We have lots of new projects in the works at Lost Art Press that we cannot talk about just yet. But I am quite pleased to announce a new book for 2012 by George Walker and Jim Tolpin that is tentatively titled “Divide & Conquer.”
Usually we wouldn’t announce a book this far in advance. But there’s a way you can help with the development of this book. More on that in a minute.
“Divide & Conquer” will explore the world of furniture design through the eyes of the pre-Industrial artisan. Design furniture without using measurements. Using simple tools – such as dividers and a straightedge – Tolpin and Walker contend that you can create furniture that pleases the eye and is sympathetic to the human form.
Many of the current books on design seek to explore the limits of the materials, or to play with our conceptions of what furniture should be or could be. That is not the aim of this book. “Divide & Conquer” seeks to ignite the pilot light inside your head that will allow you to create pleasing forms – no matter what style of furniture you build.
The authors are an interesting pair. Walker is the host of two DVDs on design produced by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and is the author of the “Design Matters” column in Popular Woodworking Magazine. Jim Tolpin is one of the bestselling woodworking authors alive and helps run a woodworking school.
How can you help? Well Walker and Tolpin are working on the book right now and are trying out their ideas on students. This August, Walker will will teach a class at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking and the students will be guinea pigs for many of the book’s ideas.
Walker informs me there are a few spots still open in the class. You can read all the details here.
We will have more details on the book, including a release date and price, as they become available.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris,
If this is just a taste of what we all have to look forward to, after what has already come from LAP, all I can say is to save your appetite. This is all very exciting to me and has helped to awaken my creative energies which have been MIA and seemed to have been in a coma this past year or so.
Thank You.
Michael
I hope it builds on the proportions topic in the first chapter of Toplins measure twice book. I really liked that chapter and wish I knew more of that kind of stuff.
I really appreciate woodworking books that teach skills that apply generally and help me bring my ideas and designs to reality. I’m glad to see that LAP continues to provide woodworking artisans with valuable skills and ideas that help each of us work in our own style. This design book should be an excellent compliment to The Essential Woodworker and The Anarchists Tool Chest and hopefully this will bring to design what those books brought to hand tool techniques and tool selection respectively. I know I appreciate the hard work that everyone at LAP is doing to find this knowledge, get it on paper and put it in a quality binding so we can hand it down with our tools, chests and benches to the next generation when they are ready.
Thanks! I’ve been wandering in the wilderness of design proportions since the ’80s with scant clues (like the ‘Golden Ratio-which is a Victorian scant clue). When the ‘Design Matters’ column started, I felt like I was getting bi-monthley map fragments. This sounds like a full blown guided tour. I look forward to pre-paying as soon as you’ll let me.