This year is shaping up to be a busy one. Several classes are already full. If you are interested in those classes, be sure to join the wait list. Here is the lineup as it stands now!
Several weeks ago I received the image above via text message from Megan Fitzpatrick. Just the picture. No accompanying words.
I knew immediately that she was copy-editing the book I’d written about English Arts and Crafts furniture.
“Trust Megan to find one of those,” I thought with a pang of guilt.
Find one of what? you ask. A Stonehenge-themed key fob.
***
A couple of years ago, Megan gave her colleague Scott Francis my name. Scott was the books editor at Popular Woodworking, and he was looking for someone to write a book about English Arts and Crafts furniture. He called me. I was certainly interested; by that time I had done a fair bit of research on one particular English maker of Arts and Crafts pieces, and my enthusiasm for the Arts and Crafts movement went back many years. Writing the book would also give me an opportunity to build some exciting work in the shop.
If I was going to write a book about English Arts and Crafts furniture, I sure as heck was not about to regurgitate what everyone else and his brother or sister have written about the movement, most often from a superficial perspective. We’re all familiar with the typical formulation:
Ruthless exploitation of workers by industry + essential William Morris quote “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” = The Arts and Crafts Movement.
I wanted to go deeper. Fortunately for me, Scott and Megan approved my proposal.
I dug out my 1985 Penguin Classics edition of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last and Other Writings, one particular section of which, the essay on “Moral Elements of Gothic,” had been simmering in my consciousness for approximately 25 years. Lovely stuff: a singeing take-down of Victorian industry and culture, in response to the countless hypocrisies of which Ruskin called for a renewed embrace of hardy medieval values.
And there was a bonus: Ruskin’s English differs so dramatically from that of our time as to constitute a semi-foreign language — one that happens to offer rich potential for humor in its translation into contemporary terms. I didn’t want to write an academic treatise likely to be read by three or four people. I wanted to speak to fellow woodworkers and those with a general interest in material culture, as well as the Arts and Crafts movement. So in writing the book I took every reasonable opportunity to indulge in the kind of humor I hoped would bring the content alive.
***
And now we return to that key fob.
I was on a tear, contrasting the way Brits just get on with life, surrounded by landscapes, art, and architecture formed by their ancestors over thousands of years, while we Americans feel the need to celebrate every minute of our own nation’s drop in the metaphorical bucket.
Drive southwest from London to Somerset and you’ll
glimpse an arrangement of large rocks surrounded by
scattered grazing sheep: Stonehenge. Today a small sign
indicates your entry into a UNESCO world heritage site
shortly before the stones come into view, but 35 years ago,
when I first drove down that road, there was no advance
notice. Unlike monuments of similar significance in the
United States, Stonehenge is not heralded by 20 miles of
billboards urging you to get stoned at the nearby truck
stop (blessedly, there seems to be no such establishment),
have lunch at the Bronze Age Bistro (ditto), or buy druid
fridge magnets and key fobs (these I don’t know about;
they may exist). The landmark is just there, on the horizon
to your right.
It was a throw-away line. A gag. But Megan is that kind of editor: She digs through the trash. Thanks to her curiosity and warped sense of humor, I now know that druid-related key fobs are a thing.–Nancy Hiller, author of Making Things Work
English Arts & Crafts Furniture: Projects & Techniques for the Modern Maker is due to be published in May by Popular Woodworking Books.
Contemporary druids celebrating at Stonehenge. Image: wikimedia commons
I’ve been approving printer proofs for more than two decades, yet I find myself inordinately excited (and not a little bit anxious) about the proofs for Jögge Sundqvist’s “Slöjd in Wood,” which arrived this morning. I suspect it’s because this is the first book I’ve ever handled on which there wasn’t a production department between me and the press – so if there are mistakes, they are mine alone. And because if I let John and Chris down in any way, on this, the first Lost Art Press project I’ve shepherded from beginning to end, the guilt would crush me.
But they look good – thanks to Kara Gebhart Uhl’s copy edit and Meghan’s design skills, and, of course, to Jögge’s words, Jostein Skeidsvoll’s photographs and Annika Nordin’s illustrations.
