Advice Required - Books on design

[Anonymous]

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[Tierney]

snip

4) Be a bit more brazen and look inside the furniture that I see to understand how it is constructed!

David

5) And pull it apart and put it back together again whilst the wife isn't looking 8) .
Praps not but if you already have some old wrecked furniture its a good idea to pull it apart carefully, perhaps bandsaw through joints etc.
Also take a tape measure and perhaps a vernier caliper everywhere you go and keep checking measurements.

cheers
Jacob

got it, camera, tape measure, calipers; it will make an interesting addition to my briefcase

Cheers,

David, the frustrated accountant

 

[Shultzy]

A long time ago a colleague who was a very good amateur furniture maker used to walk around furniture stores with a long cardboard tube. It was in the days when stores didn't like people measuring furniture too closely as they knew people would try to copy. He used to mark the proportions of a piece on the tube and then go back home and draw it out. He said nobody ever suspected.

 

[woodbloke]

The Golden Ratio (or Mean..I don't think there's a difference) or Fibonacci series is a naturally occuring phenomenan (please, please can we have the spell chekker back) in nature that happens to have been first identified by the Greeks way before the birth of Christ...for example, in plants the way the leaves grow around a plant like a rose can be directly attributed to the Fibonarcci series.

When these attributes are used to make three dimensionl designs they have the uncanny ability to LOOK right, the proportions don't offend....you don't come away from the piece thinking 'something there doesn't look quite right...I wonder what it is?' Conversely, objects that do adhere to this principal generally, though not always have the 'WOW' factor. That's why the Acropolis in Athens (and its not just the size of it) still has the ability to impress after 2500 years or so, whilst some old temples in Rome simply look like old temples, impressive though they may be.

On a more mundane note, Mr G, suppose you had a commission to make a window that was a 'double square' design, it wouldn't in my view look right...however reduce the longest side gradually by eye untill it looked correct and you will probably find that it conforms closley to the ratio of Golden Mean - Rob

 

[Anonymous]

A long time ago a colleague who was a very good amateur furniture maker used to walk around furniture stores with a long cardboard tube. It was in the days when stores didn't like people measuring furniture too closely as they knew people would try to copy. He used to mark the proportions of a piece on the tube and then go back home and draw it out. He said nobody ever suspected.

I like that :lol: :lol: Mobile rod man 8)
My Grandmother used to be able to do that with dressmaking pattern's, just look at a garment and know how to divide the form to make a pattern.

 

[Anonymous]

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[John McM]

Hi Roger

There was actually a post somewhere or other which had a link to a video showing how to make and use a "Golden Mean" setting out tool. D*mned if I can remember where I saw it, though

Scrit

Here is a link to several videos, 1 of them shows how to make the golden ratio caliper which you can just hold up to drawings to get the magic proportions.
Collins complete woodwork manual has a nice section on design ergonomics.
Cheers
John

 

[woodbloke]

Mr G - I do accept that line of thought but was refering to the overall outline of the window (say) rather than the components that sit within it. Much the same discussion on proportion taking place in Tony's new furniture thread on the General forum - Rob

 

[John McM]

Hi Roger

There was actually a post somewhere or other which had a link to a video showing how to make and use a "Golden Mean" setting out tool. D*mned if I can remember where I saw it, though

Scrit

Here is a link to several videos, 1 of them shows how to make the golden ratio caliper which you can just hold up to drawings to get the magic proportions.
Collins complete woodwork manual has a nice section on design ergonomics.
Cheers
John

Do, here's the link

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/catego ... 639752.xml

 

[Anonymous]

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