{"id":453,"date":"2014-02-09T21:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/09\/hand-made-2\/"},"modified":"2014-02-09T21:41:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T21:41:00","slug":"hand-made-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/hand-made-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Hand-made?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div>\nThe Great Controversy- \u201cHand-made or Machine-Made\u201d <\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nLast week I began to write my blog on the question of hand<br \/>\nversus machine made products.&nbsp; I then<br \/>\ngot distracted by writing a review of Mary Schoeser\u2019s book, \u201cTextiles\u201d.&nbsp; I promised to return to the original subject<br \/>\nthis week.<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nBefore I begin my thoughts on the subject, I wish to correct<br \/>\na fundamental error, that is, the notion that products<br \/>\nlabeled \u201chand- made\u201d are made entirely by hand.&nbsp; Such labels lead us to assume this to be true, but I assure you<br \/>\nthis has never been the case.&nbsp; Since the<br \/>\nappearance of our very distant cousin, \u201cHomo habilis\u201d or \u201chandy man\u201d, man has<br \/>\nused simple tools to assist with tasks. These tools gradually became more<br \/>\ncomplex and man began employing simple machines such as the pulley, lever and<br \/>\nscrew to complete his work.&nbsp; Webster\u2019s<br \/>\ndictionary describes simple machines as those \u201cdevices that transmit or change<br \/>\nthe application of energy, such as the lever, the wheel and screw\u2026\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nLooking at early textile history, we must consider the use<br \/>\nof machines.&nbsp; Webster again defines a<br \/>\nmachine as \u201c a structure consisting of a framework and various fixed and moving<br \/>\nparts, for doing some kind of work\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>\nSo how about a loom?&nbsp;<br \/>\nFrom the most simple device to&nbsp;<br \/>\nmodern power looms, does this not apply?&nbsp; Or take the spinning wheel, you get my point.&nbsp; When a sweater is said to be entirely hand-<br \/>\nmade does that mean the wool was hand-sheered, hand-spun by drop spindle,<br \/>\nhand-plied, hand-dyed ?&nbsp; Of course<br \/>\nnot.&nbsp; Even&nbsp; the most creative craftsperson takes advantage of electric shears<br \/>\nand a wheel, while most knitters rely on purchased fibers, whether they then<br \/>\ndo their own spinning and dyeing or purchase skeins of ready to use wool. And<br \/>\nwhat of purchased synthetic yarns?&nbsp;<br \/>\nAnother example is to refer to hand-made quilts.&nbsp; I made many quilts, but I did not gin my own<br \/>\ncotton fiber, spin and dye it, weave it into cloth. Some quilts I hand- pieced<br \/>\nor appliqu\u00e9d, others I used a most useful device, my sewing machine.&nbsp; Therefore, I plead my case that we must<br \/>\nrethink our terminology.&nbsp; Perhaps a more<br \/>\naccurate term would be \u201chand-crafted\u201d or \u201cartisan \u2013made\u201d and instead of<br \/>\n\u201cmachine-made\u201d we could refer to those products as having been<br \/>\n\u201ccommercially-manufactured\u201d.<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nNow to our original question of comparing \u201chand-crafted\u201d and<br \/>\n\u201ccommercially-manufactured\u201d products, specifically, textiles.&nbsp; Can we agree that much depends upon<br \/>\nquality?&nbsp; I have encountered, as have<br \/>\nyou, many outstanding textiles created by the most skilled and imaginative<br \/>\nartists with considerable talent.&nbsp; On<br \/>\nthe other side of the spectrum, I have seen some poorly constructed<br \/>\nattempts.&nbsp; Modern technology has<br \/>\ncontributed so very much to the fields of design, weaving and printing.&nbsp; Modern workshops and factories can produce<br \/>\naesthetically acceptable materials or, because the managers have not maintained<br \/>\ntheir machinery nor properly trained their workers, produce poor-quality goods<br \/>\nwith mis-matched patterning and obvious defects.<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nI believe it comes done to the end-use of the textile.&nbsp; In a perfect world, unique goods of the<br \/>\nhighest quality would be available to all at a reasonable price.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, no one has ever implied we live in<br \/>\na perfect world.&nbsp; I believe you should<br \/>\nbuy the best quality merchandise you can comfortably afford, whether it is<br \/>\ntextiles or pots and pans or a living room sofa.&nbsp; Reason dictates that there is a difference between the purchase<br \/>\nof a quilt which is to become a family heirloom and a comforter for your four<br \/>\nyear old\u2019s bed.&nbsp; Your tween daughter may<br \/>\nthink purple carpeting is rad this year and next year it is an entirely<br \/>\ndifferent story.&nbsp; <\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\nBut just because we do not always purchase museum-quality<br \/>\ntextiles for daily use does not mean we cannot appreciate their beauty and the<br \/>\ncomplexity of their construction.&nbsp; Today<br \/>\nthere are dozens of publications available to increase our knowledge of<br \/>\ntextiles, classes in design, museum lectures on their collections.&nbsp; When I worked at a museum back east we were<br \/>\ntaught that information leads to understanding and with understanding we learn<br \/>\nappreciation.&nbsp; Developing an appreciation<br \/>\nfor textile-art (and I consider all textiles, art) &nbsp;would be a very worthwhile resolution for this and every new year.<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Great Controversy- \u201cHand-made or Machine-Made\u201d Last week I began to write my blog on the question of hand versus machine made products.&nbsp; I then got distracted by writing a review of Mary Schoeser\u2019s book, \u201cTextiles\u201d.&nbsp; I promised to return to the original subject this week. Before I begin my thoughts on the subject, I&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}