The Mingei Movement

Mingei (民芸 lit. "folk arts" or "arts of the people"?), the Japanese folk art movement developed in the late 1920s and 1930s in Japan. Its founding father was Soetsu Yanagi (1889–1961).  His famous book The Unknown Craftsman was not translated into English until 1972.

Yanagi and his peers saw an undeniable connection between beauty, nature, god, humanity, simplicity and humility in a movement that is still an important part of modern culture in Japan, China, Korea and elsewhere.   It is interesting how the American and British Craft movements lost their voice in the Modernism that followed where in the East the pragmatic and austere values of Modernism were already clearly visible in the values of craft.  In the eyes of some, the terms Modern and Arts & Crafts are references to aesthetic styles or fashions of their eras. This simplification obscures the true essence of these movements where in both cases work was inspired by deeply held values.  Time does an excellent job to help us differentiate these movements based on values and the fickle fashions that rise and fall at a much higher frequency.

Yanagi clearly differentiates "folkcrafts" from "artist crafts"  where folkcrafts are always useful, affordable and unsigned, artist crafts are made by few for the few and signed by the artist.

  Here, Yanagi comments on the two: 

Q.  Which Contains greater beauty, folkcrafts or artist crafts?  

A. "If we place them side by side, strangely the artist crafts cannot be said to be better, for they depend on the personality of the artist rather than the character of the craft.  If the names of the artists were unknown, could they have stood the contest?  There are people who buy the name of the maker rather than quality.  As to aristocratic crafts, in their attention to technique and over refinement, they, too, are separated from the mainstream.  It is truly strange that folkcrafts should be better than the work of artists in pursuit of beauty.  The works of artist craftsman are not primarily intended to be just good pots os much as to display the fine sensibility or strength or personality of the maker--the flavour of itself rather than the flavour of mankind, which crafts exude."

We can learn so much from Soetsu Yanagi and his seeing eye (http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/english/about/),   And perhaps one day we too can enter his Kingdom of Beauty.

Removing the Unnecessary to Reveal the Essential.

We are not alone in our love of simplicity and austerity.  Many great minds of the past have declared the virtues of less.  Not less for its own sake but less to provide a sharper focus on what we really value.  The proposition that removing excess is really the path to discovering the essential and important things in our lives is in stark contrast to our current competitive consumption-driven culture.  It turns out that our quest to lead happier and more fulfilling lives through the acquisition of wealth, property and power may be leading us away from our goal.  I've collected some insights on the subject from some of the great minds of literature, painting, music, science, design and philosophy (regretfully also an accounting of misogyny, past and present)

And how does this matter to The California Workshop?  It matters because it serves as a compass to help us improve our products and processes.   If it worked for Gio Ponti and Hans Wegner, maybe it will work for us too.  We are standing on the shoulders of giants when we share their values and approach.

The Vitra Design Museum has the following to say about Gio Ponti and the Superleggera, No. 699.

Ponti himself describes the chair as the “normal,” “true” chair, the “chair-chair devoid of adjectives.”  With it, the architect pursued his own standard of keeping things to a bare minimum.  Ponti was inspired to optimize the qualities of this model during the postwar era, when furnishings were out of necessity frugal.  He then designed the “Leggera” for Cassina in 1951, which reduced the structure of the Chiavari chair to only what was absolutely necessary. The result is a stable chair weighing a mere 1.7 kilo.

And here is Hans Wegner on his driving force...

"Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."  

-Hans Wegner

I have heard the famous statement "Less is more"  too many times to count.  When it is attributed to someone, that someone is usually the brilliant Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.  He did use it as a a precept for minimalist architecture but borrowed it from Robert Browning's Andrea del Sarto, 1855.  That doesn't matter.  I'm sure Robert Browning is fine with being a little less famous.

So lets all take away the extra; the decoration, the status symbols, the concealers and everything else that distracts us from the true nature of things...

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.  ―William of Occam

Nothing useless can be truly beautiful  ― William Morris

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential. –Bruce Lee

To obtain Tao, reduce daily  -Lao Tsu

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. –Leonardo da Vinci (attribution)

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter. –Blaise Pascal

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction. ~E.F. Schumacher

“In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings

Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.

• Coco Chanel

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ~Albert Einstein, (possibly a paraphrase by Roger Sessions or Herbert Spencer)

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. ~Lin Yutang

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.” 
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

• Frédéric Chopin

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, Literary Ethics (1838).

Fools ignore complexity, pragmatists suffer it, some can avoid it, geniuses remove it

• Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming.

Live simply so that others may simply live. - Mahatma Gandhi

“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” 
― Isaac Newton

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity—I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.

