The 7 (No, 8!) Crimes of the Craft

Kill me now, Plastic Goddess.

During my third year in college, I took a class in Hinduism while working the night shift at a printing company. As a result, I didn’t learn much about the world’s third-largest religion (sorry Shiva). But I do remember one thing from that class – seven things, actually – that have stuck with me.

They’re the “Seven Social Sins,” which were published by Mahatma Gandhi in 1925. The sins are as follows:

Wealth without work

Pleasure without conscience

Knowledge without character

Commerce without morality

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

Politics without principle.

If I’d learned stuff like this in Sunday school in Arkansas, I might still be a practicing Presbyterian. Though my mind was half asleep when I heard the seven sins, this short list of Gandhi goodness still guides how I run my life and business.

So naturally, my mind made a similar list for the craft of woodwork. It did this task without being asked. I don’t really remember writing these; they just sort of spat forth from my fingers one day when I was grilling a piece of meat.

As I read over them now, I worry that I’ll come off as a snob or a jerk.

Please know that this list is aspirational and personal. I commit these sins almost every day. And I don’t apply them to other people or their work (usually, unless the person is a human-shaped hemorrhoid).

I mean, we all have enough problems without some weird redneck chairmaker talking to a bush on fire, then coming down the holler with a tablet of rules for the workshop.

Really, it’s the images that make this piece of writing a winner.

And so here are the Seven Crimes Against the Craft.¹

1. Figure without form: Flashy woods with lots of curl or other special effects are best used in small amounts (if at all). If the wood’s intense figure obscures the form of the piece, then I need to change direction.

2. Complexity without necessity: When I work with other designers, I am constantly baffled when many of them insist on adding complexity at every turn. I strive to simplify and streamline every idea. That doesn’t mean I don’t like complex pieces of woodwork (I love to build campaign secretaries). Instead, I’m keen to find historically appropriate, swift, simple and durable ways to build things. In the case of the secretary’s gallery, think V-notches instead of tapered sliding dovetails to join the parts.

3. Precision without reason: I measure only when I have to. And it’s usually when I have to communicate something: “Please, sir, I need hinges with 3/4" leaves.” One of the great benefits of building freestanding furniture one piece at a time is that dimensions are not the destination. A leg that is 1-3/4" square (aka 1.7500") is not something I think about when building a one-off table or chair. Instead, it is: Does this look right? Is it strong enough? If, of course, you build something for a particular hole or opening, then you have a good reason for precision. I do not like to build for holes.