Wood Glass Metal Clay Textiles
CRAFT By Tristan Ramberg
CRAFT By Tristan Ramberg
Introduction 6 Wood 8 Glass 22 Metal 34 Clay 52 Textiles 64
In its broadest sense, craft refers to the creation of original objects through the artist’s disciplined manipulation of material. Historically craft was identified as producing objects that were necessary to life. Today the word “craft” in America has new connotations. Modern industrialized society eliminates the need to make by hand essentials for living. As a result, craft has transcended its traditional role and meaning. The term craft now must be defined in the context of a society that focuses on greater efficiency by technological achievement. Paul J. Smith. “CRAFT TODAY: Poetry of the Physical” Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986
There is an inherent pleasure in making. We might call this joie de faire to indicate that there is something important, even urgent, to be said about the sheer enjoyment of making something exist that didn’t exist before, of using one’s own agency, dexterity, feelings and judgment to mold, form, touch, hold and to craft physical materials, apart from anticipating the fact of its eventual beauty, uniqueness or usefulness. Ellen Dissanayake. “The Pleasure and Meaning of Making” American Craft, April/May 1995
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many plants. People have used different woods for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. There is a strong relationship between the properties of wood and the properties of the particular tree that yielded it. Different species of trees have a wide range in density for the wood they yield. There is a rough correlation between density of wood and its strength. For example, while mahogany is a medium-dense wood excellent for fine furniture crafting, while balsa is light, making it useful for building small models.
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Wood
Balsa Balsa is one of the lightest varieties of wood available, but not the absolute lightest. While it is the lightest of the commercial hardwoods, it is remarkably strong for its weight. Originally, the US military sought out balsa wood as a substitute for cork during WWI, but it soon proved more useful as a lightweight construction material for gliders and shipping containers. Hobbyists also work with balsa wood because it can be carved easily with standard woodworking tools and bent into a number of shapes without sacrificing strength.
River House 1980, William Christenberry. Balsa wood, construction board, paperboard, metal, and dirt.
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Wood
Birch Birch wood’s ease of use and reasonable price, have made it a great craftwood for almost any woodworking project. It’s used extensively for firewood and makes wonderful ornamental trees. It has been turned to make all the toy parts you need, tongue depressors, tooth picks, pulped for paper, and turned into high end furniture. There is little it has not been used for.
Handmade earings from Paradise Hill Designs. Canadian silver birch, woodburning, and acrylic paint.
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Wood
Cedar Cedar is a lightweight and dimensionally stable wood that lies flat and stays straight, which means it resists the natural tendency to crack and check as you might find in many other wood species. Cedar trees are large, evergreen trees. They typically grow to a height of up to fifty feet, but some others can reach one hundred or more feet in height. There are at least 17 types of cedar trees found throughout the world. Red and white cedars are native to North America and are the most common types of cedar lumber used in the United States. Cedar has been used by American natives to make canoes and other boats.
The wood of cedar trees was also used to make weapons, boxes, bowls and baskets. The bark was used to make blankets, capes and costumes. Cedar trees were also an excellent source of fuel. In modern times, cedar is used for making pencils and other tools.
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Wood
Maple Maple trees are very common in the United States. They grow mostly in the North Temperate Zone. Maple trees will vary in size by species, some reaching only fifteen to twenty feet, while other can grow to seventy feet or more in height. The wood of maple trees is excellent as a source of fuel, and can be made into high quality charcoal. The wood makes for sturdy furniture and is most often used for its ornamental quality.
Renovo hardwood bicycle frame. Maple and Bubinga wood.
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Wood
Oak The oak tree family includes several hundred species, Most of the species are deciduous but there are a number of evergreens such as the Live Oak which grows in southern areas of the United States. Oak trees are important for their wood and lumber production. The wood is durable, tough, and has an attractive grain. Oak flooring, cabinets, and boxes display the grain qualities of oak wood quite stunningly.
Oak wood Rum barrel, 19th Century.
