Learning How to See
A common occurrence in my spoon carving classes is for students to come up to me with their works in progress and ask what they should do next. When teaching crafts, its important to not take the work out of the student’s hands. Don’t do the work for them. In this case, I will literally take the work out of their hands and have a look at it, twisting it this way and that. But before giving any of my own feedback I’ll always ask them what they think needs to be done next. I’m lazy, I let them do the work. Most of the time they’ll take their spoon back, have a little look and tell me exactly what I would have told them. Sure, some students aren’t sure, or they’re worried about saying the wrong thing and I’m happy to point out which areas they need to continue working on. Most of the time, they’re often able to answer their own question.
A spoon is a great example of the uncarved block. I think this idea comes from Taoist philosophy. The uncarved block is a thing still in its pure and natural state, unaltered. As such it holds unlimited potential. A log could be carved into anything, but once you start carving it, the block becomes defined and limited by its shape. The closer you get to finishing the carving, the more limited it becomes. So take a log and simply remove anything that isn’t a spoon and you’re golden.
The problem is, with nearly every spoon I’ve ever finished, I thought, at the time at least, that it was a good spoon. Looking back on some of my early work, I no longer think they’re good. There are many mistakes I left that I wouldn’t now. I’ve been carving spoons since about 2010, so there was no eureka moment of suddenly understanding what a good spoon was. In another 10 or 15 years time I’ll look back on the work I’m doing now and think its no good. However, looking back on my work, there’s a gradual improvement where I’d be happy now with some of those spoons I carved years and years ago.
I think developing your vision for seeing what works and what doesn’t is a skill that lags behind your physical abilities. In a few days I can teach someone the skills they need to perform all the cuts safely and competently that are necessary to create a good spoon. But for that student to a) understand what makes a good spoon and b) be able to apply those points to their own work, is something that just takes repetition. And putting in the reps takes time.
All is not lost, I do think there are a few things that can help you speed up your development in being able to see better.
Tips for Seeing
Look at (and Ideally Fondle) lots of good work. You get to decide what counts as good, but look at photos of work you admire. Potentially buy work from makers you admire. Look at their work and try to understand what it is about the shape, lines, proportions etc of the spoon that you like and take those principles into your own creation. Copying others work is also a great way to learn. This works best if you have a physical copy to work from. That way you can more completely compare your finished work to the original and hopefully see what you got right and what still needs work. Then when you’re working on your own designs, you’ll have a better chance to spotting what needs to bring your physical creation closer to the idea you had for it. (Link to start with the end in mind)
Draw your design onto the wood. Don’t be afraid of redrawing it at any stage of the process. If the wood is going to get carved away it won’t matter if you’ve scribbled on it or not. Along a similar vein to copying is to use templates. Either of your own design or from a maker you admire. Comparing your work to the template is a good way to start training yourself to see where your work needs improvement.
Look at your work from as many different angles as possible. Just looking at your spoon from one or two angles might not be enough to figure out why is looks different to the image in your mind. I often find that when I’m trying to match up the lines on either side of my handles, I can tell something is off by looking at it from the plan view, but its not until I start laying it flat and looking along the handle that the lines compress and the difference between the two sides comes clear.
Ignore the grain. Use a strong backlight to silhouette your spoon against. Sometimes the lines and patterns of the grain can make it look like a spoon is wonky, when actually it isn’t. If your spoon looks wonky and isn’t, Tip 6 will help.
Use other skill sets. Take a multi disciplinary approach to your spoon carving. If you’re a photoshop whiz, take a photo of your spoon and use your digital badassery to figure out why the handle looks wonky. If you’re mathematically minded, whip out your calipers and start measuring. A lesson I learned from my wife, who was talking about drawing at the time, is that complex shapes can be broken down into three basic line types: straight lines, curves and wiggles. A nice pneumonic she uses is CSI (c is a curve, s is a wiggle and i is a straight line). So is that section of your spoon supposed to be a C, an S or an I?
Seek Balance. I’m not quite smart enough to bring this full circle and talk about Taoism. This is actually a beautiful quote from Dan Lawrence. I heard him say it a few years ago now, so I might be paraphrasing. “People don’t actually want symmetry, what they really want is balance.” Quite often we chase symmetry as a way of achieving balance. There are other ways to achieve balance. The Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, Gestalt Principles of Perception, and Crystal Sequentials (okay, I may have made that last one up, but the others are worth looking into).
Once you can safely perform the physical task of making a big piece of wood into a smaller piece of wood, its the skill of seeing that will allow you to make cool stuff. Take your time, you’ll get better with each cut you make. And don’t be too hard on yourself, as you’ll often see things in your own work that no one else will notice.
If you’ve got any more tips on how to see better, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
