This raises an interesting point about how scrolling and decorative woodwork relates to other forms of woodwork. In the past, it was very closely associated with embellishing furniture that had been produced from inferior grades of wood. Marquetry in particular was used to good effect in this respect.
Those days have not passed altogether; a quick search on the internet will quickly reveal furniture such as these:
There was also an article a while back in SSW&C which featured a memorable intarsia door panel. If I can find it, I'll post a picture.
Scrollers often use techniques that other woodworkers might find useful. These techniques need not involve marquetry, inlay or intarsia - they can be as simple as producing some shaped detail or 'gingerbread' on an otherwise bland piece.
As a scroller, I tend to concentrate mostly on scroll saw techniques when I'm designing woodwork. So when I saw details of the competition my immediate thought was to reject the notion of entering it because I don't make furniture. The competition is definitely geared towards furniture production and it would take either a very confident or an arrogant decorative woodworker to enter it in their own right.
Yet the whole nature of the competition is about teamwork, about bringing complementary skills together which might normally remain estranged. Personally, I'm ethically opposed to the notion of competition, believing that collaboration is usually much more productive. Here is an opportunity for me to work in conjunction with someone else and demonstrate this philosophy in action; I find the prospect appealing.
Indeed, some of you may be aware that I've agreed to attend the 'mini-bash' for turners in July. I'm not trying to lure turners away from their beloved lathes; instead I hope that we'll be able to explore woodwork techniques that both scrollers and turners will find mutually advantageous and which might not have occurred to them before or might have seemed beyond their reach.
If anyone who is participating in the competition would like to incorporate something decorative in their project which they might find a little daunting, I hope they'll feel free to explore the possibilities here. A scroller might reply, "I can't plane a piece of timber to save my life, but if you want some contrasting woods cut as a feature, I can certainly do that". Similarly, a scroller (or marquetarian) might be thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice to have this motif used on a drawer front?" but be hesitant to take it further because of a lack of confidence in their general woodwork techniques. This is an opportunity for such people to let others know what they can offer.
I'm something of a beginner when it comes to applied decorative woodwork, having mostly concentrated on knife-cut marquetry pictures in the past and, more recently, segmented designs. However, since agreeing to participate in the turning mini-bash I've found that my skills have applications beyond these specialties. I'm branching out into techniques that I've been aware of and confident I
could pursue if I had to, but never previously had a reason to do so. This competition could see some very exciting collaborations between woodwork disciplines but we need to start thinking about what we all have to offer each other.
Gill
