One of my favorite books growing up was “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” written by Thomas Hughes in 1857 it is a fictional account of a boy going to Rugby, a boarding school in England, in the 1830’s. It’s a great entertaining read and has been in print since publication. I mention it primarily because it takes place when Thomas Arnold was the headmaster at the school and introduced a revolution in teaching that we feel today. Before Arnold elite schools taught mostly reading, Latin, rhetoric, and other lofty subjects of practical use to nobody. An academic education was a finishing cultural touch and had little to do with a profession or anything practical except the clergy.
Woodworker’s Guide to Bending Wood Book
Step-by-step photo sequences thoroughly illustrate four basic wood bending methods in this guide. There are also seven step-by-step projects presented, including shaker boxes, a bow for an arrow, a rustic chair, the sides of a guitar, and bent panels used for tables and pedestals.
All woodworkers know if necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness is the grandfather and stupid is the father. (I think I’ll try to get that added to Bartlett’s Quotations.) All jigs, templates, shortcuts, power tools, dumb moves and safety practices are heirs of this illustrious family.
I must admit that grandfather laziness is high in my gene list, but father stupid works quicker for me than the other two.
ritten by Michael Vass
In America one of the biggest concerns that few are speaking about is the loss of creativity in our students. Cutbacks in school funding across the nation has caused the end of band, art and shop programs. Add to this failure to stimulate the minds and hands of our youth the invasive predominance to play video games over other social or creative activities and the future innovators in America look scares and bleak.
Of course this is hardly an event that is isolated to America alone. Across Europe and in England similar combinations of obsessive game play and re-orienting of curricular schedules is becoming the norm, though in far lesser degrees. But unlike in America some educators and creative competitions are not giving up the ghost yet.
Generally fan art comes in the form of drawings, sculptures, digital renderings and the like – a little less often it takes the form of furniture objects like this light that pays tribute to the classic AT-AT Walker from the original Star Wars movies.
Cool and contemporary meets naturally beautiful in this stunning kitchen by designer Carlo Colombo. The new Twelve kitchen, designed for Poliform Varenna kitchen company, experiments with “minimal horizontal thicknesses and maximum wideness,” as described by Poliform. The modern style comes sans handles, resulting in a very chic, sleek and streamlined look, which is a nice feature in what is usually a chaotic, cluttered space.
“A craftsman is one who understands his tools and uses them with skill and honesty. It does not matter whether his tool is a chisel or a planing machine, it is the work that he does with it that counts and you today can be as good a workman in the carpenter’s craft as any who ever lived if you will learn to know your tools and to use them well.”
