Evaluating: The Critique in the Studio Workshop

Featured in the February 2008 issue of Woodwork magazine (see below), Evaluating explores the why of making for woodworkers. In his foreword, Edward Cooke (Professor of Art, Yale University) says, "Evaluating: The Critique in the Studio Workshop provides a way to enter into a full examination of an object's meaning, from conception to assessment."
These books are numbered and signed by the author.

Review of Evaluating: The Critique in the Studio Workshop
excerpted from a review by Betty Scarpino in American Woodturner magazine, spring 2009:

“In Hogbin's introduction to Evaluating: The Critique in the Studio Workshop he says that this book is “a search for what constitutes a good idea.” He goes on to pose questions such as, Why does one thing look better than another? How do other people see things? What makes a “good” design?

Hogbin intentionally uses the word “evaluating” rather than “critiquing,” based on how the definitions of those words relate to our process of making things. He initially examines four objects by asking a series of questions. I found his questions and the answers enlightening and thought provoking.”

Evaluating objects, as opposed to critiquing or judging them, is not the norm in our field of woodturning. I believe studying Hogbin's process would be of help to anyone who desires to look deeper into their own making of objects. Hogbin provides a number of evaluations as examples with drawings of objects made by woodturners such as Virginia dotson, John Jordan, Al Stirt and Michael Shuler.

This slim volume is an intellectual book that I found challenging at times but the prose settled into language I could easily understand and enjoy. I highly recommend Evaluating: The Critique in the Studio Workshop.”