Pi to Pentagon Collaboration · Fein Woods

01 / 20

Andi Wolfe

Pi to Pentagon, a Collaboration with Harvey Fein. About 5 years ago, after seeing an ornamental lathe in action, I had the idea to make the head of my lathe “rock.” This would enable me to make non-round forms. At the time I had no idea what that meant, but the idea of making a non-round form seemed the natural next step, so I modified my lathe, yet again, to enable me to make these non-round forms. Since I use a router to make these forms, and the router is too large to use on the inside of a vessel, initially I made only open forms. Two years ago I designed and built a tool that would enable me to get the router bit inside a vessel. I was now ready to start making non-round closed forms.

02 / 20

Art Liestman

During the 2010 Santa Fe SOFA show, while speaking to Ron Layport, I began to think about the obvious: wood turners think about the design of round forms (pi). Those who decorate their work in any way do their carving, piercing, pyrography, etc. in the round. I wondered what differences—challenges—pleasures they might encounter in conceiving and executing the embellishment of a many-sided object? I asked Ron if he would be interested in trying one. He agreed and we decided on a three sided form. The result was a piece that he named “Rhythms.” I thought it was a spectacular success. It sold opening night of SOFA Chicago 2010.

03 / 20

Avelino Samuel

Having spent a week at the Emma Lake Artist Collaborative a few months earlier, the concept of large group collaboration was fresh in my mind. I started asking other artists attending SOFA if they would be interested in being part of a large group of artists working on non-round forms which I would provide? The response was very positive. I settled on a 5-sided object (pentagon), 4 sides being too boxy and 6 being too round for small forms. Between November 2010 and January of 2011 I enrolled 16 artists. During the latter half of January and the end February I made 16 pieces. Each was tailored to the artist’s individual needs.

04 / 20

Bennett Bean

The artists selected one of three forms I proposed. They selected the type of wood and the wall thickness (thin for piercers, thick for carvers). During April and May, 4 more artists joined the group. I couldn’t wait to see the results! Here they are. I hope you enjoy looking at the collection as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. I am so grateful to all the artists for giving my idea legs and, of course, to The delMano Gallery for embracing the whole project. PS: 16 of the 20 pieces sold at SOFA 2011. A huge success!