[Continued from yesterday…] I know, I know. I may be the ONLY person who finds this interesting. Nevertheless…. The final stages of the arts and crafts movement, and what came with that:
“A wish to undo subservience to the machine was agreed on, but the extent to which the machine should be set aside was debated within the Arts and Crafts movement throughout Europe. This conflict was exemplified in the German Arts and Crafts movement, by the clash between two leading figures of the Deutscher Werkbund (DWB), Hermann Muthesius and Henry Van de Velde. Muthesius, also head of design education for German Government, was a champion of standardization. He believed in mass production, in affordable democratic art. Van de Velde, on the other hand, saw mass production as threat to creativity and individuality.”
(this is from Wikipedia, I must admit, but a ton of sources that I found led me to this article – it’s a fantastic and thorough summary. Read more here)
aren't we all concerned about current threats to creativity and individuality? we live in a world where pieces come at us from so many angles - we have reused items, brand new, the daily capacity to create (through computers, and printers)... and yet, we rarely contemplate the fear of redundancy, and streamlining. it's real - the tension between the ideas of affordability (which i've spoken to, in relation to IKEA before), and ideas of the unique, the new, the created, the simple, the only, the individual. who is to say what is better?
people who know me, know that I'm drawn to the vintage aspect of DIY - the recreating of individualized memories in new (previously mass produced) items. I'm sure this has currents in recycling, and my insatiable need to not discard anything ("DON'T throw that out! I can use that… for something"), but it also has to do with memories, craftmanship, intention, and the ability to do it.
Green Jeans Brooklyn has a really good blog entry about the New Craft Movement, that I think we're seeing now.
“I think this has to do with the fact that people (including yours truly) who grew up in the 1970s are coming of age. We are around 30 and coming to a point in our lives when we're starting businesses and finding ways to broadcast our self-expression… [we] share a nostalgia for this era (no matter what their age). I also think this helps to explain the resurgence in craft that is brewing, as well. Those of us who were the kids of more progressively-minded parents in the '70s… grew up surrounded by these homespun handmade things. Nowadays, those of us who were kids then (and therefore not necessarily aware of what was going on) are getting married, starting families, and deciding how we want their lives to look. For a lot of us, this means making things with our hands. Maybe we've been making things consistently since we were young, or maybe we reconnected with handwork after 9/11, or maybe we just recently decided we wanted to sew skirts and knit ponchos for ourselves and our friends. In any case, some of us have gotten quite serious about our work and are now on the alternative craft fair circuit peddling our woodblock screen-printed avocado-colored totes and nappy knitted scarves and modified Vogue pattern aprons. We are literally hand-working through our 1970s nostalgia.”
as green jeans so eloquently says: “This may not be the whole story, but I'm sure it's part." Let’s be honest. I’ve been going homemade for awhile… but I never made a commitment to it. I still found myself buying things here and there.
Really? I don’t need to buy anything.
so then. the point of this all?
i'm pledging to buy homemade.
i was thrust into the handmade and creative market a couple of years ago, when i started working at the bead store - with the incredible alex, erin, mai-liis, missy, and susan. i do truly believe that this was the beginning of my throws into the creative side of my life. i don't think any of us truly appreciate how much our surroundings impact us - surrounding myself with these women (which i'm proud to say, i still am frequently), was the best thing that my creative side could have ever done. i was motivated to design more, to explore new ideas, and to absorb the creativity that they were sharing. the best part about being near creative people, is that we are all creative in our own ways... and those photographers, beaders, artists, dancers... they all push you into areas of your creativity that you may have never ever known existed.
i share company with amazing people, who i am constantly creatively inspired by. and i do this purposfully. i am dedicating my creative process to myself - to finally make a committment to allow myself to try things out for the first time. to actually give myself a chance. and if i fail - that's ok.
with such a great pool of places to purchase handmade online - etsy, big cartel; blog after blog after blog of DIYs (including this one, which i will DEFINITELY be doing - thanks to all my 'research' for this entry), and beautifully handmade crafts; and unlimited resources with which to find inspiration in art, people, places, and writing - tumblr, pinterest, weheartit, ... there's no excuse to shelter ourselves from the creativity that we all have. and we have it. all of us.
and so. when 20 best twenty initiaited this years 'go handmade' and 'handmade for the holidays'... it was my starting off point. the push i needed.
so. we're going handmade. for the year, and for the holidays.
i'm committing to handmade for myself. i'm committing to not buying jewelry, a sofa, or other things... because i'll be making them myself (yes. a sofa. yes. i am crazy). i'll be purchasing/trading all gifts this year... and i made the first step when i made my cood friend 3 sets of re:claim vintage cufflinks for his 30th birthday this year.
it's possible. and i'm doing it. and i challenge you all to do the same. if not all, then most - there is far too much creativity out there to ignore.
