We talk a lot about the importance of art and drawing here but one thing I haven’t touched on so much is technical drawing. This is one area in which we encourage the students to add extra focus.
We have always placed a strong emphasis on the importance of creative drawing. Life drawing, in particular. We want our students to learn to activate right hand side of the brain. The side responsible for imagination and creativity. Some already do this but for others, it is a new skill that they need to learn.
What we also encourage them to do is tackle a more technical drawing. After all, what better way to fully understand the mechanics of a complicated joint than by drawing out an accurate, expanded version.
A Joint Effort
We do not plunge them in at the deep end with this, however. As with the making part of the course, it all starts with a cross-halving joint. This is a very simple joint that allows our students the time and space to start to develop the skill of technical drawing. That is not to say they will master it immediately. Indeed, it is a skill in itself. But, as with most things here, practice is usually rewarded with results.
This way, when they come to designing and building their own tail vice, the principles of this skill have already been fixed in their minds. Drawing anything more complex than a simple cross-halving joint is simply an expansion of what they have already been taught – and indeed accomplished.
There is also a lot of personal pride and satisfaction to be gained from successfully completing a drawing of this type. And, done correctly, it will serve them greatly when they come to actually build the joint they have committed to paper.
Lakshmi Bhaskaran, 2017.
Lakshmi studied at the Rowden Atelier in 2008, following on from a successful career as a design writer and author. It was at Rowden that she met her husband and business partner, Jonathan Walter. The pair set up Bark Furniture in 2010 and now run a successful furniture business, based in Cornwall, with clients all around the world. Lakshmi has written for renowned publications including Wallpaper and has authored five books in the design area.