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Wood
Pine Pine trees have long, needle-shaped leaves and produce cones for propagation of the species. They are widely planted in North America, particularly in northern areas. Pines are among the most commercially important of tree species, valued for their timber and wood pulp throughout the world. In temperate and tropical regions, they are fast-growing softwoods that grow in relatively dense stands, their acidic decaying needles inhibiting the sprouting of competing hardwoods. Commercial pine is grown in plantations for timber that is denser, more resinous, and more durable than spruce.
Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as furniture, window frames, paneling, floors and roofing, and the resin of some species is an important source of turpentine. The cones, pine boughs, and trees all are distinctive and used as Christmas decorations.
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Glass
Glass is made by cooling certain molten materials in such a manner that they do not crystallize but remain in an amorphous state, their viscosity increasing to such high values that, for all practical purposes, they are solid. Materials having this ability to cool without crystallizing are relatively rare, silica being the most common example. Although glasses can be made without silica, most commercially important glasses are based on it. The most important properties of glass are viscosity, strength, index of refraction, dispersion, corrosion resistance, and electrical properties. The processes of making glass is essentially the same as in ancient times. The raw material is fused at high temperatures in seasoned fireclay containers, boiled down, skimmed, and cooled several hundred degrees; then the molten glass is ladled or poured into molds and pressed, is blown, or is drawn.
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Glass
Silica Glasses play an essential role in science and industry. Their chemical, physical, and in particular optical properties make them suitable for applications such as flat glass, container glass, optics and optoelectronics material, laboratory equipment, thermal insulator (glass wool), reinforcement materials, and glass art. Silica is the most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust. It is used primarily in the production of glass for windows, drinking glasses, beverage bottles, and many other uses. The majority of optical fibers for telecommunications are also made from silica. It is a primary raw material for many whiteware ceramics such as earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, as well as industrial Portland cement.
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Metal
A metal is a solid that has high electrical and thermal conductivity. The chemical definition of a metal also includes having a characteristic surface luster or shine. It is characteristic of metals that they are malleable (can be hammered into sheets) and ductile (can be drawn into wires). About three-quarters of the elements are a type of metal. The most abundant metals are aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. The vast majority of metals are found as ores in the ground. After excavated, the ores are put through a smelting process to separate the metal from the ore and are then formed into various building materials.
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Metal
Tin This silvery, malleable poor metal is not easily oxidized in air and is used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion. The first alloy used in large scale since 3000 BC was bronze, an alloy of tin and copper. After 600 BC pure metallic tin was produced. In modern times tin is used in many alloys, most notably tin/lead soft solders, typically containing 60% or more of tin. Another large application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel. Because of its low toxicity, tin-plated metal is also used for food packaging, giving the name to tin cans, which are made mostly of steel.
Griffon Handmade from a tin cup.
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Metal
Aluminum Aluminum and aluminum alloys are used in a wide variety of products: cans, foils and kitchen utensils, as well as parts of airplanes, rockets and other items that require a strong, light material. Although it doesn’t conduct electricity as well as copper, it is used in electrical transmission lines because of its light weight. It can be deposited on the surface of glass to make mirrors, where a thin layer of aluminum oxide quickly forms that acts as a protective coating. Aluminum oxide is also used to make synthetic rubies and sapphires for lasers.
2010, Jason Solarek. Custom aluminum VIP party bracelets with global party hot spots.
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Metal
Copper Copper has a reddish or orangish color owing to a thin layer of tarnish (including oxides). Pure copper, is pink- or peach-coloured. Copper was one of the first metals ever extracted and used by humans, and it has made vital contributions to sustaining and improving society since the dawn of civilization. Copper was first used in coins and ornaments starting about 9000 BC, and at about 5500 BC, copper tools helped civilization emerge from the Stone Age.
