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Date: March 05, 2007 at 11:07:19
From: ken, [pool-70-20-4-145.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: RE The word Space vs the word Hollow .
In Striper moon I wrote this simple explanation of what space within a a fly does. I rewrote it in a Perfect fish.
The idea of space within a fly is fundamental to the idea of a flatwing. I achieved that result through flaring the bucktail and limiting the mass of the fly. I called that sparse.
I did not use a reverse tie to achieve this effect.
That method is also an option.
I prefer the flaring method to create that space in flies. It is just my preference. I used the term space I did not call the space by another name.
People can and will develop many ways to achieve this result. There are endless ways of doing things well.
Perhaps someday there will be an "Empty," fly.
The Vacuum fly, the invisible fly, the Void fly - break out the thesaurus and let the name games begin. To me it is all silly.
The idea behind flatwings is creating space within the fly. HOw anyone soes it is perfect for them.
The word Hollow is a good description of space. Bob calls his use of space by the name of his fly pattern. It is a good description.
Blending bucktail of different color is also a method of adding texture and the appearance of life within a fly. That method using color is called impressionism
in fine art painting. It is not a new idea. I have been using it in flies for decades as have others.
There is nothing new about any of this.
This quote is from the third paragraph on page 89 of a Perfect Fish. It is also in Striper Moon.
I wrote this to explain the idea of space as a necessity, actually as a material or a mechanical apprach in fly tying to achieve a certain result (space, hollowness) whcih adds a lifelike quality.
I have been tying this way for decades. Space, (hollowness) in a fly was not invented by me nor was the method I use to achieve it invented by me.
I just just flare the bucktail.
It is fast easy and mechanically effective for me.
Nothing more than that. I do not call it by any tarademark name. It is an ancient fly tying mechanic that I use when tying a fly with space within it. It does not equal the theory of relativity that changed our understanding of the world and I did not put my name on it.
I just called the effect I was creating, "Space."
HEre is how I described the idea many years ago.
"This approach to tying flies is not better than any other, it is a position that allows a minimalist view of fly tying to have a structure to create flies through elimination. It is similar to drawing a tree by drawing in the sky which surrounds it rather than drawing the leaves. The focus is on the space not on the leaves. This creates an image very different than one which is fixed only on the tree and disregards the surroundings. The image produced has space within and one can feel the sunlight and wind moving through, because there is room for them to be there. I try to replace every visual focal point with vagueness, for instance: silhouette instead of solid mass, length rather than thickness, transparency over opaqueness and SPACE within the fly for the natural movements of materials by the water. Instead of constructing a solid sculptural replica or a soft statue, I try to fashion a flexible mobile form; one that the fish can interpret as being alive because it is created to act and acts as if it were alive.
What this approach to tying does is make it possible to create a fly that swims and moves, that changes color with each and every motion and vibrates and flashes with the illusion of life from within.
By choosing to diminish focal points rather than emphasizing them in effect you eliminate the possibility of a visual stimulation to the fish that he has to say yes to in order to strike. Because the fly acts naturally and doesn't appear different than what the fish expects, he eats it.
Flies tied with these insights produce results that are truly amazing at first. Fish do not strike or hit them.
They do, in fact, eat them. They are not fooled into overcoming their caution or mood by them.
They accept them as food. They do not have to say yes, they already have."
How one achieves that space is up to the individual tyer. The idea is space. Form follows function. Flaring bucktail achieves that function perfectly.
Reverse tying achieves it also.
Each method has its positive qualities and its negative qualities.
The flies are tied to achieve space within.
The Razzle Dazzle is ordinarily tied with flared bucktail with a long flowing collar. It achieves its goal.
Space within a fly is not a new idea.
The Soft hackle is an old fly that uses this structure and those flies were invented or at least written about by Dame Juliana in the late fourteenth Century.
The Razzle Dazzle uses this idea and when I first wrote about it I gave credit to Dame Juliana for the idea. I said and still do (and published that statement first in the Rhody flyrodders newsletter in 1989 I believe and in several articles in magazines and in a hand out flyer that I gave away at seminars in the early nineties) that the Razzle Dazzle is nothing more than a large soft hackle streamer.
That idea and name are now attached to another tyers fly but the Razzle Dazzle is rooted in that 600 year old idea.
How the fly is tied and named is personal.
The idea of space within a fly is not personal and cannot be claimed by anyone.
The idea of space nomatter what a flys name is; is a part of our fly tying tradition.
Posted with TalkShop version 2.71-8
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