> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gabriel Orgrease
> Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 8:16 AM


> One very interesting aspect of masonry, at least to me, is that it 
> manifests a most intensive human-body physical process. Every 
> brick set had a hand, or several hands, on it....

> I like to say that the trades hold ascendancy to the understanding of 
> the tactile process. 

I first recognized this as a wee widdle winkie in my wiving woom. Dad
had contracted with a plasterer to replaster the ceiling.  The plasterer
was incredible; I watched with jaw agape as he mixed the plaster, walked
on stilts, hoisted the cool goo overhead, smeared it out, then finished
it with these sensuous swirls (even my little kid head saw them as
special). He had these unbelievably huge forearms. Just like Popeye, but
without the anchor tattoo. I wondered then how much weight he had lifted
in wet mud over the course of a day; I recall that I asked him but I
don't remember what he answered.

In the same way, each individual brick is manageable, but over the
course of the day, how much weight has the mason lifted and put into
place; the same for the hod carrier, only they take bigger bites.

This weekend I was thinking these kind of thoughts as I moved 12 cubic
yards of really wet leaf mulch by pitchfork from the pickup bed and
trailer (two 6 yard loads) into the wheelbarrow and then to the beds in
the front and back yard. They overload the pick-up and trailer capacity
at the yard waste center with these gigantic 6 cubic yard front end
loader buckets...easy for them, harder for me. Buy stock in Advil.

> So, I would not myself focus with your students so much on 
> the potential 
> incorrectness of the rick burn as much as to explore how one 
> can better 
> go about exploring, revealing, rediscovery and reverse engineering of 
> traditional trade skill practices. 

Isn't this really how these processes were developed post-Cro Magnon?
Trial and error, do something, see how it holds up over 10-20 years,
talk about it, try something else, wait 10-20 years, talk some more, try
again with your progeny, show them how to do it and to watch it for
10-20 years, die with a smile on your face that they're carrying it
forward.

_______________________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Exec. Dir.     "The workman ought often to
Raleigh Historic           be thinking, and the thinker
Districts Commission              often to be working."
[log in to unmask]                         -- John Ruskin
919/516-2632 


“E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina  Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized City or Law Enforcement official.”

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>