User:Simonevdw

Making is connecting Simone van de Werken - 0894623@hr.nl

Notes on texts

The meaning of making: philosophies of craft

What is craft?

Craft might suggest the careful work of a woodcarver of ceramicist, a skilled practice of making beautiful objects. The term might be associated with traditional and rather twee items wich you might have seen on sale at craft fairs, or it might suggest a newer, cool approach to making things yourself, as seen in the recent rise of knitting, craft fairs, DIY culture, and other trendy craft activities. The term ‘craft’ is further complicated by its relationship with art. Somehow the concepts are still separate:

Art tends to mean the truly creative transformation of ideas and emotions into visual objests. Craft having been shoved out of that space – ends up indicating the less prestigious production of carving or pots, by less creative people who just like doing it.

People see art as superior, and instead to regard its stance as unnecessarily pretentious and exclusive, and therefore rather silly, in comparison to the more earthy, engaged spirit of craft. There is still, of course, the problem that this may not be the majority or dominant view.

John Ruskin

Ruskin was extremely prolific. He is remembered primarily as an artist and art critic, and as a social thinker, but he also produced poetry and fiction, and wrote about architecture, geology, literature, science, and the environment. It is his ideas about art and society, and his critique of the dehumanized model of industrial production which we will focus on here. John Ruskin was not a central participant in the Arts and Crafts Movement, English or American, but was an inspirational harbinger of its coming and a major influence on its proponents. For example, William Morris, often called the father of the Arts and Crafts Movement, admired Ruskin and was strongly influenced by his writings and social commentaries. Years after being introduced to Ruskin's works, Morris recalled it and stated, "To some of us when we first read it, now many years ago, it seemed to point out a new road on which the world should travel."

In truth, the mid 19th century writings of John Ruskin laid the foundations for many of the craftsman style values of the Arts and Crafts Movement. His writings predicted and commented on social issues such as environmentalism, sustainability, craftsmanship, and fulfilling labor. Most importantly for the Arts and Crafts Movement to come, Ruskin called for a revival of traditional craftsmanship and a return to the spiritual values of handcrafting from natural materials.

Two of his most influential works, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1851-53, a trilogy), addressed the subjects of nature, art, society, and skilled craftsmanship, and attacked division of labor (industrialized workforce specialization) and industrial capitalism. Such topics are truly close to the heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

William Morris

It was this emphasis on the power of individually crafted work which caught the attention of the young William Morris. As we have seen, this approach, suggested by Ruskin, is not (simply) a celebration of individualistic ‘making things’ but rather has profound social implications. Like Ruskin, he felt that workers should be able to take pleasure from making beautiful things from the finest materials.

Interesting point for my research: The notion that one arm of science and technology should be used to fix the environmental degradation caused by the other arm remains controversial, but Morris was 140 years ahead of the current debates.

The artist should be humble, engaged with the everyday, and willing to make things themselves – to get their hands dirty, as it were. As Morris puts it: ‘The best artist was a workman still, the humblest workman was an artist.

The invention of craft

Craft's has a reputation as something that has always been with us. People have always been making things, from this perspective craft is intrinsic to what it is to be human. Industry is the more steady performance of this. Industry is seen as a tide of depersonalization. That is why some people believe we have to go back to the times of craft, were products were made in special ways and its organic role in society. This is the usual way of looking at it.

This text says that craft itself is a modern invention. It is something that came with the industrial revolution. Craft was not a static backdrop against which industry emerged like a figure from the ground. Rather the two were created alongside each other. Artisans were drummed out of work by machines, with tragic consequences for the experience of the maker and the quality of the things they produced. William Morris had ideas based on the philosophy of John Ruskin and Karl Marx, were formative to an international craft revival to undo the pernicious effect of industrialization. Morris and his followers saw themselves as the people that would help to restore the position of craft mans to their historical place so they would be masters of there own hands again.

There is just as much willful blindness among the craft reforms as their opponents.

