Industrial Arts Design Part 15

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Give the reasons why surface enrichment may be used as decoration.

2. State an original example ill.u.s.trating when and where to use surface enrichment.

3. Name an object from the industrial arts in which the structure has been weakened or obscured by the application of surface enrichment. Name an example of the correct use of surface enrichment and state wherein it has been correctly applied.

4. How should surface enrichment of small ma.s.ses differ from that applied to larger ma.s.ses; in what manner does the fiber of the wood affect the design?

5. Name three means of enriching the surface of wood. Briefly describe the processes of inlaying and carving, with the design restrictions governing each.

6. Give three sources of ornament open to the designer of surface enrichment.

7. Draw an accented triple band motive for inlay.

8. What is the inceptive axis; a bilateral unit? What are leading lines; dynamic forms; points of concentration?

9. Design an upward and onward continuous carved border for wood and base it upon a vertical inceptive axis. Treat as in A, Figure 205.

10. Ill.u.s.trate the manner in which structure may be apparently strengthened by a band or border.

CHAPTER X

SURFACE ENRICHMENT OF SMALL PRIMARY Ma.s.sES IN WOOD--Continued

ENCLOSED AND FREE ORNAMENT

[Sidenote: Enclosed Ornament (Panels)]

Chapter IX dealt with methods of developing continuous or repeating ornament (bands or borders). This leaves enclosed and free forms of surface enrichment to be considered in this chapter.

As an enclosed form, a panel may be enriched by geometric, natural, or artificial ornament. It is enclosed in a definite boundary of bands or lines and may be a square or other polygon, circle, ellipse, lunette, spandrel, lozenge, or triangle. As the decoration does not have the continuous repeating movement of the border and as it covers an enclosed area, it is necessarily treated in a different manner from either band or border. Its object is to decorate a plane surface. The enrichment may be made by means of carving, inlaying, or painting.

[Sidenote: Free Ornament]

Free ornament means the use of motives not severely enclosed by bands or panels. Free ornament is generally applied to centers or upper portions of surfaces to relieve a monotonous area not suited to either panel or border treatment. It may have an upward or a radial movement dependent upon the character of the member to be enriched.

[Sidenote: Summary]

We then have three forms of possible surface enrichment: repeating or continuous motives, enclosed motives, and free motives. Our next point is to consider where the last two may be used appropriately in surface enrichment.

[Sidenote: Zone of Enrichment]

The panel of a small primary ma.s.s of wood may be enriched at any one of three places: first, at the margins; second, at the center; third, over the entire surface. The exact position is a matter to be determined by the structural design and the utilitarian requirements of the problem.

For example, a bread board or taboret top would require the enrichment in the margin with the center left free. A table leg might require an enrichment in the center of the upper portion of the leg, while a square panel to be inserted in a door, Figure 233, Page 124, might require full surface treatment.

[Sidenote: Structural Reinforcement]

Each area of panel enrichment should have one or more accented points known as points of concentration. The design should become more prominent at these places and cause the eye to rest for a moment before pa.s.sing to the next point of prominence. The accented portion of the design at these points should be so related to the structure that it apparently reinforces the structure as a whole. Corners, centers of edges, and geometric centers are salient parts of a structure; we shall therefore be likely to find our points of concentration coinciding with them. Let us then consider the first of these arrangements as applied to enclosed enrichment.

MARGINAL PANEL ENRICHMENT

ENCLOSED ENRICHMENT FOR PARTLY ENRICHED SURFACES

Rule 7a. _Marginal panel enrichment should parallel or be related to the outlines of the primary ma.s.s and to the panel it is to enrich._

Rule 7b. _Marginal points of concentration in panels should be placed (1) preferably at the corner or (2) in the center of each margin._

Rule 7c. _To insure unity of design in panels, the elements composing the points of concentration and the links connecting them must be related to the panel contour and to each other._

[Sidenote: Marginal Zone Enrichment]

The marginal method of enrichment may be used when it is impossible to enrich the entire surface because the center is to be used for utilitarian purposes or because it would be aesthetically unwise to enrich the entire surface. The marginal zone is adapted to enriching box tops, stands, table tops, and similar surfaces designed preferably with the thought of being seen from above. We shall call such surfaces horizontal planes.

As the design is to be limited to the margin, the panel outline is bound to parallel the contours, or outlines, of the surface to be enriched. It is well to begin the design by creating a panel parallel to the outlines of the enriched surface. Figure 218. The next step is to place the point of concentration in the marginal zone and within this figure. Common usage dictates the _corners_ as the proper points. [Sidenote: Points of Concentration]

[Sidenote: Points of Concentration in the Corner of Margin]

It may be the designer's practice to use the single or double bands, Figures 218, 219, 220, with a single accentuation at the corners. The spots composing the point of concentration must have unity with the enclosing contours and with the remainder of the enrichment. Figure 220 is, in this respect, an improvement over Figure 219. But these examples are not _true_ enclosed panel enrichment. They are the borders of Chapter IX acting as marginal enrichment. It is not until we reach Figure 221 that the true enclosed enrichment appears, when the panel motive is clearly evident. In this figure a single incised band parallels the contours of the figure until the corner is reached. Here we find it turning, gracefully widening to give variety, and supporting the structure by its own increased strength. The single band in Figure 221 acts as a bridge, leads the eye from one point of concentration to the next similar point, forms a compact ma.s.s with the point of concentration, and parallels the enclosing contours of the enriched surface.

[Sidenote: Points of Concentration in the Center of Margin]

In Figure 222 the point of concentration is to be found in the _center_ of each margin. This bilateral unit is clearly designed on and about the center lines of the square panel. These points of concentration take the place of previous concentrations at the _corners_ which were based upon the square's diagonals. While accenting based upon the center lines is acceptable, this means of concentration does not seem so successfully to relate the accented part to the structural outlines as that of concentration based upon the diagonals. The latter, therefore, is recommended for beginners. The corners of Figure 222 are, however, slightly accented by means of the bridging spots _x-x_.

[Sidenote: Inceptive Axes or Balancing Lines]

The diagonals and center lines of the surface enriched squares of Figures 221 and 222 and similar structural lines are _inceptive axes_, as they are center lines for new design groups. It may then be said that a strong basic axis or similar line depending upon the structure, may become the center line or inceptive axis upon which to construct a bilateral design. It is only necessary to have this inceptive axis pa.s.s through the enrichment zone of the panel. Hereafter in the drawings, inceptive axes will be designated by the abbreviation I.A. while the point of concentration will be indicated by the abbreviation P.C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SURFACE ENRICHMENT OF SMALL PRIMARY Ma.s.sES IN WOOD

MARGINAL ENRICHMENT OF SQUARE AREAS

SYMBOLS: {PC} POINT OF CONCENTRATION; {IA} INCEPTIVE AXIS

TOOL PROCESSES. INLAYING AND CARVING

PLATE 36]

[Sidenote: Inceptive Axis]

The strongest plea for the inceptive axis is the fact that it interlocks surface enrichment with the structure, insuring a degree of unity that might otherwise be unattainable.

The carved enrichment of Figure 223 fully ill.u.s.trates this point. The a.n.a.lytical study of Figure 224 shows the diagonal used as an inceptive axis, with the leading lines grouped about it at the corner point of concentration.