The Value of Handmade
The Value of Handmade
Handmade has become ubiquitous within furniture making; to an extent, it is a valid adjective for the work people do. However, greater meaning lies within what we choose to connect with, and our relationship with the people and the materials that have created it. Now we have so many avenues to engage with ephemeral objects, we owe it to ourselves to ensure we sustain that relation. That is what should be at the core of handmade, not just a thinly veiled marketing grab.
It’s been recognized that, while mass-production has benefited the average consumer, there is an increasing desire for products that are unique; products that set their owners apart from others. Additionally, the desire to see the human touch behind a product is a characteristic that has become increasingly sought after by consumers. In the current human-less age of heightened automation, scalable production, and seemingly strengthened profits, there is still a gap in addressing the average human’s interest in seeing the evidence of humanity in their goods and services.
There will always be a need to have taste, but a handcrafted piece has an element of honesty and humanity unmatched by anything produced on mass, or even of a machine in general. Machines definitely have their place; even a skilled craftsman couldn’t do what they do without the assistance of such machines. But as with anything, it is important to know where the line is drawn. Having the experience and the knowledge to know when and where to place that line is critical to running a business, but also just to bring concepts and ideas into fruition.
But ultimately, the majority of a craftsman’s time is spent at the bench. It is where their passion lies, and as much as a craftsman (or an artist, or a designer), has been told that their business must lean toward machines and creating repetition in creativity and workmanship to survive, perhaps the market is asking the opposite: of continually trusting the craftsman’s hands as they carry their business. It shows in the small details, the bits that make it greater than the sum of its parts. The modern customer has been long drowning in a sea of sameness, and the market is looking for an antidote to this banality.
“When I can sit back and enjoy a finished piece, I have become external from it. I absorb myself in what I do; it often feels like you’re just a bit of conduit for an external force, which makes these subconscious movements and decisions for you. But a piece develops its own character and assertion over that; its own independence. That is ultimately the value of handmade: to ensure that discussion is carried from my hands into someone's home and life” (Ross Thompson).
Ross Thompson has built a reputation for being one of the leading bespoke furniture designers in the Melbourne and Surf Coast region. Weaving Japanese design principles with mid-century furniture design, Ross Thompson is able to create a piece that encapsulates an aesthetic sophistication, upheld by highly considered and skilled craftsmanship.
Contact Ross today to discuss your own commissioned furniture project.
Above photo taken by Jacob Connor