(and... just some places i got some thoughts from... again: torontocraftalert.ca/; www.artinfo.com/; greenjeansbrooklyn.blogspot.com/)
“A wish to undo subservience to the machine was agreed on, but the extent to which the machine should be set aside was debated within the Arts and Crafts movement throughout Europe. This conflict was exemplified in the German Arts and Crafts movement, by the clash between two leading figures of the Deutscher Werkbund (DWB), Hermann Muthesius and Henry Van de Velde. Muthesius, also head of design education for German Government, was a champion of standardization. He believed in mass production, in affordable democratic art. Van de Velde, on the other hand, saw mass production as threat to creativity and individuality.”
(this is from Wikipedia, I must admit, but a ton of sources that I found led me to this article – it’s a fantastic and thorough summary. Read more here)
aren't we all concerned about current threats to creativity and individuality? we live in a world where pieces come at us from so many angles - we have reused items, brand new, the daily capacity to create (through computers, and printers)... and yet, we rarely contemplate the fear of redundancy, and streamlining. it's real - the tension between the ideas of affordability (which i've spoken to, in relation to IKEA before), and ideas of the unique, the new, the created, the simple, the only, the individual. who is to say what is better?
people who know me, know that I'm drawn to the vintage aspect of DIY - the recreating of individualized memories in new (previously mass produced) items. I'm sure this has currents in recycling, and my insatiable need to not discard anything ("DON'T throw that out! I can use that… for something"), but it also has to do with memories, craftmanship, intention, and the ability to do it.
Green Jeans Brooklyn has a really good blog entry about the New Craft Movement, that I think we're seeing now.
“I think this has to do with the fact that people (including yours truly) who grew up in the 1970s are coming of age. We are around 30 and coming to a point in our lives when we're starting businesses and finding ways to broadcast our self-expression… [we] share a nostalgia for this era (no matter what their age). I also think this helps to explain the resurgence in craft that is brewing, as well. Those of us who were the kids of more progressively-minded parents in the '70s… grew up surrounded by these homespun handmade things. Nowadays, those of us who were kids then (and therefore not necessarily aware of what was going on) are getting married, starting families, and deciding how we want their lives to look. For a lot of us, this means making things with our hands. Maybe we've been making things consistently since we were young, or maybe we reconnected with handwork after 9/11, or maybe we just recently decided we wanted to sew skirts and knit ponchos for ourselves and our friends. In any case, some of us have gotten quite serious about our work and are now on the alternative craft fair circuit peddling our woodblock screen-printed avocado-colored totes and nappy knitted scarves and modified Vogue pattern aprons. We are literally hand-working through our 1970s nostalgia.”
 |
| image from weheartit.com/ |
Really? I don’t need to buy anything.
so then. the point of this all?
i'm pledging to buy homemade.
i was thrust into the handmade and creative market a couple of years ago, when i started working at the bead store - with the incredible alex, erin, mai-liis, missy, and susan. i do truly believe that this was the beginning of my throws into the creative side of my life. i don't think any of us truly appreciate how much our surroundings impact us - surrounding myself with these women (which i'm proud to say, i still am frequently), was the best thing that my creative side could have ever done. i was motivated to design more, to explore new ideas, and to absorb the creativity that they were sharing. the best part about being near creative people, is that we are all creative in our own ways... and those photographers, beaders, artists, dancers... they all push you into areas of your creativity that you may have never ever known existed.
 |
| image from weheartit.com/ |
with such a great pool of places to purchase handmade online - etsy, big cartel; blog after blog after blog of DIYs (including this one, which i will DEFINITELY be doing - thanks to all my 'research' for this entry), and beautifully handmade crafts; and unlimited resources with which to find inspiration in art, people, places, and writing - tumblr, pinterest, weheartit, ... there's no excuse to shelter ourselves from the creativity that we all have. and we have it. all of us.
and so. when 20 best twenty initiaited this years 'go handmade' and 'handmade for the holidays'... it was my starting off point. the push i needed.
i'm committing to handmade for myself. i'm committing to not buying jewelry, a sofa, or other things... because i'll be making them myself (yes. a sofa. yes. i am crazy). i'll be purchasing/trading all gifts this year... and i made the first step when i made my cood friend 3 sets of re:claim vintage cufflinks for his 30th birthday this year.
it's possible. and i'm doing it. and i challenge you all to do the same. if not all, then most - there is far too much creativity out there to ignore.
(and... just some places i got some thoughts from... again: torontocraftalert.ca/; www.artinfo.com/; greenjeansbrooklyn.blogspot.com/)