Fellow Members ---

English is a very precise language but recently I have been getting a little confused. I thought I knew the meaning of the words design, craft, art and furniture but my understanding appears to be out of date.

I went one of the excellent Design Craft lectures at the California College of the Arts (CCA), which interestingly used to be called the California College of the Arts and Crafts (CCAC). The word Crafts, which I associate with the skills required to make something, was recently removed from the title as it is apparently an outdated word. The lecture was by Gord Peteran who talked about his form of art which is Studio Furniture. The most recent issue of Woodcraft also talks about Studio Furniture.

I have always considered furniture, ie: what I try to make in my Workshop, should be designed and crafted to look beautiful. A piece of good furniture is a well crafted work of art but whose primarily function is to be practical ie: as a chair or table, etc. Studio Furniture is designed primarily as works of art whose construction may or may not need woodworking craft skills to create it. Some of it appears to be capable of being used as a piece of furniture but this is by no means a requirement.

Gord Pereran also talked about a Design course being run at a school back East. It is not focused on creating what I would call in the traditional sense designers; it is focused on creating artists. I then went to another excellent CCA lecture given by Glenn Adamson, deputy head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His lecture was on craft. He talked about contemporary artists embracing many of the traditional crafts (including carpentry). Craft is returning to the art world.

Last month's BAWA meeting was held in the Wood Technology Department of Laney College in Oakland where we heard from Ron Mackrodt the Department Chair. He runs trade courses in cabinetry -- a return to the old trade school days of teaching craft but updated to teach modern cabinetry which is all cc-tool orientated -- not a hand tool in sight. These students are not being directed towards careers in art. Their direction is craft work, albeit in fully automated cabinet shops. Cabinet shops do have designers; they design the cabinets using computer based 3D programs and create the necessary instructions for the cc-tools.

So what is furniture? -- does it have to be functional or not? -- must it involve any level of craft skill to make it? What is woodwork? -- is it art? or craft? or design? Does it matter what we think a word means? -- It can be very confusing.

At least in BAWA we know we are an Association, which according to the dictionary is "an organization of people with a common purpose and having a formal structure" so at least this is clear English.