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Andy DiPietro

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The two pieces are the results of collaboration between Keith Holt & I. Keith did the turning and carving which is his signature work, as well as the photography. I did the sandtexturing and coloring of the wood which I have coined as Oakcobolo.

Keiths words:

Andy and I wanted to see how the wonderful sandblasting and coloring would add to the meditation face series. His ability accentuate the beauty of the medullary rays is amazing. I emailed him to cut the blanks and two days later the postal person had the blanks in my hands. Two months later I still havent completed the pieces. Sorry Andy. I finally finished them last week and sent them to Andy to do his magic. Three days later he sent me an email saying I finished the pieces. It was a pleasure and honor to work with Andy on these pieces.

They are turned on three axes and then carved. The back of the piece is the only evidence that it has been on the lathe. If you would like to see how it was done they recorded my demo at Hartford this year. I think the DVDs are for sale on the AAW website. The pieces stand 6.25 inches high and 3.75 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. The species is Oakcobolo, sandblasted and stained.

My words:

It was an honor and a pleasure to work on Keith Holt's carvings. His work is truly beautiful and I am a proud owner of one of his cat mask carvings. I have seen his impressive demonstrations several times and I really wanted to add one of his meditation face pieces to my collection.

A few months ago I was doing extensive experimentation with different wood geometries and grain orientations and concluded that just about every shape I could find looked good sandblasted and dyed. So, I thought what about a carved shape that has flowing lines. Then it occurred to me that one of Keith's meditation faces would look great in quarter-sawn Oakcobolo. So I made the request and he was brave enough to let me give it a go.

So please tell us what you think of our collaboration.
Andy, when I first saw the thumb-nail with your name attached, I thought, wow, amazing departure.

What a marvelous collaboration.
 
Collaborations can result in a wonderful synergy - the piece better than each collaborator would likely do independently. Successful collaborations often result in long friendships and further collaborations. They can also result in unpleasant results and strained or broken friendships.

THIS collaboration is a terrific example of a wonderful collaboration of two masters of their respective specialties - multi axis turning/sculpting and wood's grain exploitation and coloring.

The use of oak is a departure for Keith and the selection of medullary rayed oak must have presented a challenge for him, the flecking being potential distractions from the his often serence pieces. And the idea of having one of his smooth flowing surfaces sand blasted had to have required a leap of faith and an acceptance of Andy's sensitivity to the wood and to the use of color.

For Andy, the responsibility of enhancing such a nice piece must've also required a leap of faith, with an underlying knowledge and experience with with oak, sand blasting and coloring. Mistakes in sand blasting and/or coloring are not easy to recover from and are proned to happen - if done by someone who is not REALLY good at BOTH.

Synergy: The combination being greater than the the sum of its parts

I see more collarboration in the future - and hope I'm right.

Well done gentleman - in so many ways.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments. Thanks Charlie, I always enjoy your insights. Hopefully Keith & I will do another collaboration in the future as I really enjoyed doing this one.

www.woodartforms.com
 
This work is spectular! Congratulations to you both for this wonderful collaboration!

Turning of the Week, 11/01/10
AAW Home Page Photo
 

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