Very excited about this new resource…
I’m excited to announce the launching of a new website, http://www.byhandandeye.com.
Jim Tolpin and I have teamed up again to create an on-line resource for woodworkers to improve their design skills. The new website will be the home of an on-line design workshop series (slated for release in early May 2016) as well as plenty of practical layout and design related articles and video clips about design. We also have plans to use the site as a platform for gathering a woodworking design community and we look forward to rolling that out in coming months.
I’ll continue writing here on this blog, but I am delighted to be working closely with Jim again to create something long overdue. Go check it out at http://www.byhandandeye.com.
George R. Walker
HILLBILLY DAIKU 
Thanks Bob! That will work! Jeff
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I’m looking forward to seeing what comes, too. Classes on design over the web? God, I love what the internet has opened up and made accessible.
Exactly…the internet has changed everything for me…and some people use it only to watch stupid cat videos. Seriously, I think this could be something special.
Woah! This is exciting.
The books were a game changer for me, so I’m really looking forward to this.
Likewise. I’m registering as we speak.
Great news, best of chance…
Witch book did you find more interesting/helpful:
“By hound and eye” or “By hand and eye”?
After your post I was under the impression the “Hound” is kind of beginner or puppy steps and the “Hand” is more advanced.
Can you enlighten me – and the vast audience that attend our blog posts – with some more thoughts about it?
I sign up yesterday 🙂 🙂 🙂
OK…”By Hand and Eye” explains all of the theory behind the proportional/geometric system of design as well as having several example exercises. “By Hound and Eye” is a workbook that walks you step-by-step through several exercises in laying out proportions and dealing with curves. So the two go hand-in-hand, so to speak. If I was limited to just one…I would buy “By Hand and Eye”.
I will have to check this out more thouroughly, as i really haven’t yet. I built a nightstand table for my 16 yr old last week, no plans really. We just measured the space, did a few “bout yeah high by yeah longs” and it worked out very well . (and not ALL cat videos are stoopid……I was going to insert some Cliff Claven inspired rant about it, but its way to early). I also occasionally watch guys boil water when camping- so yes, the internet IS awesome.
BrianJ
I said ONLY watch stupid cat videos. LOL.
Their book changed the way I look at everything, seriously. The ideas are very applicable to designing on the fly as you did with your recent nightstand. At any rate, I encourage to to give it a look.
By Hand and Eye was probably my favorite LAP book. Design is a tricky subject to write about because it can get tedious pretty quick, but for the most part they did a nice job of keeping it down to Earth.
It is my favorite as well. I like that the bulk of the information is technique oriented, very little opinion to muddy the waters. Design is most assuredly a tricky subject to broach. By Hand and Eye does a dang good job, IMHO.
Last week, I got into my boxwood stash and made a spoon for a friend. Spoons are the most demanding carving, every surface is a curve, and ultimately it has to be functional. Design really becomes interesting when we move away from straight lines, flat planes, and Euclidean geometry and take on wholly organic forms. Boats, for example, reference those controls and then move beyond them into compound curves. Spoons, too.
…can we truly design the flowing curves and organic forms that you ar talking about? Or must they evolve spontaneously? Sure we can define the basic space and general form by geometric means, but to obtain the flowing forms you speak of, I think we move past design and transition into art.