On the right path...

Chris Wong is still out here visiting from Vancouver and we decided to go visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin-West.  It was an unusual project for FLW since it was his home so he had nobody to answer to... or so he thought... Mrs Wright #3 had issues with using canvas instead of glass for windows in the high desert... he lost that one.

The camp was interesting in that FLW experimented to see what worked and what didn't.  You'd see two doors side by side with different hinge mechanisms.

But this post isn't about the house.  I didn't take a lot of photos since the interesting rooms didn't allow them and by then I was conditioned not to think of photos by the time we got to the two performance rooms (uhm, not the bedrooms... actual theaters and a hall).

What this post is about is the feeling that I'm on the right path.  You see, behind the bookstore (a new building made in the style of the house), is the workshop.  Oooh, the workshop.  That's where the apprentices of the on-site architecture school work on their graduate projects, make FLW replicas, and do restoration of the house.  So the workshop churns out some high-end work even if some of FLW's chairs in the main room were plywood chairs.

How am I on the right path?  Take a look at what's on my bench:

take a look what's at the entrance of their workshop:

Yeah, apparently the path to great things is marked out by a trail of rubber chickens!

The workshop isn't a part of the tour and guests aren't allowed.  A nice lady who works in the shop was on the way out when I asked if a pair of woodworkers could get a tour.  You gotta know there'd be an exception for woodworkers.

Pretty simple shop, but then they are replicating what FLW built in the high desert.  With that in mind, they are likely way over-tooled.  I have no problem with the idea of being over-tooled :)  As I type this, Chris is down in the shop building a cool project on time-lapse video... I swear every Bridge City tool I have it out!

The point where I shot the shop picture is at the end of the breezeway to get into the shop.  If you looked to the left, you'd see the interior yard is L-shaped.  To the left were many smaller rooms for other multi-disciplinary artisans like potters and a shop for ceramic work.  There was even a large kiln for firing ceramics although its use in June/July is optional... just wave the greenware in the sunlight...

Lots of tiny videos from WIA to edit.  They'll be coming out daily starting Thursday.