Traditional Craftsmanship
Traditional craftsmanship has become if not popular then definitely a more respected section of the artisan market than it might have been even twenty years ago. As someone who has recently decided to dive into all aspects of traditional craftsmanship in the bookbinding and stationery markets - here’s how I’ve noticed the relationship between heritage, craftsmanship and sustainability. And how neither can continue without the other.
Start At The Beginning
Before I go into this article, it is probably best to explain why I’m writing it. I’m writing it because I was - especially during my teen years - almost quite disdainful of anyone who wanted to make anything from hand - except for art. Who would want to make something from scratch when you could buy it for a lot less money, a lot less hassle and a lot less pretension? Or at least, I thought it was pretension. This mindset was perhaps something to do with being young, being stuck with the impression of 1970s news-reel footage of people dancing around in hessian, and also growing up in a country and society which a) imports most of it’s products b) is becoming more and more entrenched in capitalist consumerism and c) seems to consider itself better than others for these two points.
However as I got older I found the joy of handmade items more and more appealing. Not only did I like the idea of having something that was unique, but also something that was ethical. In the last decade the awareness of how products in mainstream markets are made has become common knowledge, and while most of us bury our heads and try to pretend that it’s not real and buying one thing isn’t really an issue, the feeling of guilt became more and more unbearable. So last year as well as leaving my corporate job, I also decided to leave as much consumerism behind as I was able to.
Going down the artisan path started a genuine and very passionate search into traditional craftsmanship. And before long I found myself knee deep in everything I had ever been curious in. And I found that it all came quite naturally, like putting on an old coat from a family member - it doesn’t necessarily fit perfectly but it fits and it smells familiar and you have all these old sepia memories.
I have found so many things on this path so far, and one of the most blatant and repetitive things has been the relationship between sustainability, heritage and craftsmanship. Because there is a relationship there. And the reason I am writing this article is because I want to highlight the importance of the symbiosis. One cannot survive without the other, and while we continue to purchase and hold the beliefs I held when I was a teenager we will lose this connection. We will also lose all connection to our environment, our heritage and our understanding of who we are as a species.
Timid Observations
I have always understood the importance of community in theory, but only when I became a full-time small business owner did I truly understand the necessity of the ‘village’ mentality. The mentality of, ‘I help you because you need me, and when I need help you will help me.’ It was something that again I had guffawed at, told myself how independent I was and believed that I could wear all hats, do all elements and be completely self-sufficient. And you can be, but even in self-sufficiency you are relying upon natural elements to sustain you.
Craftsmanship requires you to settle upon one element of your own unique skillset and to hone it. And then as well as creating pieces for profit, you also use it for the good of society, to help others where you can. To teach, to learn, to inspire, to be inspired. And in that one skill you will inevitably come up face to face with the materials that are needed to produce the end product.
Traditional craftsmanship and practices that incorporate traditional methods will - naturally - work closely with natural fibres and materials and the sources from which they come. You cannot be a bespoke carpenter without knowing exactly where the wood you are working with comes from, how it was treated, the way in which it was felled. Just as you cannot be a notebook maker and bookbinder without being fully aware of the paper you are using, the linen you are covering, the greyboard you are cutting.
I have come to observe that the more you work as an artisan using traditional methods of craftsmanship, the more likely you are to observe nature and - as a result - want to be ethical in your relationship with her. The best way to be ethical is of course through the materials you choose to use. And into this as well as an understanding of sustainability comes an understanding of heritage.
Traditional craftsmanship is a creator space which will inevitably bring you back to a heritage that you connect with. It may not be the heritage of your ancestors - but chances are you’ll find inside of the heritage of your trade a way to incorporate your own heritage. As we all tend to echo back to where our blood ties are rooted, even if we would like to move further away from it. And that inevitably will bring us back to looking at how our ancestors worked with the land, how traditional land practices moved with local craftsmanship. And how local craftsmanship impacted sustainability.
Compromise
Life is of course very different to how it was fifty, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years ago. Most of us are completely reliant on a system that has taken away our connection to natural cycles, natural production and an understanding of husbandry rather than control of the environments around us. Very few of us actually grow or rear our own food, even fewer are self-sufficient. Yet the power of a handmade object is still very strong, still revered as a skill.
So, in a society that favours convenience over ethics, (and as much as I know I should shun this, turning a tap at the end of a long day to get instant hot water and then open a pre-made bottle of bath bubbles into the steam and soak for forty minutes with a machine-made paperback between the bubbles really is bliss) how can we as artisans working with traditional methods of craftsmanship manage to continue a relationship with nature and the heritage of a community’s connection to the local land?
The more I think about it - and believe you me I have thought about it - the more I come to the conclusion that compromise is the way forward. We cannot stop the progress of technology, we cannot halt the evolution of the human race. All we can do is be aware of our own relationship to our immediate environment and the environment from which our materials are sourced. It is of course always preferable to make our own materials from scratch locally, but that is often not possible. So then it is a case of working with partners and third parties who hold the same ethics, who have the certifications which you deem to be appropriate. Moving out of the country to manufacturers and sources abroad only if absolutely necessary. Not from a point of being Conservative, but from a point of making everything as eco as possible. After all there is no point in saying your products are made in the UK if you insist on only sourcing materials from Taiwan.
Similarly as much as it is painful to know that every ten emails has the same carbon footprint as a plastic bag, we live in a commercial market where emails are an essential part of a business framework. So we must compromise. Only have one website, delete extra email addresses, be purposeful in our approach to communication. We may be too connected for our own wellbeing, but at least that means we are also open to more information than ever before.
A New Tradition
I mentioned at the beginning of this piece about community. Being so connected thanks to the internet means that not only are we more connected to others who specialise in our chosen fields, we are also connected to our impact as a collective on the environment.
And I will hasten to add, that the issue of the environment is not because of individuals. It never has been. Individual greed yes, but that individual greed has always been fuelled by the facade of a corporation.
In the communities of our ancestors, if someone was a prick and ate all the meat we would all know who did it, they would probably be sick and no one would want to share any of their own crops with them. Therefore they would probably either be shamed out of the community or left out to die. Nowadays thanks to a nice little web of nepotism, almost every single big company is connected to another. So no one is held accountable, no one is left out to fend for themselves, no one is shamed. The pool is far too big, and it is filled with sharks who simply do not care because they cannot feel the results of their actions.
As an artisan you can feel the direct connection between yourself and the land. You understand the consequence of the choices you make for your business and for your craft. Using materials that are cheap to source means that the quality of the finished product is less good, using material that has had a good life and been allowed to live it means usually that the finished product is better in all senses of the term.
The more artisans we have who work from traditional methods of craftsmanship the more individuals we will have on this Earth and across different communities who can value and understand the connection and importance of a relationship with the local landscape. If your livelihood is tied up in it you naturally want to nurture and conserve what you see, you do not want to tear it down to build a block of flats or a retirement village. So let us learn each other’s ways, let us understand the heritage of the land so that we may treat it as we ought rather than how we are told we should view it.
The land is a living thing, as is a craft, as is heritage. It is ever moving and changing and flowing with the elements that affect it. We are not doomed so long as there is craftsmanship and individuals willing to learn.