The Artisan Who's An Artist
Whilst we're talking about the structure that these cold winter months offer, let's look at something else you'll find in the Winter 2013 box.
It seemed only right to include something that would help guide the conscious and subconscious process of working with precision when you use the cards.
There are some interesting tensions around the idea of precision in the modern age. Whilst so many more of the things we do are measurable, a lot of the ways of working we set down for ourselves are, when you look at them, 'by rule of thumb'…
La Pouce, by César Baldaccini
RULE OF THUMB: "A useful principle having wide application but not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable in every situation. The phrase itself has been in circulation since the 1600s. In 1692, it appeared in print in Sir William Hope's training manual for aspiring swordsmen, The Compleat Fencing-master: "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by Art."
Here's the thing; if 'rule of thumb' is to mean 'not strictly accurate', as in the fencing example, it implies that precision and accuracy lies in the domain of the artist. Where perhaps today numbers and measurement are seen as strictly the domain of the scientist and empiricist, it's perhaps not so cut and dried.
There has always been, and will always be room in an artist's hand for a ruler.
So we set out to find you one.
After much searching amongst the bric-a-brac and back alleys of the internet, we found just the thing.
It's a Rolson rigid spring tempered stainless steel 150mm (6in) ruler.
- metric and imperial scales.
- ink black figures and graduations
- subdivided down to 0.5mm and 1/64 inch
- conversion table on the reverse side (inches to mm)
- a very handy wee hanging hole
Not one of those rubbish 'shatterproof' school ones that'd last half a term if you were lucky.
This is a workman's ruler, a joiner's ruler. But here's the strange thing; it's quite small, especially in the context of putting up buildings and extensions and making tables.
Which leads me to concur, simply, that this ruler is a tool for those who want to make things well.
Those who leave nothing to chance.
Those who measure twice, and cut once.
This is a ruler for the artisans who are artists.
The Winter 2013 Edition is out now - head here to see it in all its icy glory.
