Thursday, June 11, 2015

Mechanical Scoop

Ice Cream Scooper

I like hand tools, woodworking, garden and yes kitchen tools too.  Looking into my kitchen utensil drawer I looked for the most neglected and found it at the very back of the drawer, my old ice cream scooper from the 50's or 60's.  I don't stock ice cream and when I do it seems the boys of the house attack with anything that gets it to their mouths.  As a kid I worked as a scooper in a ice cream shop and learned the fast and easy way to scoop, it was not with one of these so I don't reach for it when in need.  I do however like the mechanics and form, the American industrial design and build quality of pre-WW2.   So when I brought it into the light of day I had an inspired moment, a found object worthy of a photograph; a Marcel Duchamp object in a Louise Nevelson set.   

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Things gone perfect

   Bosc Pear


Sometimes a simple thing can trigger complexities which seem out of reach of my words.  
The pear does this for me.  Perfect in form, its ergonomics seem made for the human hand to hold yet mimic the whole body.  Perfect skin, just enough to protect its moist delicate flesh but easily pierced with a bite and without a strong bitter taste.  I would have thought this fruit the undoing of Eve and wonder if biblical scholars got the translation wrong.  I do have a hard time with the negative saying "things gone pear shaped", it seems perfect to me.