Acceptera craft

We often believe there to be an important difference between handcraft and industry in the character and sentimental value of their products. We then readily equate handcraft with the handmade and industry with the machine-made. It is obvious that this is not correct.

We judge a product on the following way: is it handmade of machine made? Is it beautiful is it ugly? Is it good or bad quality? We are undoubtedly influenced by the change in opinion toward the outcomes of industry and handcraft that was propagated by Ruskin and Morris during the second half of the 19th century. Handcraft became a competition for the industry. Ruskin believed about craft that only handcrafted methods were fit for human beings, and only handcraft could create harmonious individuals. People thought industrial stud looked cheap, and people did not want cheap stuff in their homes.

This was a false generalization, both machines and human hands can produce high quality goods. We often still attempt to give factory goods the appearance of handcrafts. This is is then often called ‘antiques’. The production of ‘oriental’ objects has gone the same. If you travel you will be able to buy factory made crafts. Costumers value quality, so they make imitations.

Is there a dividing line between industry and handicraft? Working with hands and the use of machines alternates in both handicraft and industrial production. The use off machines tells nothing about whether a enterprise should rightly be classified as industry or handicraft.

What is industry then? The industrial process involves, as a rule, the production of a series of standardized, interchangeable parts assembled as units trough the rational decision of labor with as few different actions performed by hands as possible.

What is handicraft? Handicraft is usually executed on commission and cater to a relatively small group of costumers. They attempt to satisfy the specific desire of individual purchasers. They generally produce unique objects, which differ from each other in their dimensions, form and use.

You can divide all goods in everyday needs and luxuries. But for every person this will be different. Off everyday house hold goods we think for example: they should be affordable and useful. We want to create objects that we can both feel attachment to and work well and beautifully. The obvious task for everyday things is to be of service. But we have shown more interest in appearance then efficiency. In this way the general public’s interest in good form has needs linked to goods intended for ostentatious display. Industry is not a place for making unique objects, handicraft is. Industry will make functional products

Why i am not a maker

Every once in a while, I am asked what I “make.” A hack day might require it, or a conference might ask me to describe “what I make” so it can go on my name tag. I’m always uncomfortable with it. I’m uncomfortable with any culture that encourages you take on an entire identity, rather than to express a facet of your own identity ("maker," rather than "someone who makes things"). But I have much deeper concerns. An identity built around making things—of being “a maker”—pervades technology culture. There’s a widespread idea that “People who make things are simply different [read: better] than those who don’t.” Making is not a rebel movement, scrappy individuals going up against the system. While the shift might be from the corporate to the individual (supported, mind, by a different set of companies selling a different set of things), it mostly re-inscribes familiar values, in slightly different form: that artifacts are important, and people are not.

I feel like i can identify with the article ‘Why I Am Not A Maker’ by Debbie Charchra. Maybe because i am studying to be a teacher just like she is. Most of the time i feel like i am more of an instructor than an actual maker.

Tools for change

We have considered the qualities of ‘making things’ and have found, amongst other things, that individually crafted items are expressive of a personality, and of a presence in the world; that everyday creativity is central to the health of a society; and that making and sharing your own things, rather than accepting mainstream manufactured or broadcast things, is positive in both political and emotional terms. The text says that the problem with schools is that they don't learn people how to think for themselves enough. They will make people believe that they are unable to do things for them selfs, which is untrue. This creates a double problem for the poor, who already experience a lack of power over their circumstances, but then, in addition, are schooled into a way of thinking which represents ‘a loss of personal potency’. They feel like there needs to be a new kind of schooling were people will learn things that they want to learn about.

A good educational system should have three purposes: it should provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and finally, furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known.

So conviviality is about being vigorously engaged in relationships, conscious of values and meanings; and it is about having the capacity to communicate yourself directly, and to create the things of your world yourself. Conviviality is therefore also represents the joyfulness with is so easily lost into systems and institutions nowadays.