• Plato, The Republic, Book 3

Art is the elimination of the unnecessary. –Pablo Picasso

Don't Make Assumptions: Glue Strength Does Not Matter

258g Hide Glue in electric warming pot

What!!??  There is a lot of important information to know about wood glues if you want to be sure you are using the right one for your project.   Strength is the characteristic that everyone seems to agree is the most important.  This is interesting because it is likely among the least important things to consider when making a choice and here is why:

Glues available for woodworking have a higher tensile strength than wood and create a bond that is stronger than the wood that it is joining.   This includes the most common PVA (PolyvinylAcetate or Yellow wood glue) epoxy or even the ancient Hide glue.  Good glue joints don't fail at the joint.  This means we could make an argument that once the joint has been made stronger than the adjacent areas, there is no merit in making it any stronger.  Under stress, the object is going to fail in the same manner and at the same time (somewhere other than the glue joint).   

Some other characteristics of wood glues that are important and could compromise the strength of a joint or just make your job easier are:

Reversability, Repairability, Cost, Creep Under Load, Resistance to heat, Resistance to Bacteria, Resistance to Moisture, Ease-of-Use (need for heating, mixing and clean-up), Shelf Life, Pot Time, Working Time, Toxicity (to the air, soil or us directly), Color, Response to Finishing, Sustainability...    

At the California Workshop, it is a priority to reduce or eliminate toxic and unsustainable materials from our process.   We also need an adhesive that does not creep under load and would prefer one that does not cause the wood to react differently to the finish.  These requirements and the great repairability make Hide glue the first choice of luthiers for centuries and for us today.  

read more at:

http://www.leeswoodprojects.com/woodworking/glue_adhesives.html#AnimalGlue

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infadh/infadhe.html 

R. Buckminster Fuller

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty … but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.    — R. Buckminster Fuller

So much more than the man that popularised the geodesic dome, Fuller was an environmentalist, philosopher and a Unitarian.  

How much does your building weigh? was a question he often used to challenge architects to consider how efficiently materials were used in their projects.   This question was so insightful that it became the title of the 2010 documentary How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller:

Fuller was a pioneer in thinking globally, and he explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design.[29][30] He cited François de Chardenedes' opinion that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings.[31] An encapsulation quotation of his views might be, "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance."[32][33][34]

At The California Workshop, we share Fullers pioneering values and concerns regarding efficient use of materials, the dubious merit of petroleum products, and sustainability in general.  It's just another example of how we learn from the past and are #standingontheshouldersofgiants.

Wharton Esherick

Chairs, table in foreground, sofa and wood paneling/sidingby W. Esherick.

I enjoyed learning that he discouraged his clients from buying his pieces as investments and told them that they should appreciate them for their intrinsic merit and usefulness.    The chair shown in the the picture above, his music stand and small ladder are my favorites.  He was a pioneer in what is now called the Studio Craft Movement.  Never mass produced, his rare pieces are highly desired by discriminating collectors....surely because they are rare, novel and have so much intrinsic merit.  

Wharton was one of the few woodworkers of the era to command high prices for his original work.  The high prices and name attribution mark departures from craft values yet he still enjoyed the title “dean of American craftsmen”.

His collaboration with architect Louis Kahn on his studio is a must see for modernists.  

With such a great body of work, we are all truly #standingontheshouldersofgiants!

Wharton Esherick at his studio in Pennsylvania

Yakisugi (or Shou Sugi Ban 焼き杉)

Yakisugi is the traditional Japanese technique of burning the surface of wood to make it more resistant to weather and insects.  Before modern industrial methods, this was achieved by briefly aligning wood planks in a triangular chimney above a small fire.  Once removed, the planks of wood were extinguished, scrubbed clean and then sealed with tung oil. This very sustainable, no-VOC method of finishing timber has recently increased in popularity among architects and designers for both its aesthetics and its green nature.  Today the process is typically executed with a propane torch as shown in this video

Japanese technique of preserving/antiquing wood "Shou-sugi-ban Yakisugi 焼き杉". The oil used for final finish is tung oil.

Detail of Shou Sugi ban wood planks

In addition to the enhanced material longevity the process reveals the natural variations of the wood, adding depth to wood grain and increasing contrast around knots and other density changes.

Shou sugi ban house, Image via Architizer

The Ikea Effect

Woodworking benches at the College of the Redwoods

Laura Mays, Professor of fine woodworking, College of the Redwoods writes in her thesis:

 "I wondered about the validity of craft, what role it plays in a modern industrialized society, how the long hours involved in making objects in a traditional manner can justify the high cost of the labour involved, whether the final user gains anything by the less industrialized processes involved, or whether in fact it was a self-indulgence on my part that I was asking them to fund."

