing when the rules can be broken.

    Picasso said [paraphrasing]: It took me 30 years to learn how to make a 5 minute sketch.

    I wouldn't show a red hot chili pepper to someone who likes spicy food and expect them to explain if they found it savory and delicious.
    Last edited by Prashun Patel; 01-04-2020 at 12:55 PM.

  3. #63
    I’ll admit I have had a bit to much time on my hands as of late. Two weeks vacation currently caring for a dog that had four teeth removed all at once. I think often people whom really get into it online have well to much time on their hands.

    Anyway Prashun’s responses reminds me of when I was teenager in art school. My heart was as a oil Pinter and fine artist. My real talent ended up being pottery. I can remember clear as day the my instructor coming to me as he regularly did to critique my work. At the time I was smitten by tea kettles. Anyway he came to me and asked why it was I always incorporated something into a what would be a perfectly functional piece of pottery that rendered it otherwise useless. Clearly he knew the answer before he asked being artist himself. His point though was to make me question myself as a artist. My response was that I identified pottery and the process of making pottery no different than painting a picture. That my pottery I created with the intention of it being viewed first and used second if at all. Being used was never my intent when creating.

    Anyway fast forward thirty years and I am still making stuff. I have come full circle in many ways with a appreciation for period reproductions and fine quality joinery and a piece that will last a few hundred years vrs just look good. As a maker and identifying as a maker and not a artist I see the two clearly overlap. As nakawhoever did, I have never been smitten by others work more interested in making than looking. Clearly I know who Nakashima is point being I dint think makers always have the intent of something being functional. I think often that is missed by the lay person and the crafts person vrs the artist.

    As a guy that started out as a artist and developed into a craftsperson I feel as my professor years ago was probably trying to instill in me that both could be realized under one roof. Even still depending I do and do not feel the need for myself or others to adhere to rules.

    I was never much impressed with rules.

  4. #64
    Ok. Thanks for explaining it to me guys. It's not my cup of tea, but as someone pointed out earlier, I don't have to like it (Picasso, Mr. Nakashima or live edge ). Fair enough. I appreciate you all trying to teach me, and your patience while doing so.

    Jim, maybe I'll get to try one of those chairs some day. Sounds like that museum sould be worthwhile.

    Thanks all.
    Fred
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  5. #65
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frederick Skelly View Post
    David, I dont "know" anybody who has sat on Mr. Nakahima's products. Did you find them to be comfortable? I ask because ... well, some of them just don't look comfortable. I keep thinking of this one when I say that. And I acknowledge that I may have missed the whole point of this piece- I'm not trying to be a wiseguy.
    Attachment 422911
    When you lean back and you hear cracking noises you've gone too far. This was a pretty big waste of nice lumber IMO. No offense lovers if the 'art'.

  6. #66
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    So Cal
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    3,739
    To me it looks like a tree grew around a bench.
    Aj

  7. #67
    It’s like the banana on the wall for $100k’

    Except that’s ridiculous.

    Except to the person that thinks it’s not.

    Beauty and value can be defined so many ways.

    It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

    I see nothing wrong with making a piece of art that recognizes the qualities one appreciates and Inspiration sometimes found in a functional piece of furniture but fully leaves function behind in pursuit of form.

    You know like a chair that’s clearly a chair but the viewer knows darn well don’t sit in it as it clearly is not meant to be sat it.

    I know most nice things I make I don’t want anyone ever to lay a finger on as I know they will just ruin them. Even if it’s perfectly functional I’m also ok with just leaving it to look pretty all it’s days.

  8. #68
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Camillus, NY
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    356
    Re: using or beholding custom furniture....

    I once visited the shop of a guy in Saranac Lake who builds beautiful wooden classic Adirondack guide boats. They sell for $13K. He says he hopes that they get used, but often end up hanging on the wall in a lodge. He says "once the check clears, they can do what they want with it."
    Jerry

    "It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation" - Herman Melville

  9. #69
    The good news for me is to date at least I don’t build anything I get very much all that attached to as most of it really is junk all plywood and pocket screws dominos and biscuits. So I honestly at work can relate to the boat builder.

    But advocationally speaking I build things in a manner I don’t want to let them go. Once in a blue moon I get to do that for a paycheck and yes even they I’m normally so tired of the piece I’m ready to see it go.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Wright View Post
    Re: using or beholding custom furniture....

    I once visited the shop of a guy in Saranac Lake who builds beautiful wooden classic Adirondack guide boats. They sell for $13K. He says he hopes that they get used, but often end up hanging on the wall in a lodge. He says "once the check clears, they can do what they want with it."
    Last edited by Patrick Walsh; 01-04-2020 at 5:46 PM.

  10. #70
    Okay, LMAO. I have spent the past month ranting to my son-in-law on exactly this topic, you guys are all repeating what I already said (tho no Haikus. Yet). I also think it's generational, and suspect I am in the company of a bunch of olde fartes. What has begun to persuade him is sending him links with prices. I will survive, this too shall pass, but for now I love working with Walnut and the current offerings of even remotely dimensioned wood are getting depressing.

  11. #71
    I personally am LOVING this discussion. I have a youngish [50s] friend who is a full prof of art at one of Colo's outer universities. We go back and forth on this type of stuff all the time. I am a simple semi-craftsman (w/pension and MAS in Comp Sci) so all this esthetic stuff is something to dabble in and antagonize youngish [50s] feminist art profs. Please, Cristobal, don't take offense, come back and make some effort to enlighten us, otherwise we will fall back in to discussing router bits.

  12. #72
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
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    Piercefield, NY
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Makar View Post
    Okay, LMAO. I have spent the past month ranting to my son-in-law on exactly this topic, you guys are all repeating what I already said (tho no Haikus. Yet). I also think it's generational, and suspect I am in the company of a bunch of olde fartes. What has begun to persuade him is sending him links with prices. I will survive, this too shall pass, but for now I love working with Walnut and the current offerings of even remotely dimensioned wood are getting depressing.
    I am only 33 but my sister has been telling me for at least 10 or 15 years that I am already so much of a grumpy old curmudgeon that she can't imagine what I'll be like in 40 years.
    Zach

  13. #73
    I suggest a study of Victorian British wit. They were masters of snide, concise put-downs. If you must be a curmudgeon, have an edge! The downside is you can never read twitter again. It is such unskillful dreck.

  14. #74
    This may screw up the market further, but do you have any idea what Claro Walnut slabs go for?

    https://cswoods.com/

  15. #75
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    Well, I mentioned that my business partner was building a live-edge table. Here it is, and I must say, I am very impressed. I do not usually like these, but a I love this one, and the mahogany slab has a local history to it- It was one of the trees cut to widen the road, and many people protested this decision.

    49A91C04-9C93-4526-B42C-B82E77592983.jpg 08B72BAD-CC3D-4758-85C3-42233EC3F914.jpg

    He he has received an order for one for $8500. He is much better at pricing things than I am. :-)

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