Hey buddy, wanna see some edited proofs of the A.J. Roubo translation? Read on.
Lost Art Press will have a booth at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event next weekend, and yes, we’ll have the first 126 pages of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” for you to look over. And if I can get it printed out in time, I’ll also have a nice color proof of “By Hand & By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin.
Details and directions to the Popular Woodworking Soviet-era bunker are here.
As always, the Society of American Period Furniture Makers will be there in force doing demonstrations. Even if you own every Lie-Nielsen tool made, these demonstrations are a great reason to go. The schedule of demonstrations is here.
Plus, lots of toolmakers to chat up and an opportunity to test-drive their tools.
We’ll have our full range of books and DVDs for sale at the show, including our newest book “With the Grain” by Christian Becksvoort. Plus my Dutch tool chest and the Milkman’s Workbench. And a partridge in a camphor laurel tree (Got to get Australia out of my head.)
This is always a great show. Free. Hope you can make it.
Jim Tolpin and I dove into the writing of “By Hand and Eye” with a shared excitement. As we combed through historic pattern books and design literature we asked each other the question: “Would this be valuable to the modern woodworker?” Ninety percent of what we uncovered was at the point of a tool. The secrets simply would not pry loose by reading alone. Each gold nugget broke free under the points of a compass, or shined brightly at the workbench as a body of knowledge emerged. Time and again Jim and I found delight as one discovery lead to another and our modern assumptions crumbled.
Myth: Traditional Design is Formulaic
Truth be told, early on we did scour for a formula that might open a door to a secret passage. We found no silver bullet, but over time new horizons opened before us, which assured us that we were on a good path. Even the things that seemed like rote memorization, such as the admonitions to draw the classic orders or dozens of geometric exercises, were in the end anything but rote. We both marveled when we realized that drawing a classic order has little (or nothing) to do with drafting a historical form and everything to do with reshuffling the way the brain sees objects in space. Same goes for all the simple geometry exercises. Learning to construct an ellipse is much more than a quaint bit of compass calisthenics. It’s about imprinting an ellipse on the inner blackboard and gaining a sense of perfect visual pitch. You might have brushed up against this in high school geometry (before they killed all the fun with a boatload of theorems), but it’s at the workbench where this ancient knowledge slides into the groove and you find yourself uttering, “Shazaam!”
Make no mistake, “By Hand and Eye” is not a book about making period reproductions. Yet it is about equipping you with the same core design skills that inspired much of our most revered furniture. This is an entryway into a living design tradition that is still capable of propelling the modern woodworker to new heights.
Here’s an added bonus. We decided early on to use technology to assist the learning curve on some of the geometrical drawing exercises. Using text alone, generating a simple polygon requires a stampeding herd of confusing words, i.e. draw line AB and erect a perpendicular bisecting points Q, W, & F….etc. Jim enlisted a tech-savvy helper, Nico Prins, to make animations of 29 geometric exercises. These visuals let you grasp the concepts quickly and immediately try your own drawing. These animations will be available as a free download for anyone who purchases the book. You can click on the links below to view a sample. You may find this alone is worth the price of the book.
Editor’s note: “By Hand and Eye” is in the final stages of production. The book is designed (thank you Linda Watts) and edited (thank you Megan Fitzpatrick). All that remains is for the completion of the index and my final edit. Thanks to both everyone who has worked on this massive project and to everyone who has waited patiently for it. The end is near.
Today marks a major milestone in the production of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.” Designer Wesley Tanner has sent us the first 126 pages of the book for us to mark up.
It is gorgeous work on Wesley’s part.
For those of you waiting on your copy, you’ve probably figured out that we’re running behind. We’d hoped to have the book out this month, but we’re still proofing the pages. Everyone working on this project wants this book finished, but everyone also wants it (apologies in advance) as perfect as possible.
So I’ll be editing this book in Australia this month. Don Williams and Michele Pagan will be checking the text (again) from their homes. I’ll post updates on the process when we reach another significant waypoint.