The everyday uses of copper include doorknobs and other fixtures in the house. It’s also used in frying pans, knives, forks, spoons, bath tubs, sinks, counters, decorative statues and sculptures. The Statue of Liberty is made from 80 tons of copper sheets cut and hammered to a thickness of 2.3 millimeters, about the thickness of two pennies.
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Metal
Bronze Bronze is a metal alloy produced by blending copper and tin in various amounts, depending on the application. Additional elements such as manganese, lead, and phosphorous are added to create bronze with specific properties. Bronze is found in bells, statuary, bearings, gears, valves, pipes, and other plumbing fittings, and it is a sturdy, durable metal when well cared for. Humans have been working with bronze for over 3,000 years in various parts of the world, using it for weapons, coins, tableware, and an assortment of other household purposes.
It is also widely used for cast bronze sculpture, because many common bronze alloys have the unusual and very desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling in the finest details of a mold.
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Metal
Gold Whereas most other pure metals are gray or silvery white, gold comes in various shades of yellow. White gold is made with the addition of palladium or nickel. Although primarily used as a store of value, gold has many modern industrial uses, including dentistry and electronics. Gold has traditionally found use because of its good resistance to oxidative corrosion and excellent quality as a conductor of electricity. Gold is the most malleable of all metals; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 sq. ft.
Gold has been highly valued in many societies throughout the ages. It has often had a strongly positive symbolic meaning closely connected to the values held in the highest esteem in the society in question. Gold may symbolize power, strength, wealth, warmth, happiness, love, hope, optimism, intelligence, justice, balance, perfection, summer, harvest and the sun.
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Metal
Silver Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, and it is commonly used to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Silver’s compounds are used in photographic film and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. Historically the training and guild organization of goldsmiths included silversmiths as well, and the two
crafts remain largely overlapping. Unlike blacksmiths, silversmiths do not shape the metal while it is red-hot but instead, work it at room temperature with gentle and carefully placed hammer blows.
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Metal
Steel Steel is used widely in the construction of roads, railways, other infrastructure, appliances, irrigation, and buildings. Most large modern structures, such as stadiums and skyscrapers, bridges, and airports, are supported by a steel skeleton. Even those with a concrete structure will employ steel for reinforcing Steel has additional widespread use in major appliances and cars. Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world, with more than 1.3 billion tons produced annually. It is a major component in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons.
Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations. Other common applications include office furniture, steel wool, tools, armor, kitchenware, tableware, and jewelry.
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Metal
Stainless Steel Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, its low maintenance, relatively low cost, and familiar luster make it an ideal base material for a host of commercial applications. There are over 150 grades of stainless steel, of which fifteen are most commonly used. The alloy is milled into coils, sheets, plates, bars, wire, and tubing to be used in cookware, cutlery, hardware, major appliances, industrial equipment e.g. in sugar refineries, and as an automotive and aerospace structural alloy and construction material in large buildings. Storage tanks and tankers used to transport orange juice and other food are
often made of stainless steel, due to its corrosion resistance and antibacterial properties. This also influences its use in commercial kitchens and food processing plants, as it can be steam-cleaned, sterilized, and does not need painting or application of other surface finishes.
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Clay
The use of clay in pottery making predates recorded human history. Clay stones were used by the earliest civilizations to make currency. The ancient Minoan culture made discs out of clay that were used to record transactions between merchants and traders by pressing symbols into the disks. Clays are of great industrial importance, such as the manufacture of tile for wall and floor coverings, of porcelain, china, and earthenware, and of pipe for drainage and sewage. As building materials, bricks are formed out of clay for construction.
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Clay
Ceramics Clays exhibit plasticity when mixed with water in certain proportions. When dry, clay becomes firm and when fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical reactions occur. These reactions cause the clay to be converted into a ceramic material. Because of these properties, clay is used for making pottery items, both utilitarian and decorative. Different types of mineral clay, when used with different firing conditions, produce ceramic earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay, and one of the earliest artifacts ever uncovered is a drinking vessel made of sun-dried clay.
