The swing, and the look, and the speed, of the Mark I eyeball travelling across the surface of a newly designed piece of furniture is controlled entirely by you the designer. By rhythm, I don't just mean great sweeping arcs, but also little tiny mouldings and great wide flat surfaces. Everything, all the facets of surface articulation and decoration are formed by your capacity and wish to create movement and rhythm within your new piece of furniture.

Let's consider for a moment how the eye moves across a surface. It may travel from left to right or up and down. Usually it moves across the widest distance first but that doesn't matter. What matters are the intervals within that surface. These intervals may be made up of the figuring of the timber, the styles of a pair of doors, the raising and fielding of a panel or a little moulding worked on the very edge of the piece. Apart from the figuring of the timber, all of these are forms of surface articulation that draw lines on that surface, that cast shadow or create zingy little highlights. How does your eye move across these intervals? Are the intervals or distances between these elements varied or are they consistent? Does the eye go bump, bump, bump, bump, bump or does it go tiddly tump tump tip tip? Think of it from the point of view of the viewer. Would your eyeball like to be bored by a steady monotonous progression or would it like to be intrigued by a design that carefully chose the relationship between the width of the door frames, the width of the fieldings and the panels, the exact way the raise of the panel cast a little dark shadow, the carefully chosen figuring of the panels, all combining together to give a surface that interested the eyeball and controlled the way it went across the surface in a rhythmical and pleasurable way.

Think of the intervals within your surface as notes within a musical score. Do they form a group of notes that would tickle the fancy of Paul McCartney or are they just a boring old group of notes. This game is one of the most enjoyable and fun parts of furniture making so it's essential that it is taken in this spirit the spirit of joyful play. If it becomes laboured and fevered and beset with anxiety then the rhythms and movements within your furniture will reflect that. Enjoy yourself, have a bit of fun. Remember that creative work is the closest that one can get to play without one becoming a 4-year old all over again.

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