This project started with light edit as I flowed the translated text into the templates. Then a heavier edit and a few turns to Google translate. It turns out that English takes more words than Swedish to convey the same meaning, plus Jögge added some text to make the tools and tree species more easily accessible to North American readers, so Meghan had to shift things around in the layout to make sure the words and images all ended up on the correct pages.
But the most significant change in this first English edition is the gathering of all the knife grips into one chapter, instead of explaining them only alongside the projects to which they relate (though we left them there as well). So it serves not only as a slöjd projects book (there are 17-20…depending on how one counts), but as an easy-to-navigate primer on the tools and techniques for any type of green woodworking project that can be accomplished with an axe, a few knives and perhaps a drawknife (it’s optional).
But the most attractive thing to me about “Slöjd in Wood” is not the lovely photography, fun projects or the easy-to-follow instruction – it’s Jögge’s philosophy of slöjd, which comes through clearly on every page: Make; don’t buy. Use; don’t waste. Learning is a lifelong process. “Traditional slöjd is a survival kit for the future.”
It is in every way a lovely book.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
Place a pre-publication order for Jögge Sundqvist’s “Slöjd in Wood” in the store. The price is $37, which includes domestic shipping. The book is scheduled to ship in early April 2018. We don’t know which retailers will opt to carry the book (we hope all of them will), but we will update you here when we have more information. Note that on this book, a translation, we do not have electronic rights (so we cannot offer a PDF version).
Discover a bit more about Jögge Sundqvist, author of “Slöjd in Wood,” in this short film that is part of the current CraftBOWL exhibition (which closes April 8, 2018) at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.
In it, s u r o l l e (Jögge’s artistic alter-ego) shares his deeply intertwined philosophies on life and slöjd.
You can now place a pre-publication order for Jögge Sundqvist’s “Slöjd in Wood” in the store. The price is $37, which includes domestic shipping.
The book is scheduled to ship in early April 2018. We don’t know which retailers will opt to carry the book (we hope all of them will), but we will update you here when we have more information.
Note that on this book, a translation, we do not have electronic rights (so we cannot offer a PDF version).
What’s it About? “Slöjd in its pure self-sufficient use is characterized by an individual using simple tools with great skill, a deep knowledge of raw materials, and the ability to solve functional problems….
“Slöjd is about quality – the best and most durable choices of material and joinery to stand up to the wear and tear of everyday use but still be pleasing to the eye….
“Because slöjd is inherently sustainable, it feels genuine and authentic. In an increasingly complex and global society, it is important for an individual to experience an integrated work process from raw material to finished product.”
— Jögge Sunqvist
Jögge teaches you how to live and work in that tradition, using nature’s bounty and a small kit of tools. You’ll learn how to wield an axe and a small set of knives (and the occasional drawknife if you like) to make your own spoons, ladles, spatulas, bowls, butter knives, shrink boxes, cabinet knobs, walking sticks, cutting boards, clothes racks, stools and more. You’ll also discover what wood species are best for every type of slöjd object and why (updated to include species common to North America), and how to rive wood and dry it properly. A special “Knife Grips” section includes detailed instructions and illustrations to help you learn the various grips needed for safe, efficient and fun slöjd work.
Jögge Sundqvist (who is also known by his artistic alter-ego, surolle) practices the
traditional art of slöjd, carefully selecting materials from the forest then
transforming them with a simple set of tools. He makes utensils, painted furniture
and cabinets, as well as sculptures, in the long tradition of the Västerbotten
region of Sweden. He learned the craft from his father, Wille Sundqvist, and
Jögge now teaches slöjd workshops in Europe and the United States. His artwork
is found in numerous museums and public installations.
“Slöjd in Wood” was designed to look as much as possible like the high-quality Swedish original, with full-color images on heavy, matte paper, a sewn binding that will last and a “paper over board” cover – that is, the image is printed on the heavy hardboard covers. It is 116 pages, and, like all Lost Art Press books, produced and printed entirely in the United States.
![IMG_2950[1]](https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_29501.jpg)
