Lost Art Press

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Hay is for Horses

Posted on by fitz

Just as the Lost Art Press Horse Garage has been nearing completion, this happened.

 

Hayfield
Hay field on a gray late-autumn day

 

Whenever my sister or I said “Hey” as children, at least within earshot of our local grandma (the other grandma lived far away, in New York), we were gently nudged in a more genteel direction. “Hay is for horses,” she’d say.

But European art suggests that hay and gentility have not always been at odds.

Twice this week I heard from Suzanne Ellison (a.k.a. Lost Art Press’s saucyindexer). Unbeknownst to me, The Saucy One had turned some images of the hayrake table I made for my book on English Arts & Crafts furniture (forthcoming in June 2018 from Popular Woodworking) into a framework for a collage of women using traditional hay rakes.

Hayrake collage jpg

“I thought if a woman builds a Hayrake Table than she should probably have a collage combining her table and women using a hay rake (apparently, men scythed and women raked and fluffed),” wrote Suzanne.

Judging by their attire, most of these women are peasants (as were my grandma’s forebears), but a couple look far more refined. Please tell me that Rosina (center row, right) was not really going to rake and fluff hay in high heels and a ribboned bonnet. And what about that corseted lady in the middle of the top row?

I’m grateful to Suzanne for applying her erudition in the cause of fun. And I chuckled when I read how she addressed me in the last message: “Hey Nancy.”–Nancy R. Hiller, author of Making Things Work

***

Suzanne has provided the following Information about the images:

Top row (from the left): Jean-Francois Millet, a watercolor from a mid-Victorian** friendship book, Winslow Homer.

Middle left: Peter Breugel.  Middle right: Rosina is dated 12 May 1794 by Laurie & Whittle, London (no other info), but much earlier than the mid-Vic watercolor in the top row.

Bottom row: Camille Pissarro, Maud Mullen by John Gast, after J.G. Brown, ‘Sweet Memories’ a postcard from around 1905, Leon-Augustin Lhermitte.

Center portion: butterfly from your table, a Shaker hay rake from Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, hayrake from an original table (your photo), hayrake from your table.

The frame, as you know, is constructed from your table.

**Here is a link to the mid-Victorian watercolor in the top row, it is for sale (£28.00):

http://somersetandwood.com/products/woman-with-hay-rake”

 

Countdown on the Horse Garage

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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Thanks entirely to Megan Fitzpatrick and Brendan Gaffney, the machine room for my workshop is on schedule to be complete by the end of the year.

It feels incredibly good to be typing those words.

When we bought the storefront 26 months ago, I almost lost heart at the closing. Lucy and I had fought like hell to buy the property – it took six months of wrangling with real estate agents and lawyers to simply pay the asking price for the property and be done with it.

Anyway, on the day of the closing, Lucy and I went to Left Bank Coffeehouse before signing the papers, and I went completely numb. Suddenly it seemed like buying a half-derelict lesbian bar in downtown Covington wasn’t such a good idea. Perhaps the building was even worse than the inspection had revealed (it was). Perhaps we would have to spend tens of thousands of dollars more to get it livable (we did).

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Despite my sudden malaise, Lucy pushed me forward through the closing. At the end, I received a Captain Morgan’s Rum necklace filled with keys to the bar. Lucy went off to work, and I went to the bar.

I unlocked the front door and walked around, convinced I had made a huge mistake. There was so much work to do, I didn’t even know where to start. So I left the bar, locked the front door and went home for two weeks, refusing to even drive by the place or think about it.

When I finally came to my senses, I decided to measure the bar’s rooms so I could create a floorplan. I walked up to the front door of the bar to unlock it.

The door was unlocked and swung open.

Suspicious, I tiptoed into the bar and looked around. No one was in the bar. Nothing had been stolen or disturbed.

Curious, I began fiddling with the lock to the front door and realized that I had left it sitting unlocked and wide open for two whole weeks.

At that moment, for some reason, I fell in love with the neighborhood and the building. Since then I have been helped by old friends and new to demolish the beer-soaked interior and create a beautiful and traditional working space.

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It’s been a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. But today, as we hung the first two doors to the machine room, I felt like maybe buying the lesbian bar wasn’t such a bad idea. With good friends and the neighborly people of Covington, it was starting to feel like home.

— Christopher Schwarz

The 2017 Anarchist’s Gift Guide Has Begun

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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When my wife asks me what I want for Christmas, I say the same thing every year: Please do not get me anything. Nothing. I do not want a single dang thing.

I know, however, that there are times where you can’t stop your loved ones from getting you something during the holidays. And that is what this “gift guide” is for. It is a list of small things – usually very inexpensive – that will make your shop time a little nicer.

Here is a list of manufacturers who sponsor this gift guide:

1.

2.

3.

Yup. Most “gift guides” are affiliate programs in disguise. Or they are sponsored content that seeks to offload goods that haven’t sold well enough this year.

All the items in this gift guide are things I’ve bought. With my own money.

One more thing: Since we started Crucible Tool, I have stopped writing tool reviews. I know this gift guide blurs the line a bit. I’m sure I could type some rationalization for this, but instead I’ll just ask the naysayers to take up a new hobby instead.

The gift guide begins here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Trailer for ‘Roubo Workbench: By Hand & Power’

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Above is a trailer for our video “Roubo Workbench: By Hand & Power” that Will Myers and I shot earlier this year. If you are thinking about building a French workbench using a giant slab, you might find the 4-hour-long video helpful.

The video is downloadable and has no DRM (digital rights management), so you can put it on any device you like and carry Will (and my off-color jokes that survived the editing process) with you wherever you please.

— Christopher Schwarz