Lost Art Press

Category: By Hand & Eye

Divided we Share

Posted on by Lost Art Press

GW_square_IMG_2771

George Walker, one of the authors of “By Hand & Eye,” handed me a small box of tools yesterday as the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Cincinnati was winding down.

The tools were intended for the students at my Hand Tool Immersion class this fall at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. While some of the students have their own tools, many will need some of the basics to complete the tool chest we’re building.

I picked through the box of well-cared-for, user-grade tools and thanked George.

He picked up a Brown & Sharpe 12” combination square from the top of the pile that looked like it had seen a lot of years. It had a well-patinated standard head, plus the protractor and center-finding heads.

“When I was an apprentice, this was my square,” he said, smiling a bit.

I know that my face screwed up a bit when I replied: “You’re giving away your first combination square? You sure you want to do that?”

“Sure,” he said. “During the last several years I found I have a lot less need for rulers in my work.”

Touche, George. This fall some lucky beginning woodworker is going to end up with a sweet tool with an even better story behind it.

— Christopher Schwarz

‘By Hand & Eye’ the Holiday Special

Posted on by Lost Art Press

You’ve read the book. Now see the movie.

Animator Andrea Love and Jim Tolpin, one of the authors of “By Hand & Eye,” have produced a charming stop-motion video that explains the pre-industrial design process explored in the book. If you like the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials from the 1970s (“Year Without a Santa Claus” and “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July”) you’ll dig this video.

In it, Jim’s puppet explains how to design a stepstool using the size of your body, basic proportions and a little humor (I love the Vitruvian Dog).

It’s a great little film that Andrea and Jim have been working on for a long time. Enjoy!

— Christopher Schwarz

Your Assignment Today…

Posted on by Lost Art Press

dividers_pencil_IMG_0515

The lessons inside “By Hand & Eye” cannot be learned by reading alone, any more than you can learn to cut dovetails from a book.

You must put pencil to paper so the book’s ideas about proportion will become physical things on the page before you. Then the ideas will be in your fingers – not just your mind. When I was editing “By Hand & Eye,” I had to perform these exercises to gain entrance into the heads of Jim Tolpin, George Walker and the pre-Industrial artisans. (Many of the exercises were done at a bar in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, which generated a lot of odd looks from fellow passengers.)

It was well-worth doing and has absolutely made me a better designer.

This week we had a reader who was struggling with the first drawing exercise in the book called “Making a Visual Scale.” In that exercise, you are asked to make seven rectangles using a compass, straightedge and pencil. Tolpin and Walker are purposely a little obtuse about the process to make the rectangles because it’s important that you make a small mental leap yourself.

To help the reader, George offered a small nudge on his blog yesterday in this entry. If you have been struggling with this exercise (or skipped it – naughty, naughty), here’s the chance to wake up your inner eye this Saturday. Give it a cup of coffee.

For those of you who don’t own the book, here are the four pages from the book in pdf format so you can try it yourself.

A_Drawing_Exercise

If you like this sort of thing, you are going to be thrilled by an upcoming and inexpensive workbook from Tolpin and Walker. The workbook answers this question: Can you learn design from a cartoon dog? More details to come.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. “By Hand & Eye” is back in stock in the Lost Art Press store after we sold out of the last printing.

Everything has been Restocked

Posted on by Lost Art Press

WTG_case1_IMG_5583

As of now, we are back at full stock on all our books and sweatshirts. Here are the details:

The third printing of “By Hand & Eye” arrived at our warehouse this morning. The demand for this book has remained surprisingly strong. Just when we think sales are plateauing, they increase. The authors, Jim Tolpin and George Walker, have two cool surprises in store for you this year. You can find one hint here.

Also this week, we received shipment of the third revised edition of Christian Becksvoort’s “With the Grain.” This third edition adds details on 10 trees not found in earlier editions. If you have an earlier edition of the book, here are the 20 pages that you can print out and insert into your current copy.

Finally, our new sweatshirts are back in stock in all sizes from small to 2XL. We have switched to Royal Apparel to supply our sweatshirts, which are American-made and of good quality. This sweatshirt is similar in almost all of the characteristics of our earlier sweatshirts, but John reports the fabric feels a bit heavier. This will likely be our last offering of sweatshirts for the season. So if you want one, get them before it gets warm outside and we switch to Lost Art Press Speedos.

— Christopher Schwarz

2nd Printing of ‘Campaign Furniture’ & Other News

Posted on by Lost Art Press

CF_cover_IMG_0506

We’re going back on press for a second printing of “Campaign Furniture” with a few corrections and a slightly different cover. The only significant correction, which was to the Roorkee Chair chapter, is discussed here. I also added a thank you to Greg Miller, who I neglected to include in the first printing.

I’m telling you all this because we have some customers who collect first editions of our books (no, we don’t have any first-edition copies of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” hidden here).

The new cover replaces the image of the chest pull with the title of the book. We’re also switching inks used for the cover stamp. The new ink will be more matte and coppery – less gold.

Also, the third printing of “By Hand & Eye” should be back in stock next week. And the expanded “With the Grain” is right on its heels.

In news on new projects, Peter Galbert’s “Chairmaker’s Notebook” is almost completely designed and should be headed to the printer within a couple weeks. As I type this I’m scanning the last of about 500 hand-done drawings for this book. I promise, this book will be worth the wait. The book will be 8-1/2” x 11”, hardbound with a dust jacket and more than 350 pages (perhaps close to 400). No word on pricing, yet.

Designer Wesley Tanner has begun work on designing Don Williams “Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley.” It will be ready for Handworks and the exhibit of the cabinet and workbench. Come to Handworks, see the cabinet and get your book signed.

“Roubo on Furniture” is awaiting some final work by the translating team before going to the designer. And our massive book on Charles Hayward will head to the designer as soon as Linda finishes designing Peter Galbert’s book (sorry about the workload, Linda and Wesley).

We have another dozen projects in various stages of completion, but these are the most immediate.

— Christopher Schwarz