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Textiles
A textile is any filament, fibre, or yarn that can be made into fabric or cloth, and the resulting material itself. The word originally referred only to woven fabrics but now includes knitted, bonded, felted, and tufted fabrics as well. The basic raw materials used in textile production are fibres, either obtained from natural sources or produced from chemical substances. Textiles are used for wearing apparel, linens and bedding, upholstery, draperies and curtains, wall coverings, rugs and carpets, and bookbindings, in addition to being used widely in industry.
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Textiles
Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants It is strong, absorbent, and easily washed or dyed. The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fiber cloth in textile production today. Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth for highly absorbent bath towels and robes; denim for blue jeans; chambray, popularly used in the manufacture of work shirts, corduroy, seersucker, and twill. Socks, underwear, and most T-shirts are made from
cotton fabric. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in crochet and knitting. In addition to the textile industry, it is used in fishnets, coffee filters, tents, gunpowder, cotton paper, and in bookbinding.
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Textiles
Wool Wool is the dense, warm coat of sheep, also called a fleece. The hair of sheep has many unique properties that make it well suited to textile production. It is highly flame resistant and is frequently used for mattresses and rugs for that reason. In addition, wool has excellent moisture wicking properties, pulling moisture into the core of the fiber so that it doesn’t feel wet or soggy to the wearer. It pulls moisture away from the skin, as well, and is worn by people in different situations who prefer the feeling of dry air next to the skin to the clammy sense of perspiration.
Wool is favored for textile production because it’s easy to work with and takes dye very well. The springy fibers remember shapes when well cared for. Furthermore, wool takes to felting, a process in which fibers interlock into a tight mat, very well. Felt is used as insulation, for arts and crafts projects, and for decorative accents.
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Textiles
Linen Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. It is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather. The collective term “linens” is still often used generically to describe a class of woven and even knitted bed, bath, table and kitchen textiles. The name linens is retained because traditionally, linen was used for many of these items. In the past, the word “linens” was also used to mean lightweight undergarments such as shirts, chemises, waistshirts, lingerie, and detachable shirt collars and cuffs, which were historically made
almost exclusively out of linen. Today linen is usually an expensive textile, and is produced in relatively small quantities. It has a long “staple” (individual fiber length) relative to cotton and other natural fibers.
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Textiles
Silk Silk is a natural protein fibre, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm. Silk’s absorbency makes it comfortable to wear in warm weather and while active. Its low conductivity keeps warm air close to the skin during cold weather. It is often used for clothing such as shirts, ties, blouses, formal dresses, high fashion clothes, lingerie, pyjamas, robes, dress suits, sun dresses and kimonos.
Black Lab silk tie and cufflinks.
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Textiles
Polyester Fabrics woven from sythetic polyester thread or yarn are used extensively in apparel and home furnishings, from shirts and pants to jackets and hats, bed sheets, blankets and upholstered furniture. Industrial polyester fibers, yarns and ropes are used in tire reinforcements, fabrics for conveyor belts, safety belts, coated fabrics and plastic reinforcements with high-energy absorption. While synthetic clothing in general is perceived by many as having a less-natural feel compared to fabrics woven from natural fibres (such as cotton and wool), polyester fabrics can provide specific advantages over natural fabrics, such
as improved wrinkle resistance, durability and high color retention. As a result, polyester fibres are sometimes spun together with natural fibres to produce a cloth with blended properties.
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Textiles
Nylon Nylon was intended to be a synthetic replacement for silk and substituted for it in many different products after silk became scarce during World War II. Nylon replaced silk in military applications such as parachutes and flak vests, and was used in many types of vehicle tires. Since then, Nylon fibres are used in many applications, including fabrics, bridal veils, hair combs, carpets, musical strings, and rope.
Handmade water resistant Nylon bag.
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Craft was designed, printed, and bound by Tristan Ramberg in the Fall of 2010. This is a single, limited edition print on Red River Polar Matte double sided 60lb paper. The typefaces used are Chunk and Helvetica.