What is it that carries your work? (surface pattern and form)

["Bob Hackett" <kinfolk@zzzzzzz>]

 I think we've touched on some points that really get to the heart of taking
your work to the next level.

The first is matching the most appropriate material and level of detail to
the intended piece.There's no sense putting all that time into intense
detail if it's overpowered by the texture or pattern in the raw material.The
maker needs at some point to decide what is going to be the focus of the
piece.Is it the material or the technique that the work is all about?
There needs to be a balance between background and focus or the work gets
lost and leaves the viewer overwhelmed and frustrated.One thing that's
worked for me is that extravagant  material works best with a simple form
and a simple background works best for detailed work.I've seen less than
satisfactory work sell merely because it was a large highly polished piece
of "WOW" stone or wood.
I work alot with burls(the growths that look like warts on trees) and always
keep my work simple when dealing with this highly figured wood.Other,less
skilled,craftsmen are selling poorly formed,badly finished,work just on the
power to the highly figured wood alone.We've all seen the same hold true
with stone.
Texture also comes into play here to.Polishing was mentioned and polishing
is a form of texture.Some of the most powerful pieces I've seen combine the
natural,rust stained,faces of  local basalt with a combination of tooled and
polished surfaces.The artist's intent was to have things appear as though
the work was encased in stone for centuries and then unearthed and finally
restored.It's call the "Emerging" series.The polished surfaces are there
just to represent the object encased in the stone that is being retrieved
bit by bit.
Texture is also easily and quickly overdone.Sometimes you don't realize it's
too much till it's too late.
Balance,it's all about balance.
Quick question.What is the purpose of texture?

As long as we're speaking about balance(at least one of us is),why do people
always seem to go for the biggest piece they can get from the raw material
instead of the best or most appropriate piece?How many times have you been
able to tell what size and shape piece the maker started out with?

Bob