Experiments

Etching

Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in the metal. I really wanted to try this method for a pretty long time, and i thought now was the perfect opportunity. It is a method of print making, but i feel like the copper plate itself is already very special. I love how the plates of old master pieces often still exist because the material will last very long.

History of the technique:

The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470–1536) of Augsburg, Germany. Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates (many of which still exist). Apart from his prints, there are two proven examples of his work on armour: a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid and a sword in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nuremberg. An Augsburg horse armour in the German Historical Museum, Berlin, dating to between 1512 and 1515, is decorated with motifs from Hopfer's etchings and woodcuts, but this is no evidence that Hopfer himself worked on it, as his decorative prints were largely produced as patterns for other craftsmen in various media.

The switch to copper plates was probably made in Italy, and thereafter etching soon came to challenge engraving as the most popular medium for artists in printmaking. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving where the difficult technique for using the burin requires special skill in metalworking, the basic technique for creating the image on the plate in etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, and are not without health and safety risks, as well as the risk of a ruined plate.

What i did:

Before i started i had to prepare my plate. I had to use fine steel wool and a piece of cloth and rub copper oil on to the plate till the surface was super shiny and smooth. With a hand file i beveled the edges of the plate. This is because otherwise the sharp edges can damage the paper when it goes trough the press. After that i degreased the plate. I did that with soy sauce and a piece of spunge. Then i washed the plate under running water, and put it in an oven for a few minutes to dry.

I first tried the basic method. I used wax to cover the plate, baked it in the oven and scratch that off. Then i had to soak the plate in acid so it was engraved because the parts that are not covered with wax will dissolve. I also used the dry needle / drypoint technique. This technique is closer to using a pencil than the other one is. The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master, a south German 15th-century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only. Among the most famous artists of the old master print Albrecht Dürer produced 3 drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving. Any sharp object can theoretically be used to make a drypoint, as long as it can be used to carve lines into metal. I just a nail that i attached to a piece of metal.

After this i off course printed my plate to see if i used the techniques in the right way. I covered the plate in ink and rubbed it in with a flat piece of newspaper. I placed damp paper on a cloth and took this trough the etching press.

Fruit and vegetable carving

The origins of fruit and vegetable carving are not known for sure. Some people believe it started in Japan in ancient times, others believe it to have begun in Sukothai, Thailand 700 years ago, while still others believe that fruit vegetable carving originated in the time of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906) and the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) in China.

Regardless of its origins, fruit and vegetable carving is flaunted in many different Asian restaurants, cruises, hotels, and other various places. In the mid 20th Century, the art of vegetable carving began to grow outside Asia. Since then other cultures have slowly come to appreciate the beauty and culture associated with the practice. Today, one can marvel at vegetable carving throughout the world.The products of fruit and vegetable carving are generally flowers or birds; however, the only limit is one’s imagination. The techniques of vegetable carving vary from person to person, as does the final result. Some carvings present more artistic detail, while others have simple, yet beautiful shapes. Vegetable carving is generally used as a garnish, but it can also be used for flower arranging.

The art of fruit carving uses many different tools, usually ordinary items but some specific to just fruit carving. All these tools give the artwork a different texture or help with its design. Some of the tools include:

Pen: to draw on the carving one wishes to make Carving Knife: most commonly used for giving the carving shape Peel Zester: this tool is used to create strips and grooves Melon Baller: can be used for a variety of fruit to add ball shaped fruit carvings to the display U shaped garnish tool: used to cut the outer layer of the fruit. This tool is used for fine detailed work. Many fruit carvers use this tool to create a pedals for a flower shape they are carving. V shaped formed cutter: is used in a similar way as the U shaped garnish tool but for more bigger carving ideas

What i did:

I carved in various fruit and vegetables with a linoleum carving tool. I like the fact that it is something made from an organic material that will not last long. By carving into it it will even be gone sooner. You could spend a lot of time in creating a very beautiful object, that will slowly but certainly disappear afterwards.