C O N S I D E R I N G .
. .
G e t O u t
th e L e a d
E SSA Y BY
Glenn Adamson
What is the most important tool known to
the crafts? Chisels are widely used in work-
ing metal, wood, and stone, and they come
in a kaleidoscopic range of shapes. They
are the ultimate example of the right tool
for the right job. Aficionados prize planes
above all, perhaps because they are beauti-
fully shaped, but also because they stand
for that key craft value of making true. The
loom, with its simple idea of intersecting
two unlike threads, is almost more than
a tool, a world of its own where anything
seems possible. And where would we be
without the potter’s wheel and the lathe,
whose circular motion is the springboard to
an infinite range of forms? Even so, I have
another nominee: the pencil.
For the past year I have been keeping
a blog on the website of the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Entitled “From Sketch to
Product,” it gives me a chance to write infor-
mally about the processes by which design
objects come into being. One of the ideas
that I have been exploring is the interdepen-
dency of hand skills and mass production.
Opposite:
Charles Radtke’s
S a rcop h a gu s # 5 ,
2009,
overall and detail,
maple, tiger maple,
catalpa, ebony, sepele,
copper gilding,
31% x 43 x 19V2 in.
Left:
Mock-up of the piece
showing Radtke’s use
of drawing in pencil.
Craft is often thought of as the opposite
of industry, but in many cases it is the first
step in the cycle of product creation. This
might involve making a prototype in clay
or wood, or building a machine tool that will
be used to make thousands of identical ob-
jects. Drawing a sketch or a precisely mea-
sured plan of an object is another obvious
example of this indirect workmanship. The
materials used to make such a rendering
often have a dramatic, and unacknowl-
edged, impact on the final design. It may be
no coincidence that many industrial design
firms shifted from airbrush to felt-tip mark-
ers in the 1960s, just as cars, appliances and
even architecture were losing their gentle
curves in favor of a new hard-edge look.
Nearly all designers draw, of course, and
when they do so they are using their own
skilled hands. It’s tempting, therefore, to
think of renderings as a genre of craft object
in their own right. Be that as it may, craft
and drawing have long had tense relations.
In the 18th century', images of furniture and
metalwork published in pattern books were
036 american craft apr/may io
Mock-up photo Vicki Reed.
