Raw material…

One of the nice things about working with designers is getting to hang around the design department & workroom. My mount fabrication shop is mostly filled with stock brass & various types of esoteric foam or plastic padding; nothing terribly exciting. (Except for perhaps my acetylene torch with its electric-blue flame & subdued roar.) On the other hand, across the hall in the exhibition design department there is a seemingly endless supply of interesting & thought provoking raw materials lying around. The above photo is the end of some two inch square sections of aluminium tubing that will be used to support identification labels for outdoor sculpture. The wood filler is simply there to provide something to drill into & no one will see it. The completely arbitrary choice of end grain pine (it could have just as easily been poplar) was made by the technician who fabricated them & is (I think) quite beautiful, particularly in contrast to the metal. They were just sitting there on the end of Tracy's desk. There are are so many happy accidents surrounding you ~ the unplanned & elegant…

One just has to notice them.