Читать книгу Mike Darlow's Woodturning Series: Useful Woodturning Projects - Mike Darlow - Страница 9

Michael Dunbar made this insightful statement in his 2016 book Woodturning Techniques:²

Modern turners no longer work as subcontractors providing their products to other crafts. Instead, they largely focus on making complete turned objects that stand alone, such as bowls, vases, and platters. . . . Old-time turned objects were inexpensive. . . . Most of the objects made by today’s turners are very expensive, selling for prices that will make the uninitiated gasp with disbelief.

Dunbar’s statement’s first line “modern turners no longer work as subcontractors” suggests that his statement concerns professional woodturners. My assumption from the remainder of the statement is that these turners generate large incomes through producing non-useful one-offs. But is this assumption entirely correct?:

• A proportion of “professional” turners have significant non-turning income. A substantial proportion of some turners’ turning incomes comes from demonstrating, teaching, producing paper- and screen-based content about their pieces and techniques, supplying turners, and promoting turning events.

• Some turners’ pieces develop and exploit particular techniques or design features. A proportion of these turners earn income by teaching others how to replicate those same techniques or features. Doesn’t this suggest that the income from the sales of the originators’ pieces may be somewhat fickle?

• There are still some turners, albeit a small number, who earn their entire turning incomes as subcontract (jobbing) turners.

• We only hear of the big-money sales, not about the pieces which don’t sell and subsequently clutter their turners’ homes.

The last part of Dunbar’s statement “the objects made by today’s turners are very expensive, selling for prices that will make the uninitiated gasp with disbelief ” suggests that those objects aren’t priced according to their cost of production, but are priced as if they were Fine Art. The separation of art into high-status Fine Art and lower status craft occurred in Europe during the 18th century. This is not the place to debate the validity of this separation despite its continuing influence, or whether it has been undermined by the subsequent expansion of Fine Art to include such as photography and jazz. But, even if the Fine Art market were as strong as Dunbar implies, can it continue to absorb at worthwhile prices the volume of non-useful turnings being produced?

A factor limiting the acceptance of woodturning as a technique which can be used to create Fine Art is that it uses a lathe, a machine whose raison d’etre is to produce round items quickly. These associations conflict with the widely assumed properties of Fine Art.