Wendell Castle CNC Exhibit

[waynelocke]

Yesterday I saw the Wendell Castle exhibit, "Remastered" at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. If you are able it is a terrific show. It is a retrospective of his work and also shows his newest work which revisits his stacked laminations but done digitally and machined on a robot, "Mr. Chips"before final hand detailing. The robot can reach 12' so some of the pieces are fairly large. Also, don't forget the Shopbot User's Group in Austin February26 & 27.

[myxpykalix]

Looks to me like he got one of those robots out of one of the car factories. That would be cool to have. I wonder how /who made the programming to be able to do those cool things.

[Davo]

I'd hate to have a crash with that monster...may take out a wall

[willnewton]

Wendell Castle had a major influence on my work 20 years ago when I was first exposed to Studio Furniture.

I live in a small town in Eastern NC which is a far from the art world as you can get, yet we have a well-known fine craft collector here in town that has some of the finest contemporary works you will see outside of a New York museum.

I was invited for a visit to her house and was blown away to see one of Castle's original stack-laminated coffee tables sitting in her den. She also has a Garry Knox Bennett chest of drawers. Every room is filled with the work of famous craftspeople.

I also helped at an art auction with a Castle hall table made from wood and stone. It was an interesting piece and well put together. My jaw dropped at the $13,000 sale price. In hindsight, it was a steal at that price as it's value is likely triple that now and rising.

[harryball]

Robot to cut the wood, robot to carry it in to the other robot... I could sit back and sip tea while the robots do everything! I do wonder how much deflection occurs when it starts cutting. I know those arms are pretty solid, but it's hard to believe it could be dead on accurate like that.

[joe]

What a refreshing Post.

Wendell Castle completely caught me completely off guard. Thanks guys for the introduction. It's going to be fun discovering her work and vision. I'm jealous of the trip to NYC. That in itself is a treat not to mention the Museum of Art & Design.

Thanks again.

[joe]

For those, like me, not familiar with Wendell's work, here's a good link.

He's credited as being the father of American Modern Furniture.
http://www.wendellcastlecollection.com/index.cfm/do/WCC.workshop_modern_designer_furniture

Enjoy.

[waynelocke]

The robot does look like car assembly robots I have seen. The new work in the show starts at about$300,000 so he has a larger cnc budget than most.Will, he also has informed my work over the years and I have admired his work since buying a book about him in the early 80's. There were a couple of good videos at the show. His design process begins with sketches and proceeds to foam models which are then scanned and refined digitally. The layers are laid out and probably cut with the cnc but they may just be bandsawn and then glued up into large forms. It is a large show and it was very interesting to see his early work juxtaposed to his latest. At quick glance it's hard to tell the difference between the two because the newer work is still about form, mass and just what the heck is a table or chair anyway or art for that matter. He talks in one of the videos about revisiting the stack lamination furniture that put him on the map 40 or 50 years ago (which must have been real interesting to do) and with the robot being able to make more massive pieces and being able to make large curved joints to connect the elements which would not be possible without cnc.

I really wanted to see the show (I had only seen one or two of his actual pieces before) to see his older work but also to see his cnc work. From that standpoint the show was great. It wasn't about cnc but about the work and the cnc just made it possible to do some things more easily and to do some things that were not or only with great difficulty possible. After the cnc there is a lot of handwork. I really liked that because while I love my Shopbot I never want to make a piece that that inspires anyone to say, "Oh you made that with a cnc." I try to keep the attitude that the cnc is just a tool like the tablesaw and the focus should stay on the table or chair itself not the process or the tool itself. I never liked the handmade or machine made debate. The question to me was,"What did you make."

Going to see the show was a hoot and a lark. In early January JetBlue had a sale and a round trip ticket from Austin to New York was less than $200 so I told my wife that I was going to New York for 1 day to see this show. She immediately said that she also wanted to go so we got up at 4AM Wednesday and left Austin at 6:30. We had a very nice lunch in Manhattan. I spent about 2 1/2 hours at show and she spent a bit less and did a little shopping and we were at home in bed by 1:30. Not staying kept it affordable and we have driven to Houston, Dallas and other places to see a show so why not.

[joe]

Well Duh. Now everyone knows stuff I always wanted to know. Anyone wanting to attend a show like that concerned with CNC is missing the point.

Nest time, I'd suggest getting a room at the Edison Hotel. It's on 47th street, competitive prices, and not too far from the Metropolitan Museum, The Whitney and the Mus. of Modern Art. I'd like to tag along and show you some good places for outstanding grub.

[willnewton]

This piece kinda blew my mind when I first saw it. Castle may be a bit artsy-fartsy for some folks, but he has serious hand-carving chops.27240

[chunkstyle]

Will,

Small world. My wife and I took the train to NYC back in December and caught the same show. It was cool to see some of his pieces thruout his career all together for viewing.
A friend of mine works at Wendall's studio and graduated from his school back in the day when Wendall had a school. It's given me the opportunity to get to walk thru his shop and it is inspiring. Lots of pieces thru out his career hanging around the offices while new stuff is being worked on. Sometimes old works may be back for repair/ refinish.

It is a car robot. Think my buddy said it came out of a Chrysler plant. I believe the spindle is a 7hp hanging off it. The first job they did with it was for multiple chairs for a US embassy, if my memory still works.

Wendall's gotta be one of the gutsiest woodworkers out there IMHO.