This post is part of a blog series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Fourteen. As is our custom, we’ll be discussing one article per weekday in order to give you a taste of what is to come.
The subscription window that includes Issue Fourteen is open now.
To get Issue Fourteen when it ships in early April, you can sign up for a subscription here.
If you aren’t sure about your subscription status, you can reach out to Grace at info@mortiseandtenonmag.com. Keep in mind though, if you are set to auto-renew, you never have to worry about getting the next issue of Mortise & Tenon. Issue Fourteen is coming your way soon!
We all know of some masterful cook who manages to make the most flavorful meals without ever cracking into a cookbook. Somehow, they have an innate knowledge of the proper balance of flavor, texture, and even color to bring together a masterpiece. Meanwhile, we might struggle sticking exactly to the recipe, and end up burning the onions anyway.
In Issue Fourteen, author George Walker shows us that this recipe-free mindset was the standard way of working for the period artisan. Rather than suffering a crippling reliance on plans and the lack of creative freedom that entails, makers had a solid base of knowledge about form, proportion, and materials from which they could freely design and construct whatever they envisaged, adapting or improvising as necessary as the project unfolded.
Walker shares from his days as a machinist, when “absolutely nothing was made without a measured drawing.” He brought that mindset into his woodworking, and building to precise numbers and fixed values established the quality of his work. But he soon realized that the freedom he desired in woodworking was entirely absent with this approach; his own personal aesthetic judgment could not be exercised. In researching the ways of the past, Walker shows that it is possible for us to find again that creative freedom; to work without a recipe and create something beautiful.
Subscribe now to reserve your copy of Issue Fourteen.