tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post4617907240134976874..comments2023-11-05T06:16:56.961-05:00Comments on the Carpentry Way: A Thing of Beauty is a Joy ForeverAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-18795909893612708632014-07-31T15:54:39.767-04:002014-07-31T15:54:39.767-04:00Julio,
may you continue on your path of 'frea...Julio,<br /><br />may you continue on your path of 'freakiness'!<br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-73650827465001980652014-07-31T09:32:07.556-04:002014-07-31T09:32:07.556-04:00Great post, I absolutly agree, I feel the same way...Great post, I absolutly agree, I feel the same way and I think in my country (spain) 80 % of professional carpenters, who almost don´t know to use handtools, believe and say the above quotes you have mention, it is very sad but it is the mind of lazy workers. My attitude is far far away from those and I see I am looked like a freak when I speak of furnituremaking in handmade manner.<br />Once again thank you so much for your help and effort.<br />My best<br /><br />JulioAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-89207739035468588762011-12-21T20:10:10.363-05:002011-12-21T20:10:10.363-05:00Chris,
My bad; I stand corrected.
- When I am in ...Chris,<br />My bad; I stand corrected.<br /><br />- When I am in an orchard to gather some apples, I should be doing just that.<br /><br />Best wishes,<br />MetodMetodnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-12629323521842756402011-12-21T17:44:47.504-05:002011-12-21T17:44:47.504-05:00Metod,
thanks for your comment. The money spent o...Metod,<br /><br />thanks for your comment. The money spent on tuition at school has little connection to the process or idea of educating the client, other than in whatever help it may provide me in stringing complete sentences together. Very few people in this culture have a deep appreciation and understanding of well-crafted things - it's a contributing factor, besides entrenched low standards among many who ply their trade, to the decline of skilled workmanship. If people don't know what a well-made thing is, then how would they know to ask for it? If you've never felt a finely planed wooden surface, how would a person have an appreciation for its virtues?<br /><br />There are many writers who have noted the severing of formal education from craft schooling in the past 100 years and its unfortunate effects, both upon those who receive schooling and society in general. Only the mind is to be taught, and the hands, which have zillions of nerve endings, are idled. The divorce of the hands from the mind is a tragedy. Shop courses, when I went to school, where the academic underachievers tended to go - the place for an 'easy grade'.<br /><br />I would never call myself a shokunin.<br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-32478035331888489092011-12-21T14:04:49.136-05:002011-12-21T14:04:49.136-05:00Chris,
After thousands of dollars in tuition, and ...Chris,<br />After thousands of dollars in tuition, and still needing "to cultivate the client's mind and eye so that he will learn to be discriminating and appreciative of beauty." ? <br />I was probably overestimating the effect of "became acquainted with Japanese carpentry practice. " on your person. Only you know.<br />It would be nice, if 'liberal arts' (as practiced here) produced, in adequate quantities, what Yellin was. <br />You 'have' a degree in English, but 'are' a shokunin. Am I far off?<br />Best wishes,<br />MetodMetodnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-87652561156429326262011-12-21T11:43:48.633-05:002011-12-21T11:43:48.633-05:00Metod,
thank you for your comment, but I'm n...Metod,<br /><br /><br />thank you for your comment, but I'm not sure I follow the logic of it. Are you are referring to Yellin? If so, you are far from the mark. Yellin may have lived in Philadelphia, however he is from Galicia Poland where at the age of eleven he was apprenticed to an iron master. By the age of sixteen he had completed his apprenticeship, moving to the US a few years afterwards, so there was not much in the way of a formal 'liberal arts' education in his background.<br /><br />If you are referring to some failure on the part of N. American liberal arts education, that argument has been made before, often, it would seem, with a sneering or dismissive tone. It seems a bit too much of a stereotype frankly and such blanket statements are unconvincing. There are many paths to knowledge.<br /><br />I have a liberal arts education (B.A. English) myself and though I did not continue in that path of study, and while I was not a particularly devoted student, I am grateful for the shifts in perspective that I gained in the 'ivory tower'. That degree, after all, was what allowed my to live and work in Japan, which is how I became acquainted with Japanese carpentry practice. Sometimes life goes in unexpected directions.<br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-63818871122975153942011-12-21T11:10:58.537-05:002011-12-21T11:10:58.537-05:00"If the client doesn't appreciate what is..."If the client doesn't appreciate what is involved in producing items of high quality, then it is the craftsperson's job, quoting Yellin again, "to cultivate the client's mind and eye so that he will learn to be discriminating and appreciative of beauty. Thereby he will learn to accept the better work, even though the cost might be greater, or the designs will have to be simplified to meet the set allowance."<br /><br />Quite a testimony for the 'liberating' power and accomplishments of our liberal arts (non?)-education.<br />Best wishes,<br />MetodMetodnoreply@blogger.com