As the guy who posted said self-critique, I thought I'd chime in here. I suspect that to a certain degree, it probably makes a bit of a difference with where you are in terms of your pipe making. In my case, I'm still very new to all this (though I'd made 15 kit-pipe lollypop warclubs dating back as early as 1999, I learned very little until I bit the bullet and started making them from scratch and indeed making the billiard in question), so for me, part of the self-critique is that I want to communicate instances in which I know where a line should have been but don't have the skills to execute it effectively, as opposed to issues with the pipe that I'm not seeing. Not to beat a dead horse but I'm very much still in the "training my eyes as much as my hands" stage - so in providing that self-critique, my goal is exactly as you said - trying to spare reviewers the trouble of pointing out the obvious stuff I do see (though of course I always appreciate specifics about how to handle those flaws in future efforts), while also helping me learn where a line should be or how something should have been executed or things I need to pay more attention to in the future.PeskyPrussian wrote:Whenever I complete a pipe (at least at this point) I perform as thorough a self-critique as possible, recording every little aesthetic or functional detail that I can improve upon the next time. My initial impression would be to provide this self critique along with the PITH pipe when we perform the swaps, as some people do when they post their stuff to the gallery. I feel like providing a self critique on an online forum helps to orient reviewers to what the maker does or doesn't see so they know what level of critique to provide.
However, someone brought up a good point on the facebook side of the forum that perhaps providing a self critique in a situation like this is not conducive to an independent review. It might color the impression or cast the discussion in a direction that the critic wouldn't otherwise go. Anyone have any opinions regarding this or any other considerations about the pipe swapping?
Thanks!
I think that the type/shape of the pipe probably comes into play as well - once one's technical skills improve enough that one is able to put the lines exactly where they were intended to go at the outset, you can make a bit of an "I meant to do that" defense (I know that's getting into touchy territory) - which is why the "make 1000 billiards" advice gets repeated so often - in that sense, there's very little wiggle room or personal say in where a line should or should not be, so the critique can be mostly on execution of a mostly-agreed-upon goal. One thing that I've really loved in reading critiques on this forum is that people do tend to adjust their nitpickiness to the level of the pipe, and even pipes that look like borderline masterpieces to me generally receive constructive criticism to some degree - it's just the specificity of that criticism that changes with the level of the pipe. And again in my case, I'm still very much learning where the target is that I'm aiming for, so heavier critique helps.
Now, all that being said - I'm hoping to feel like I'm at a level to participate in next year's PITH (likely depending on shape/feature and whether it's "a little outside my comfort zone" or "completely new thing I'm not ready for yet"). When I do, I'll likely write and include as detailed and exhaustive self-critique as I can, but perhaps I'll include it with the pipe with the intentions of having it read after the recipient arrives at his or her own conclusions. My job is pretty heavily graphic-design based, so I'm pretty used to pouring my heart and soul into a creative endeavor only to have it get picked apart (and subsequently shat upon, in some cases
), and in my experience it seems to sting a lot less if I've already ripped most of that bandaid off myself beforehand.
