Lili Krakowski on sun 27 mar 11
Mended bisque is mended bisque.
It MAY be acceptable to you to use a defective, patched up "product". =3D20
YOU may be willing to buy as "new" a table one of whose legs was broken =
=3D
in the making, and glued with a wonderful glue that leaves the repair =3D
stronger than the original wood...which repair you were not told about. =
=3D
You may be willing to buy as new a jacket whose sleeve was torn but =3D
cleverly darned by a clever "stotterer"*
YOU may.=3D20
And you may be willing to sell as "new" a piece with a crack repaired =3D
in the bisque. =3D20
But repaired bisque is repaired bisque. =3D20
It does not matter if you use angel wings, cattail fuzz, milkweed fuzz =3D
(which Native American apparently used as diapers) paper, whatever. The =
=3D
repair still is a repair. A defective object has been "fixed". It =3D
remains a defective object.
Now one of the huge, enormous, momentous, axial differences between us =3D
and silver smiths, woodworkers is that our material easily can be =3D
recycled. A bisque pot has no monetary value. You can use it for =3D
testing glazes, or you can smoosh it to smithereens and make your own =3D
grog.
Wood is wood, and cannot be reclaimed, and all a woodworker can do is =3D
use parts of the defective piece in other works. Silversmiths must send =
=3D
the metal out to be melted down and returned to original shape. Fiber =3D
workers are on the cusp. Knitting, crocheting, weaving even embroidery =3D
can be "undone" with no or little harm to the materials, and an error =3D
corrected without loss of quality. Some fiber work cannot,
A sculpture or purely decorative piece may have a crack repaired without =
=3D
there being any deception of the final user. In fact, in a sculpture or =
=3D
decorative piece, complicated joints often are made from the beginning =3D
with addition of nylon or other "reinforcement". =3D20
But repairing a crack that is a crack, and was not intended? The item =3D
is defective, and should be thought of as such.
*There used to be people who did ":invisible mending"--unbelievably =3D
clever darning that really could not be detected from the "good" side of =
=3D
the fabric. In NYC these people , by a long, complex, fun derivation, =3D
were known as "stotterers" .
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
| |
|
