Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Creating Expressions with Wabi Sabi Materials Having looked at the properties of wabi sabi, we will now go on to ways in which these ideas can be used in modern living. The following section will discuss the different materials that can be used and suggest how these elements might be used to enhance environments we spend time in. When defining wabi sabi, there are two levels of approach. The very ethereal level where beauty and enlightenment merge, and the more practical level where Zen can guide the artistic aspirations of mere mortals. Although a perfect philosophical understanding of art and aesthetics is an unrealistic goal for most, the art of wabi sabi still has much to offer modern design theory. In a purist and very Japanese view of wabi sabi, the whole ethos is based on humility toward one’s own life and the world at large. This quote from a Japanese potter brings the totality of the wabi sabi philosophy into perspective: “It is nearly impossible to clearly define wabi and sabi. Maybe one could say that it is living unselfishly with our fellow men without desire for profit, resisting ideas of self importance or status, and humbly accepting our position in life.” Wabi sabi is the aesthetic that comes naturally from this attitude. The attitude does not come from the art. It would be incorrect to say that wabi sabi art can be forced or copied, because this would deny its spirituality and its transient nature. As our feelings are in constant flux so is the world we perceive, and in order for us to catch the fleeting beauty our minds and motivations must be clear and free from the folly that prevails in much of our twenty-first century behavior. For those inspired by the sentiments of wabi sabi and the potential it offers, there are no hard-and-fast rules on what is and what isn’t wabi sabi. If something evokes feelings of an intangible yearning, then that something has wabi sabi for the person concerned. Like all art it is very personal and subjective. However, without recourse to classification or intellectual analysis, the Japanese generally agree on what objects, scenes, or other mental stimuli evoke these wabi sabi sentiments. Using these as a starting point, the following section will look at some of the parameters for wabi sabi designs giving suggestions on ways to they can be incorporated into a modern lifestyle. Material Choice Material choice is a key factor in the creation of a wabi sabi atmosphere. The original exponents of wabi sabi advocated the use of materials that occur naturally—mud, clay, wood, bamboo, cloth, paper, hemp, grass, and even iron. The idea was to use materials that were easy on the eye with subdued colors and a propensity to physically change with the passing of time. As most combinations were seen in the environment, there was also a natural transplanting of color and textural combinations. Nearly all wabi sabi expressions require an element of the organic, as without it there is no feel of time and no sense of impermanence. Glass, aluminum, and plastic, because of their uniform shiny surface and inability to express the impermanence of all matter, are generally considered inappropriate materials for a true wabi sabi expression. Wood Japan has had an enduring love affair with wood, as it is eminently well suited to both functionality and aesthetic expression. The tree grows from a seed and will eventually, over the course of a few hundred years, reach the end of its life and then return to the soil where its decay will sustain other trees. The struggle of the tree to overcome the relentless forces of the environment can be found in its every fiber. Its fight for life, staged over the centuries, is clear in the grains and the knots, in the branches that have striven to catch the energy from the sun and the roots that have sought food and stability in the soil. There are trees with gnarly barks and unique shapes that represent some of nature’s most engaging sculptures, for they are the perfection of imperfection. Apart from some incredibly resilient woods such as teak, most woods, even when cut and treated, will continue their journey back to the nothingness from which they came, and in this passing their colors and hues, grains and figures can provide both beauty and usefulness. For those interested in using wood for wabi sabi expressions, the pieces of wood that are in their most dynamic stages of devolution are often the pieces that have the greatest potential. As the chemical makeup of the cells in the wood change with the passing of decades, the colors become richer and the flaws more pronounced, and for this reason many of the most interesting pieces are to be found among used pieces in reclamation yards. Oak beams that supported a house ceiling for half a millennium, twisted and contorted as the deepest residues of moisture worked their way to the surface, offer incredible potential. It is then up to the artist to take the spirit of the old tree and frame it in such a way as to do its long journey justice. The cleaning of such beams is like an exploration as the wire brush scraps away the centuries of accumulated grime to reveal the treasures beneath. Once the dirt has been painstakingly removed the smooth parts can be sanded and polished to provide a finish where the rough and smooth provide visual relief for each other. The use of a brushed-on sanding sealer and then a coat of wax helps to impart a patina where the high spots of shine resemble the feel of a piece of wood that as been gently handled for years. The patina is absolutely critical for the final finish of the piece as it makes all the difference to the visual impact. The eye is very sensitive to these subtle variations, and for a piece to be really appealing every effort must be expended to develop a patina that captures the wood’s extended history. Where many countries in the West have used stone as a primary building block, the Japanese have traditionally favored wood and paper to counter the extreme swings in climate and the ever-present threat of earthquakes. They used wood and paper extensively as walls and room dividers, but unlike other countries the Japanese rarely painted their wood, preferring instead to savor the figures made by the grains. This use of wood and other naturally occurring materials in the building process ensured that the interior colors all remained mute and natural. There was no need to match colors because they had already been perfectly matched on nature’s palette. When entering a traditional Japanese interior one of the overwhelming impressions is one of complete unaffectedness and a sense of harmony. Restraint again defines the boundaries and multiplies the overall effect. On entering a traditional temple or dwelling, it is hard not to notice the many pieces of carefully crafted wood and the attention to detail that has gone into their making and their intricate joinery. For the Japanese carpenter, his work, if it can be called that, is meditative and becomes an expression of true dedication to craftsmanship. Both his tools and the wood he uses enjoy an unspoken reverence, and it is said that a carpenter can spend up to a third of his time sharpening his tools in order that the cuts he makes are as clean and precise as possible. Each piece of wood is as unique as the tree it comes from, with its own potential for beauty. In the mass production of furniture there is a trend to cut out all the wood that does not comply with the design and only keep the part that is considered useful. As a result, the average wastage for an oak board in the U.K. is over fifty percent, but if each piece were looked at for its own merits, then much more of the spirit of the tree might be expressed and less of the valuable source would be wasted. The great American-born woodworker George Nakashima has built his work around the principle that each piece of wood has a perfect use, and it is up to the woodworker to find that use and to allow the tree to live on through his craft. His work revolves around the natural beauty of the wood, and working it in such a way as to give full play to the colors and figures that come from the random flow of wood fibers. If there is a large crack in the wood or a knot, then, instead of cutting it out, woodworkers like Nakashima make it a main feature of the board and encourage the people who look at the piece to enjoy the asymmetry that nature’s mark has left. In wood more than any other medium, there seems to be a universally shared appreciation of the figures and flows found within its fibers. And the figurative pattern of a wood such as walnut, with a grain like licorice tentacles that spiral around a knot, can capture and keep recapturing a sense of wonder and awe. Although not expressly called wabi sabi, the furniture of Nakashima and other like-minded woodworkers makes no effort to contain the play given by the wood to the sublime imperfections created by nature. Uses for wood: ■ Flooring. Old floorboards with character are ideal and the best boards are often to be found in reclamation yards. To achieve a good patina the wood must be sanded to a fine finish, sealed, and then polished. Generally the darker the wood the better and some companies even offer flooring cut from large sections of very old timber that has darkened naturally with age. ■ Exposed beams and supports. In the tearooms of Japan the room is visually divided by both wooden and bamboo struts, and often the walls are filled in on top of the asymmetrical pat- tern of the wooden frame. ■ Wooden objects such as rustic bowls, vases, lamps, driftwood, interesting roots, and so on. Bowls turned from burr woods such as oak or elm tend to work better, and these burr off-cuts are often available at sawmills. One can actually take a whole chunk of burr and carve a bowl from the center leaving the out-side bark as it is.