There was a time in the world when everything that
was used was made by someone known to the user: the bread by the
baker, the shoes by the cobbler, the pans by the tinker,the cloth
by the weaver, the pots by the potter. We have turned it all around – the industrial revolution started with machines imitating what had been made by hand, to relieve us of the “burden” of work. The standard has shifted too, and now we judge handmade against what is made by the machine. Examine your daily life and see how many things that you use are actually made by a real person. A tool in the kitchen, a shawl or quilt, a mug or bowl, table or chair, a jacket or a pair of shoes? ( Third world sweatshop labor counts as real people, but do you really want to support that kind of industry?) This also opens the question of art or craft? Art is beautiful, uplifting to one's soul. Craft is another kind of beauty, attached to this world, down to earth, no less soulful. As I have worked in craft, I have come to see it as the “art of the everyday”. A beautiful handmade thing to use for the most mundane purpose: to drink your coffee, eat your oatmeal, cook the casserole. Gibran writes: “work is love made visible”.
Whenever I use something that has been handmade, I think that somewhere
in the world is a person who was thinking, dreaming, hoping as they
made this, and I am connected to them in a spiritual way.
Machines can make some wonderful things, but a person can always make it real. Revolution means a complete cycle, to turn around. Be a revolutionary! Buy handmade!