Metamorphosis

Putting your face this close to a wood lathe is not recommended. Only do this if you are a professional or are 100% confident that the pain will only last a few seconds.

Jokes aside I'm having a lot of fun right now. Don't I look happy? I got my first order for a Jacobean Chandelier and have another in the works for a retailer up north so I've been busy working in the shop. During the process of building these new chandeliers I got to thinking about how unique it is to be a designer. To be able to create from sketch to reality a concept that never before existed in the world. It's a powerful idea. For more than 15 years I have worked as a designer in the corporate world designing consumer products of all types. Some companies manufactured domestic and other overseas but in both cases I never got to put my hands on the material. My role after the design phase is to observe the creation from behind the glass of a CNC or worse wait until the sample ships in from China.

Here in this shop theory and practice combine. I can form a dialog with the material and understand it's limits and push it. Through the creation process I also get the opportunity to test my own hypothesis about a particular design and see if it works. The workshop teaches you to adapt your design to the materials unique properties and in that process perhaps evolve the design into something really special.
This is probably very boring or coming off as the ramblings of a design nerd. I can tell you though that for most of us designers and craftsmen there is a special feeling of pride involved in making something by hand. It's a feeling absent or incomplete from designing something and having it created by someone else.

If you add to that feeling the knowledge that each piece has it's own character, individuality and that there may only be a handful of any one design out there. Priceless! I mean the feeling of accomplishment, of course. :)