I remember an essay by Wm Morris (Victorian gentleman and designer,
most famously of the morris chair ) in which he used an expression
"the touch of the hand" and what that means. He also published an
amazingly beautiful edition of Chaucer. As I remember that essay it
seems to me no matter how perfect the result of one’s handwork it’s
not the same as machine work. There’s always the touch of the hand.
Please remember CAD CAM is only a tool like a hammer, trumpet, or
shovel it takes dedication and persistance to master the use of any
tool. If your soul is not conected to your hands it shows up in the
work. David
David you are so-o-o right, if your ‘soul’ isn’t in your work, that
loss of feeling is transmitted so fast and its so obvious. it makes
you head spin. Either accept this trade as a “gift”… or move on!
To me diamond setting IS A GIFT! I now acknowlege it as such. To me
now, its also a given “gift”, that I am now passing on to others the
ideas of stone setting through MY eyes. I don’t teach, I “show and
explain”. I work at the bench in a manner that I always think that
this item I’m working on will be intact “long after I’ve gone” What
a living legacy,eh? Its a memorial to what I’ve learned in the past. I
even enjoy and love my work! My tools to me are extension of my
finger-tips and ‘my soul’ are in these tools I use. Even my new
video-tape “on tools” shows that, the constant care, maintenance,etc.
“Gerry, the cyber-setter !” “www.gemzdiamondsetting.com”
@Gerald
Gerry thank you for your comment on your tools being the extensions
of your finger tips. We are taught to think of tools as only things
that we use. How much richer and alive it all becomes when we begin
to see our work/creation really as an unbroken contact/connection
from the “soul” to the material we are working with.
Bill