I am in that frustrating phase of two steps forward and one back! My tool technique is much improved largely due to Lyle Jamieson's very clear youtube video's and of course information gained from this and other excellent forums.
I am having issues with flow and form that I didn't struggle with earlier in my turning. I have been stubbornly trying to salvage blanks that are ready for the burn pile, I'll be out of wood when I burn it. No question that is part of my struggle but I realized last night I had another basic issue. I cut eight acres or so with a small mower, a two day job. While mowing my thoughts are deliberately allowed to travel far and wide. Cutting laps on a lawn tractor isn't the most thrilling way to spend a couple days. However, last night as I quietened my thoughts seeking sleep I realized I had been guilty of "noisy thought" while turning wood lately, even upsetting thoughts. I hadn't been at peace while turning.
I, and I assume most people, think on three levels that I know of. There is the loud verbal level, I am mentally dictating every word I type here. Then there are the quiet wisps of thought, little quiet reminders as I am doing a task and need a minor correction, these may or may not be in words, usually are. Finally there is the level where my unconscious and my body are working together without conscious interference. Remember how hard it was when you first started to drive a car? After awhile we are making corrections and dodging small obstacles in our path without a conscious thought.
At the very beginning of learning a new task, that loud verbal thought, I'll call level one, is very much to the forefront. It is giving constant instruction and is needed to perform the task. However this is much like someone else standing over you and telling you how to do every little thing, there is no flow to your efforts.
Level two, you are starting to do routine tasks without level one controlling every little action. That quiet voice is starting to be heard when you need to make changes or corrections but that interfering task master loud verbal voice is largely silent.
Level three, most of the task is accomplished without verbal thought with an occasional gentle comment from that quiet voice. You know what you want to achieve and you turn loose your unconscious and your body to make it happen, much like my earlier example of driving a car.
Lately I have been guilty of thinking about life's irritations while trying to turn. My verbal thoughts have been loud and in conflict with what I was trying to do. They not only were not at least of some value to the process, they were in total disharmony with what I was trying to do. The result is that I am struggling with flow and form. I should have recognized this immediately and shut it down, a bad habit in the making. I'll have to have a bit of my mind paying attention to flag that for awhile.
I, and again I will assume all of us, will have more success turning with a quiet mind. That loud voice of thought should be silent or at worst focused on the task at hand. Once we are beyond the very basics of learning tool handling it isn't needed. That quiet wisp of a correction here and there should be all that is needed and better if the correction is not even thought of in words.
When that loud most dominant voice is thinking of other things it interferes with the process at best. When it is focused on annoyances this is the most interference that it can create. Flow goes to hell and form isn't far behind!
These are the thoughts of a fellow beginning wood turner, judge accordingly. I have shaped other things to perfection and danced with the wind. I do know what I seek wood turning, haven't got there yet!
Hu
I am having issues with flow and form that I didn't struggle with earlier in my turning. I have been stubbornly trying to salvage blanks that are ready for the burn pile, I'll be out of wood when I burn it. No question that is part of my struggle but I realized last night I had another basic issue. I cut eight acres or so with a small mower, a two day job. While mowing my thoughts are deliberately allowed to travel far and wide. Cutting laps on a lawn tractor isn't the most thrilling way to spend a couple days. However, last night as I quietened my thoughts seeking sleep I realized I had been guilty of "noisy thought" while turning wood lately, even upsetting thoughts. I hadn't been at peace while turning.
I, and I assume most people, think on three levels that I know of. There is the loud verbal level, I am mentally dictating every word I type here. Then there are the quiet wisps of thought, little quiet reminders as I am doing a task and need a minor correction, these may or may not be in words, usually are. Finally there is the level where my unconscious and my body are working together without conscious interference. Remember how hard it was when you first started to drive a car? After awhile we are making corrections and dodging small obstacles in our path without a conscious thought.
At the very beginning of learning a new task, that loud verbal thought, I'll call level one, is very much to the forefront. It is giving constant instruction and is needed to perform the task. However this is much like someone else standing over you and telling you how to do every little thing, there is no flow to your efforts.
Level two, you are starting to do routine tasks without level one controlling every little action. That quiet voice is starting to be heard when you need to make changes or corrections but that interfering task master loud verbal voice is largely silent.
Level three, most of the task is accomplished without verbal thought with an occasional gentle comment from that quiet voice. You know what you want to achieve and you turn loose your unconscious and your body to make it happen, much like my earlier example of driving a car.
Lately I have been guilty of thinking about life's irritations while trying to turn. My verbal thoughts have been loud and in conflict with what I was trying to do. They not only were not at least of some value to the process, they were in total disharmony with what I was trying to do. The result is that I am struggling with flow and form. I should have recognized this immediately and shut it down, a bad habit in the making. I'll have to have a bit of my mind paying attention to flag that for awhile.
I, and again I will assume all of us, will have more success turning with a quiet mind. That loud voice of thought should be silent or at worst focused on the task at hand. Once we are beyond the very basics of learning tool handling it isn't needed. That quiet wisp of a correction here and there should be all that is needed and better if the correction is not even thought of in words.
When that loud most dominant voice is thinking of other things it interferes with the process at best. When it is focused on annoyances this is the most interference that it can create. Flow goes to hell and form isn't far behind!
These are the thoughts of a fellow beginning wood turner, judge accordingly. I have shaped other things to perfection and danced with the wind. I do know what I seek wood turning, haven't got there yet!
Hu
