Here's a third blog post Cindy and I wrote together. With how accessible and inexpensive items are, we have lost some of the value of something handmade.
"Today, we live in a heavily manufactured society. Millions of identical products are stamped out to look and function exactly the same as the product before it and the product after it.
In several respects, its great- millions of decently priced items are right at our fingertips. However, we have lost a sense of uniqueness and the value of the handmade item.
This particular dining table is made over seas and every layer of finish is applied by hand- no wonder it takes several months to get! But the customization options and handmade qualities make this a one-of-a-kind piece you won't find in any ordinary furniture store.
Because my team and I design specially for each individual client, every job is unique, every day is different and every end result is special. But one-of-a-kind design means that there is a lot of human elements involved:
*A faux finisher hand painting a finish on a wall
*A piece of furniture made by a single person
*Hand painted art, blown glass, or handmade baskets
*Tile patterns that are designed to look like art
*Upholstery finished by a specialist with custom fabric and trim selections
*Window treatments sewn by hand
All of these human elements add their own character that will never be created exactly the same again. By selecting these items and using artists and expert craftsman, products don’t look like they’ve rolled out of the manufacturer’s warehouse- there are some degrees of human quality.
When an item is handmade, an unusual corner here or a splotch of paint there doesn’t necessarily mean it is damaged. In Chinese calligraphy, the painter purposefully adds an error to remind everyone that a human created it. It most handmade products, there are human ‘errors’ involved but many times, it’s those characteristics that make something so special."
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