9 January 2010

WORK etc.

I'm wondering how much further I'll get today with the relic oak Table I'm making for my friend, the potter Sandy Brown. Actually she is called more often a ceramicist, because she makes pots, yes, but also huge gawky sculptures. Yes, it is a commission, which is how I usually work. The answer it transpires is not much further, because owing to the increasingly Transylvanian conditions currently gripping our coastal home, I'm progressing in a sort of slowed-down, hibernatory way. However:
This Table is quite rugged, elemental, which is how we envisaged it being in the first place, almost 8ft.long x 3ft.wide. The level of difficulty, as I call it, has been typically high, so far. I'm talking about the construction of the frame here, the underbelly, the more interesting part usually: each mortice-&-tenon joint and half-lap has had to be approached in a one-off kind of way, because the curvey oak sections of derelict boat hull I'm using are no way symmetrical, which is fine, and will make for a zestier, feistier piece of work, but makes marking out and fabrication crazily unstraightforward. It is essentially the way I have worked for 25 years or more.
But it is going well, I'll put pictures up over the next few days showing you what I'm talking about. In fact I'd say it looks as if its going to come across with a stylishly nonchalent mix of earthiness, gravitas even, and risky sensuality. That's what I'm aiming for.

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