Building on a rich history / Standing on the shoulders of giants

Flammleisten and Wellenleisten: Understanding R...

Once you have wellenleisten and flammleisten as your two building blocks, things get interesting.

Flammleisten and Wellenleisten: Understanding R...

Once you have wellenleisten and flammleisten as your two building blocks, things get interesting.

Pattern and Follower: From Nuremberg to today

In Jacquard’s punched cards (1804): The design intelligence was abstracted from physical shape to coded representation. The punched card didn’t look like the pattern it produced. A human designer still...

Pattern and Follower: From Nuremberg to today

In Jacquard’s punched cards (1804): The design intelligence was abstracted from physical shape to coded representation. The punched card didn’t look like the pattern it produced. A human designer still...

The Long Silence and the Modern Revival

The machines themselves were few to begin with. Unlike a molding plane (thousands survive) or a lathe (ubiquitous), a waving engine was a specialized tool that only made economic sense...

The Long Silence and the Modern Revival

The machines themselves were few to begin with. Unlike a molding plane (thousands survive) or a lathe (ubiquitous), a waving engine was a specialized tool that only made economic sense...

Beyond Holland: Ripple Frames Across Hapsburg E...

German ripple frames tended to be more structurally complex than their Dutch counterparts. Where a Dutch frame might feature a single narrow band of ripple between flat fields, a German...

Beyond Holland: Ripple Frames Across Hapsburg E...

German ripple frames tended to be more structurally complex than their Dutch counterparts. Where a Dutch frame might feature a single narrow band of ripple between flat fields, a German...

Ebony, Light, and Restraint: The Dutch Ripple F...

Under candlelight — the only artificial light available in 17th-century interiors — this modulating effect was magnified. The ripple surface shimmered and shifted as candles flickered and the viewer moved,...

Ebony, Light, and Restraint: The Dutch Ripple F...

Under candlelight — the only artificial light available in 17th-century interiors — this modulating effect was magnified. The ripple surface shimmered and shifted as candles flickered and the viewer moved,...

From Craftsman to Crank-Turner: The Factory Mac...

The subtle, alive quality of a hand-pulled Moxon cut — that almost-but-not-quite-perfect regularity that catches candlelight so beautifully — was lost.

From Craftsman to Crank-Turner: The Factory Mac...

The subtle, alive quality of a hand-pulled Moxon cut — that almost-but-not-quite-perfect regularity that catches candlelight so beautifully — was lost.