Notes on craftsmanship, its definition and purpose.
'Why promote craftsmanship?', and what makes it so important to me.
Craftsmanship is creating an object that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. It's drawing from natural geometric harmonies that look and feel right, giving the same mysterious pleasure we get listening to a nice piece of music played well, composed of harmonic chords and melodies.
It's a characteristic of humanity that shows positive progression and development. The ability to turn our backs on ego and status, and instead embrace knowledge and skill. Something that can't be bought or taken away, but only earned through a long process of hard work and dedication.
So, why is it important?
1.To me, it brings a sense of contentment, a place in the world with meaning, to learn from our ancestors - become excited as they did over our own personal discoveries. It's a place of self reflection, testing not only our abilities, but our patience and imagination.
2.To humanity, It brings emotion, whether joy, excitement or calm, it touches us and connects us to nature with material and design. We're given gratification through reliability in our homes and safety to our belongings.
3.To the world, in a time of materialistic consumption, well made items are one of the essential keys to a sustainable future. Craftsmanship does not compete with mass production. It is patient, careful and conscientious, exactly what this planet needs from us. That alone is reason enough for me to support it.
— Christopher J. Darby