In the second half of this great TED talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?language=en

Dan Ariely explains his and his collegues research on what has been dubbed "The Ikea Effect" which is a cognititive bias to place a higher value on products they partially create themselves.

I think this is at least part of an answer to Laura's question.  I believe the value of understanding and meaning is real and rising in our new knowledge economy.   Perhaps we all just love what we understand and when we build something ourselves we understand it more completely.   Of course we value it more than the thing that we don't know...  After all, I love all my friends I know more than all the friends that I don't know yet.  

And I love my chair.  Made it myself Yo.

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Shaking Off Ornamentation with Honesty, Utility and Simplicity

"The guiding Shaker principles of honesty, utility, and simplicity found expression in various crafts: furniture, boxes, and textiles made by the Shakers are renowned for their minimalist design and unstinting quality. Rejecting excessive ornament because it ostensibly encouraged the sin of pride...."    

-The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shak/hd_shak.htm

Produced by the Shakers at the chair factory in Mount Lebanon, New York under the direction of Brother William Perkins and Sister Lilian Barlow. Circa 1925.

"We want a good plain substantial article, yea, one that bears credit to our profession and tells who and what we are, true and honest before the world, without hypocrisy or any faults covering.  The world at large can scarcely keep pace with it self with its stiles and fasshions which last out a short time, when something still more worthless and absurd takes its place, let good enough alone."   -Brother Orren Haskings

This beautifully simple chair clearly shares DNA with the famous Chiavari chair made in Northern Italy and its progeny, the Superleggera.  Maybe all of these well known chairs look similar because they were designed with the common values of utility and simplicity.   This points to the shared beliefs of Shakers and Modernists like Mies van der Rohe and Buckminster Fuller as well as practitioners of Japanese traditional design.   This disparate group of artists and craftspeople in different eras all found sacred inspiration in their mission to remove the unnecessary.

These chairs are not being made in the quantities they once were.  The Shakers are a celibate lot so their numbers have diminished to just a few people and the Chiavari chair was succeeded by Michael Thonet's  brilliantly simple No 14 Chair. over a century ago.   The characters keep changing but the undeniable virtue of simplicty lives on.

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Michael Thonet Goes With the Grain

The bentwood No. 14 Chair is a chair you know.  It is more produced than any chair in the history of man.  Can you picture it?   It was called "the coffee shop chair" or the "chair of chairs" and below is a photo of one of the 50 million or so produced.

The primary inovation of this chair was the use of complex fixtures and steam bending to create the simple and comfortable light-weight form.  Using this technique, Thonet was able to overcome the orthotropic character of wood by keeping the wood grain all in the same (and stongest) direction.  Unlike metal, wood has dramatically different strength in the different three axis.  The strength along the grain is many times greater than across the grain  or radially.  A bit later, Alvar Alto demonstrated his command of the othotropic material with this chair...

Sometimes woodworkers can get the wood to bend with just steam and some muscle, other times they rely on a process of laminating multiple thin sheets together with glue.  Either way, it demonstates that if one is aware of and repects the unique properties of wood, amazing things are possible!

Turning Japanese

You may  have noticed that The California Workshop appears to have an undeniable Japanese influence.  We don't have Japanese ancestors that we know of but we do have some shared values.  

Woodworking in Japan is a long respected and preserved tradition.  It goes back centuries to a time of woodworking guilds that protected the secrets of their trade.

Why are the Japanese so skilled in this area?   To start with, Japan is a country with abundant forests that encouraged the use of wood as a raw material when masonry was commonly paired with wood construction in Europe.  The tradition of woodworking is unbroken from a time when the use of metal for fasteners or joinery was unavailable.   And over the centuries, Chinese carpenters and their skills and practices were absorbed by the Japanese guilds. Also, woodworking was intimately tied to spiritual practices as shrines and temples were routinely constructed and reconstructed in a diciplined, traditional, and mindful manner.   A perfect storm for mastery....   

In many cases, woodworkers would go into the forest and select a tree for a specific project.  Today there are woodworkers that determine what they will make based on the piece of wood that they have available.  The wood "chooses" its purpose and it is a manner of giving the wood a second life.  While we are unable to do this yet at our shop, we admire and share the appreciation for the tree and the thoughtfulness in execution.

Japanese Woodworking Joint

So back we go to work, striving to appreciate as much as we can of the delicate nuanced skills of a centuries old trade.