And no, I’m afraid we don’t have a price settled on either version of the book – we have to have a final page count to get a good quote from the printer.
Because I don’t have any more good information, I’ll merely distract you with this photo of a shiny object we do have in-house this week.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Tomorrow I’ll post an update on “By Hand & By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. It’s near the finish line.
As promised, here is a quick update on the books we are working on at Lost Art Press.
“By Hand & By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin
Layout artist Linda Watts has just finished her part of the book – with a couple loose ends. Tonight, Megan Fitzpatrick and I are going to review her layouts and make sure everything looks good before we do the final copy editing and send it to the authors for their approval. I hope to have this book to the printer in about three weeks.
“To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry” by Don Williams, Michele Pietryka-Pagán and Philippe LaFargue
This project has been keeping us up late at night. I have a bit of editing to do on the last chapter. Don is taking some additional photography. And book designer Wesley Tanner is now laying out pages. We are running behind schedule, but we are all doing everything we can to get this book to the printer in February.
“Windsor Chairs: A Foundation” by Peter Galbert
Peter has completed his first draft of the chapters. He is revising the first draft and drawing the illustrations for the book. I’ve read through most of the chapters. As a chairmaker, I am very excited about this book. Peter is a gifted craftsman and has many methods that are new to me. We hope to have this book ready for Christmas.
“Saws: Construction, Tuning & Use” (Tentative Title) by Andrew Lunn
Andrew has been plugging away on this book. His first draft is mostly complete and it is pretty mind-blowing. I don’t know when this one will be done, but work continues.
“Build a 17th-century Chest” (Tentative Title) by Peter Follansbee
Peter is building chests – they look great – for this book. No word yet on when he’ll be done.
“Virtuoso: The Tool Chest of H.O. Studley” by Don Williams
Don and the photography team will make a return visit to the chest in March. Don has been researching Studley’s masonic history. No release date yet.
“Furniture of Necessity” by Christopher Schwarz
I’ve written three chapters now. But I have put all my personal writing projects on hold until I get Roubo and “By Hand & By Eye” to the printer.
“Campaign Furniture” by Christopher Schwarz
Ditto. I’m designing the second campaign chest for the book, which I’ll begin building next month. But progress is slow because… see above.
“Super-secret LAP book” by Cannot Say
I’ve hinted at this book for some time. This is a project we have been working on since the day we started this company. Things are finally coming together on this title, thanks to a computer script written by shop assistant Ty Black. This allowed us to process thousands of images automatically, shortening our timeline by at least two years. We are shooting to announce this book sometime this summer and publish it in late 2013 or early 2014. Don’t bother asking more about this book because we’ve all sworn a blood oath.
There are other projects still in the pipeline, but these are the ones we are actively working on.
In addition to the A.J. Roubo translation of “L’Art du Menuisier,” we have been working on lots of other projects. Here’s a quick look at what the Lost Art Press extended family is doing in the final days of 2012.
1. The 6-board chest chapter from “Furniture of Necessity.” It’s complete, but I’m messing with it a bit as I worked on a chest for a customer this weekend. I’ll post it this week for a free download.
2. New LAP T-shirts. We have a new design and slogan. We’re ordering the shirts this week and they should be in the store by next week. They will be green and made in America. Details to come.
3. “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” audiobook as read by Roy Underhill. John Hoffman has finished up the editing on this project for me (thanks John!). It goes to get mastered this week. So it should be in the store before the end of the year.
4. A new book from Christian Becksvoort. Yup, we’ve been keeping this one under wraps. Chris revised one of his earlier books that is now out of print. The design is complete, thanks to Linda Watts, and we are working on the final editing.
5. “By Hand and By Eye” by George Walker and Jim Tolpin. That book is edited and just about ready to go to Linda to be designed.
We’re working on a bunch of other projects that aren’t listed above, H.O. Studley, my campaign furniture book and etc. I don’t, however, have any updates on those projects this morning.
