Pages

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Interview with a Master

September 20, 2012 was a sad day for members of the online woodworking community when we lost a fellow woodworker whose passion for the craft was intense and contagious.  Neil Lamens (http://furnitology.blogspot.com/) was about as fired up as anyone could get about woodworking, design and pushing the craft forward.   I only knew him through our online interactions, but his zeal came through in every post, video and e-mail.  Neil was incredibly generous with his encouragement, critique and wisdom.  He answered every question I ever threw at him and he LOVED engaging with folks who were new to the craft or were stepping outside of their comfort zones for the first time.  Talk about having an inspiring cheerleader on your side!  He was a class act through and through.

You can still hop over to Neil’s blog site and check out his videos and articles.  He did a great series of videos on a Carlo Mollino inspired table that is still one of my favorite online videos.  I think I’ve gone back and watched it three times over the years.  Today I wanted to share a video Neil did with famed furniture designer and sculptor, Wendell Castle.  It’s always interesting to hear directly from people who are considered masters of their craft, yet part of what makes this interview so fun is the experience that you can see Neil having.  He’s so appreciative to be sitting across from one of his heroes and you can just see it in his face.  Enjoy this two part interview with an icon of design…



Be sure to poke around the rest of Neil’s posts too.  He put a lot of great content up on woodworking and design over the years.

Amazon is going to get some business from me today.  Neil recommended a couple books to me and I’ve had them on the wish list for a while now.  Time to pull the trigger and dig into some design history and philosophy.

RIP Neil.  We’ll all miss you.

Pete

2 comments:

Karen McBride said...

Hello,
I watched Neil's interview with Wendell Castle many years ago and loved it. The link doesn't seem to work any more. Have you been able to find them? I hope they are not lost forever.
Karen

Pete said...

Hey Karen! Sorry I didn't see this earlier. It's been a long time since I've been on the blog. I might need to start writing some again.

Yeah, those links have been gone for some time now. He was fun to watch and was really in his element when going deep with someone like Wendell Castle.

Pete