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wabi sabi and why
Wabi Sabi
Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, age and decay. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; blown glass, not paper cups. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace worn leather, recycled barn wood, metal with patina, frayed edges, and the march of time they represent.
eastern vision western craftmenship
"Western beauty is radiance, majesty, grandness and broadness. In comparison, Eastern beauty is desolateness, Humility, Hidden beauty," So says kendo sensei Shozo Kato. At the end of the day we are craftsmen end even though we have a unique perspective on art, we don't want to loose sight of the fact that things being well made is of the utmost importance.
how it applies
Anybody with an associates degree from your local community college can restore and repaint a car. Having restored hundreds of cars, motorcycles and pieces of furniture between us, we've noticed that in a typical restoration something gets lost. It looses it's story. It looses it's SOUL. While fully customizing and restoring something of old is very cool and noble, it completely erases its past and starts the clock from zero. So the art is not in the restoration, its in the restraint. It's in knowing how to add to the story not erase it.
authenic form, enhanced function
Humans connect to the world through emotion and design without beauty is void of emotion. We cannot resonate with it and we cannot exist happily in it. For that reason we start with something, from a form perspective, it "worth" using as a canvas. That being said, the functional aspect on any project is always done at a 10. We don't want it just to work, we want it to work phenomenally. We have been known to use high tech needle bearings on a drawers of a vintage armoire or to place the latest, high tech, drive-train and suspension in a vintage 911. We like our stuff beautiful, patina'd, vintage and highly functional.
“I have had a car, motorcycle and dining room table built by the guys at Bobby Spade and have always been more than happy with the results. I love telling the story of all three and make new friends every time I take my Lincoln out.”