David Pye  

Thanks.
Koen has had some things to say about My Pye, previously. Perhaps a search would bring that up -- or we could start again. Highly interesting stuff. . .

I first read him when I was w...
I first read him when I was working at a hideous office furniture manufacturer where I thought any notion of craftsmanship had gone out the window long ago, his writing opened my eyes to all the unecessary workmanship that occurs in even such a cheap and nasty environment.
I have an article by him somewhere on the 'workmanship of risk and certainty' which is very good, I'll try and find it.

You'd
definitely "get it." He speaks to designers, and perhaps to the layman. But a maker is really going to know what Pye is talking about -- and definitely will see his own work and thought processes in a new way, I believe.

It is nice to see ....
David Pye?s name coming up from time to time in a design forum. He was one of those exceptional people that combined an undisputed talent in crafts (wood turning) with a very analytic and reflective mind. He was very articulate (and sometimes noisy) both in speaking and writing and has left some of the best publications on the ?nature of design? and the ?nature of craftsmanship?. It is not impossible to exercise a craft or to understand design without having read them, but it is certainly much more difficult and less rewarding. He started teaching at the Royal College of Art in London in 1949, maybe a year earlier. He was later followed by two other giants: Misha Black and later the unforgettable Bruce Archer in the newly created Design Research unit. It made the RCA to one of the most exciting places for design at the time.
I suspect I could go on and on about David Pey, his art as a wood turner with these unlikely surfaces created by the vibration of the tools etc. but nothing does him justice or comes close to reading his books?so follow Heath?s example!

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one very interesting thing he said was that furniture workmanship in general reached a zenith in the 1880s- 1890s,and that it was unlikely to again.As best I recall...