Thursday, August 27, 2015

Why?

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Why is it that I don't like lattice that is laid on a diagonal, while I adore this lovely, 90 degree lattice?

via BHG

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Is it because I'm used to the premade sheets at the hardware store?  Is it because it makes me think of DIY solutions to crawl spaces and decks....essentially, an over exposure issues?  Or is there something to the design?  

These people improved things by doubling up....I assume I like it better because it doesn't look like lattice anymore.  Actually, now that I'm writing this I am undecided if this is an improvement.  Thoughts?  



Maybe my distaste is more of a quality thing.  This is from Versaille.  It looks alright.



And then there are these people.  


Accents of France

Amazing.  They make it all look good--diagonal, straight, whatever.  Part of me thinks that having a good hand saw and mitre box and 200 hours of podcasts could turn this into a DIY.  But I'm not sure I paid enough attention in geometry.  







(While you could scoff at the name, Accents of France, it's fo' real--France came up with the art (craft?) of trelliage.  Google image search it).  The French are also responsible for Espalier....



or making trees (typically fruit trees) into lattice!  Is this Enlightenment style 'man conquering nature' or an almost Zen practice in patience?   I'm calling it for the Enlightenment--these were used as fences and privacy screens in a way that is un-Bonsai like.  But perhaps that is a point to research further.  [Also, I'd sell a kidney for those mushroom statues--did you ever? But it's 11 so all my willpower is going to not sourcing these right now]

No, I have no need for lattice whatsoever.  Someone was clogging up my pinterest feed with backyard privacy DIY research, and it got me thinking.  Yep, that is all it takes to push me down an internet wormhole.  You're welcome.


2 comments:

  1. I think over exposure to the inexpensive overused lattice tainted your taste. Sort of like a little Debbie cake-cake- and lattice- can be so much more. The fruit trees in fence is genius. That is a project I can get behind. My lemon tree would love some friends.

    I fell off the wagon on the exercise but am again on day one of the squats.

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  2. I was surprised to find that my son hated the white diagonally laid lattice that I had put around my front porch to extend the height of its brick wall and keep him and my other kids from falling off of the porch. I always liked the lattice as it reminded me of the lattice used to enclose the underneath of high porches on various old houses that I admired. Diagonal lattice seems to have prevailed to the degree that plastic strips of it can be bought to replace the wooden ones when they wear out.
    Whether it was the diagonal, the confinement, or the plastic that made my son hate it, I do not know. However, I do know that Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg fell out over the use of diagonals. Mondrian's modernist reductionism made him reject the diagonal because of its suggestion of receding space (rails converging to a vanishing point on the horizon for example).
    In art appreciation classes we are taught that the vertical line holds the picture plane best. The horizontal is next but can recede when stacked like horizontal landscape. Diagonal lines suggest the depth lines of linear perspective.
    In classical modernism the picture plane needs to be maintained without any illusion of or allusion to depth. Vertical and horizontal lines do this well. Diagonals don't. Mondrian, it is reported, wouldn't even use diagonal steps when he was dancing (Broadway Boogie Woogie!).
    Maybe 90 degree lattice is just more wall like because it holds the plane of the wall. Also diagonal could suggest compression or collapse like an accordion or like a jack-in-the-box.

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