The Craftsman
One of the joys of having no watchable TV means that you are
constantly straining to find new input.
Friends of mine in N Ireland were almost unique in having no TV and
their home was such a lovely sanctuary filled with music and books in
piles. I remember most of all their
sensitively and spirituality.
Interested in everything from art to science, travelling to music it was
like bathing in a different atmosphere.
Here, on Malta, I found a pile of old Economists from three years ago and
am devouring them. Find the economic
predictions interesting and at times have to stop myself chortling at the
self-satisfied smugness of financial experts.
With the benefit of hindsight much of their insights come across as the
ramblings of smug enthusiastic schoolboys.
But then again when you have the luxury of knowing what actually
happened then predictions can seem all too flawed. You find yourself suddenly doubting the assumed wisdom of these
so-called experts. So it is nice
reading about something that perversely keeps its integrity despite the passage
of time. It is an obituary about Alan
Peters a furniture maker from England whose love for his profession comes
through in his art.
He handled wood as a lover and his dedication to arts and
crafts was as natural to him as breathing.
He claimed a perfect drawer had to slide in on a cushion of air, and
when pulled out had to cause the other drawers to retract, very slightly, into
the almost airtight case. He stroked
wood and understood it, claiming that reclaimed Victorian wood was ideal as
drawer sides as it was as stable as it ever was going to be, while solid sweet
smelling cedar of Lebanon was perfect for the drawer bottom. But his desire was always to make an honest
and simple piece, one he could put his name to. I knew nothing about his work but the more I read about the arts
and crafts movement the more noble and inspiring it seemed. Especially, compared to those seedy
economists. Even their attitude to work
raised my spirits, here is a quote by William Morris from an address at the
Annual Meeting of the School of Science and Art, The Wedgwood Institute,
Burselm, 13th October, 1881
“I
know by my own feelings and desires what these men want, ...employment which
would foster their self-respect and win the praise and sympathy of their
fellows, and dwellings which they could come to with pleasure, surroundings
which would soothe and elevate them; reasonable labour, reasonable rest. There
is only one thing that can give them this -- art.”
Given present day working conditions that much of the world
slogs under this seems aspirational indeed.
Note the date, it would appear that those in the arts and crafts field
got off to a head start on the rest of us! Doesn't it make you want to take up a hammer and chisel in a quiet
workroom with the smell of fresh wood surrounding you? But, perhaps what I like most about this
profession is the results. Your breath
is taken away by the simple elegant honesty of their workmanship. Here is no sleight of hand or sales talk the
pieces speak for themselves. They speak
of the artist that made them, their integrity and passion. Alan Peters, learned his trade as an apprentice
to purists like Edward Barnsley, who spurned power tools of any sort. So, perhaps, this is how excellence is
attained, it is built on the shoulders of other quiet giants.
“Arts crafts and sciences uplift the world of being and are
conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man’s life and a ladder
for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone.”
― Bahá'u'lláh
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