Product Details
Grain of Truth: The Ancient Lessons of Craft

Grain of Truth: The Ancient Lessons of Craft
By Ross A. Laird

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Product Description

On the surface, Grain of Truth is a brief, simple book in which the author makes objects out of wood – a hand plane for himself, a marimba for his children, a box to hold the cremated remains of his grandmother-in-law. It’s not a how-to book, not a description of technique so much as an exploration of craft as a contemplative and spiritual practice. It shows how one’s hands can serve as guides in the unfolding of awareness.The book is organized into eight chapters, based on the essential symbols of ancient Taoism (wind, earth, thunder, deep water, mountain, shallows, fire, and the unfathomable). Each chapter deals with a particular craft project – its inspiration, the materials it requires, the rewards it offers. Using sharp tools and a delicate touch, Laird uses the creative process to discover his essence.Grain of Truth is lyrical and mesmerizing. Like Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery, it explores physical discipline as a path to spiritual awakening. Like Thoreau’s Walden, it places the unadorned self in nature, simple experience opening a door to unforeseen depths. Like Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, it evokes the mystical through keen observation of the natural world. It’s a book to cherish.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1548963 in Books
  • Published on: 2002-09
  • Original language: English
  • Dimensions: .56 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 200 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.ca
"Every contemporary woodworker during the finishing stages of a project is a modern alchemist," doing the equivalent of translating base metals into gold. So writes Ross Laird in this thoughtful meditation on craft. Making Windsor chairs and bedsteads is more than a matter of block planes, come-alongs, and sharp knives, though such things figure in Laird’s pages; it involves disposition, assuredness, the ability to find the right rhythm for working with a particular birch log or fir plank. "The vault of the body does not always open to the inquiry of work," Laird allows. "Sometimes I become distracted, or fickle, or too bent on perfection, and the protean movements that my frame offers me slide into frustrating repetitions of strain or injury or--this is the worst--complete stalling." When the mood and knowledge and rhythm are right, though, wonders can ensue. Some of the best moments of Laird’s book describe his travels through the Rocky Mountain forests in search of the perfect piece of wood, his explorations of craft with fellow workers in the small towns near his home, and his thoughts on the back-to-the-land life he’s chosen.

Drawing for inspiration on the natural and cultural landscapes of British Columbia and ancient China alike, Laird reflects on the work, mental and physical, that goes into the making of handcrafted boxes, furniture, and such, and on what Robert Frost called "the pleasure of taking pains." His book offers inspiration for the weekend artisans among us, and it makes a fine addition to any library devoted to simple living and the old ways. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
Laird, a poet and Vancouver native, reflects on the rewards and frustrations of woodworking in eight pensive chapters ingrained with sensual, sinuous language and an intuitive understanding of the topic's metaphoric possibilities. Whether describing the construction of a wooden hand plane (toolmaking, Laird says, is a particular marker in the evolution from apprentice to craftsman) or the transformation of Brazilian purpleheart wood into a reliquary for his wife's grandmother's remains, Laird artfully conveys his appreciation for natural beauty and spontaneity, his reverence for hardwoods, tools and woodworking methods and his espousal of the Taoist principals that have sustained and nurtured his creative life. Indeed, his burnished prose style counterbalances what otherwise would have been an austere memoir of one man's discipline, dedication to craft and Rilke-like embrace of solitude through work. Because of his temperament, the ongoing restoration of his in-laws' summer house becomes a "sustained immersion in the life of a family"; the construction of a marimba for his two children in the chapter "Deep Water" becomes a "creative journey... to a shadowland of doubt, fear, frustration, and depression." Drawing on past experience, he explores the intersection of creativity and depression and offers insight into confronting its enigmatic challenges. Illustrated with Taoist trigraphs and photographs of his handiwork, this meditative book provides an inspiring glimpse into the creative process. Author tour in Washington and Oregon.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A poet by profession and a woodworker by avocation, Laird has, well, crafted a pretty little first book of meditations on the creative process. Split into eight sections based on Taoist imagery, the book outlines eight different woodworking projects that the author completed (e.g., he rebuilt a childhood dinghy) and delineates eight ways that inspiration strikes a person. These range from lightning bolts of energy and insight to our uncontrolled and dark imaginings. Laird intersperses his ambling explanations of his carpentry endeavors with reminiscences and family stories. A wonderful book to give to those who tend to spend their Sunday afternoons quietly pondering, who have neither football nor church attendance to distract them, but a marginal purchase for most libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.