"Golden Ratios" for curves?

[Charlie Harley]

I've worked with Golden Ratios before when doing cabinetry design and found them to be helpful with creating pleasing shapes.

Does anyone know of similar ratios or designs to help with designing pleasing curves for turned items? I've been doing salt and pepper shakers and it's been an interesting and frustrating experience. Sometimes everything falls into place and the finished item is gorgeous. Sometimes the curve looks "okay". Sometimes it looks like doo-doo and ends up in the firewood pile.

Has anyone done research as to what curves are pleasing to the eye and which are just "okay"? It seems like some psychologist or design expert should have done such a survey.

And just to lead off with what I'm sure is the obvious comment, I find Mary Anne's curves to be much more pleasing than Ginger's.

 

[Richard Baker]

Charlie,
Good question. The two "rules", just guidelines really, that I remember for bowls and vases are that the fattest part should be located 1/3 of the distance from the top to the bottom, or vice-versa, and the base diameter should be about 1/3 of the diameter of the fattest part.

Having little or no artistic ability myself, I sometimes use a couple of french curves to draw the profile of a bowl or vase, making several versions of it, and just pick the one that looks best. Sometimes I even cut out the profile from heavy paper and use it as a reference template when turning the piece. It works remarkably well. Other times, you can only take what the chunk of wood will give you. Have seen a couple of articles on the subject. Maybe others will follow here with specific references.

 

[AnnHerbst]

AAW site has a PDF file on form and design

For other ideas, you can download a PDF file from the AAW site of the handout, Woodturning Form and Design, Keith Tompkins did as a handout for his AAW 2006 (Louisville) demo. It is at

/http://www.woodturner.org/resources/

 

[Richard Baker]

Thanks, Ann! Also some good notes on segmenting from Malcolm Tibbets. I, for one, need to make better use of this web site.

 

[S. Clark]

An excellent reference book that talks the subject in detail is Mike Darlow’s “Woodturning Designâ€Â. It is quite detailed to the point of being technical but well worth spending time studying. In discussing “beautyâ€Â, he covers a lot of historical information about design theory relating to architectural shapes. He applies these ideas to turned shapes and concludes the book by critiquing several types of turnings. You’ll learn a lot if you can stick with it.

 

[Keith T.]

Hi Charlie, I also wrote an article in the Summer 06 Woodturning Design magazine that may be helpful. A new article for the AAW magazine is nearly ready as well, which will cover hollow forms as well as bowls. Concepts such as the golden rectangle work well for flat work, but leave much to be desired for woodturning. The same frustrations you are experiencing drove me to work on more appropriate approaches to design. As a turner and teacher of turning, I've found the GR to be of very limited use.