craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege, and quality

and a panda might eat it

Eat it while shitting at the same time. Disgusting creatures.

not enough energy in it iirc? have to eat it continuously, hence the eating/shitting thing. and I think I have existential crises. imagine trying to winnow meaning from that fucked up reductive mechanic.

no wonder they struggle to bother with reproduction, can't imagine that panda teenagers have mcuh to be thankful for- and it's not like they can go any gother

It's almost like the plankton feeding of the terrestrial arena, except not graceful and apparently incredibly tedious and fucking gross.

http://cassch.in/brooklyn/

pretty funny/well-executed even though the joke is a little played

Lol so after posting abt my bamboo iPhone case last Friday I was like oh fuck it might as well try it on, and now I kind of love it and have not had it off since. I left out the most important thing before which is that the back side is taken up entirely by a laser etched US flag.

This seems worth discussing, although I wish it was a little more developed and longer:
http://www.brooklyntheborough.com/2013/10/the-mallification-of-brooklyns-creative-makers/

Oh, here's an article on what it was responding to, for context:
http://hyperallergic.com/88183/blessed-are-the-makers-the-rise-and-fall-of-3rd-ward/

IDK if there's a non-critical craftsmanship thread but I guess I'll post this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsIo57pH-pA

My parents are there right now! Sending to them.

We had a neon sign made for our wedding from this husband of a co-worker:

http://419neon.com/

He does really good work. The hipster brooklyn artisinal neon place is here:

http://www.litebriteneon.com/

It's in the Old American Can Factory which now has a Whole Foods across the street at the corner of 3rd and 3rd in Brooklyn. I used to work at a letterpress shop across the hall. I'd walk by and see a neon sign on the wall that just said SYD BARRETT. That building would pretty much make this thread's head explode.

Don't remember if I plugged it here, by my contribution so craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege, and quality is here:

http://www.sheffieldproduct.com/

meant to comment on the neon sign stuff, as I'd seen that interesting mini-documentary and been to the neon sign boneyard in vegas in the space of a couple of weeks. there couldn't have been a better introduction to vegas than a history told through its discarded neon signs.

couple of things, defining craftspeople away from western bourgeois microindustries -

one is the political and social importance of the craftsman in Gaza (low levels of technical infrastructure, area in need of constant repair), the role of craftsmen in maintaining and improving Gaza's military capability, and the successful mobilisation of the craftsman by Hamas. The Yorkshire Ranter touches on this here. (and has several interesting pieces on how military logistics define the recent intensification of conflict here and here.)

In the Gazan context, the question might be “how much of the work needs a real craftsman, and how much can be done by an underemployed 19-year old who may also be the one to fire it?”, followed by “which of those two is more likely to vote Hamas?” Siege is a fundamentally economic form of warfare; the Israelis are besieging Gaza, and the Gazans are trying to impose a counter-siege (John Kerry wasn’t entirely wrong). As always, it requires the political mobilisation of the skilled on both sides.

The Israelis reckon that the production is organised in craft workshops, about 70 of them, with about 250 employees, i.e about four employees per business. If you assume that each shop is run by a craftsman, this is quite a skill-dense process. That said, this 2009 Der Spiegel piece by a reporter who actually witnessed rocket manufacturing seems to suggest a more informal process, more closely linked to the launch team, although it also identifies that an apprenticeship career path exists or existed. Now that’s interesting!

second, was reading a UN report on Somali/Horn of Africa piracy recently - they have three models of piracy: the artisanal scheme, low level, self-funded piracy, the co-operative scheme (an extension of the artisanal scheme, and usually funded by a committee of financiers), and the individualistic scheme (where the whole is more controlled by a single financier rather than the participants, who resemble a well-ordered militia).

The artisanal Scheme
Not all pirate operations are part of a wider syndicate. For instance, some “ama- teur” pirates have been seen operating in the Gulf of Aden (UNODC 2011a). It is not known what proportion of pirate activities are being sponsored in this way. These operations are of a lower scale and are mainly composed of members of the same family or relatives who share the cost of preparing the operation, either by bringing money or instruments, such as weapons, or a ladder, for instance (Hansen 2012; UNODC 2011a). The cost of such an operation is estimated to be no more than US$300 (Hansen 2012), and its success rather limited. The return on investment is proportionate to the original investment, based on the ransom received and after all costs have been deducted.

(Somali piracy itself has declined significantly in recent years, with piracy having shifted over to the west cost of the continent aiui).

finally, dan - that stuff looks great!

great, ferociously interesting post. more please.

cheers imago, they're placeholders for further reading as much as anything else - the Yorkshire Ranter pieces are well worth reading tho. For the moment should just note that excerpt came from a World Bank report, not a UN report.

Excellent post and very apt choice of thread, Mr. Fizzles T. C. The importance of craft emerges more prominently as available capital recedes, but even in a heavily capitalized venture it's always there, even if it is mostly sunken from view.

http://i.imgur.com/S79bUfd.gif

jfc

support craftsmanship, or at least give me a sliver of a chance at become a craftsman, and becoming one full time. Vote for my letterpress business here:

https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/business/detail/52517

congrats on your wedding

thanks! 6 months this past weekend.

http://www.artshub.co.uk/job/london/visual-artists/apprentice-to-globe-makers-190996

http://www.bellerbyandco.com/index.php/globes.html

so perfect

http://www.remadeco.org/

amazing

Kevin Faul
December 6, 2013 at 7:05am
Do you guys ship overnight? I have a hell of a clog going on here and I'm scared to use this plunger of questionable origin under my sink. Please let me know asap
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Re Made Company Yes. Definitely. We can help you out with that clog.

I initially didn't notice that the NYT article wasn't actually on the NYT website and I was reading through getting more and more confused

I thought this was interesting, even if it seems like an inevitable result:
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/etsy-not-good-for-crafters

http://thebrotique.co.uk/collections/manhampers

Designed for the man who needs everything, our exclusive range of manhampers are designed to make gift giving easier than ever before. Build your own or choose from one of our carefully designed Manhampers, with something for every kind of gent.

#manhamper

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0296/4057/products/Bicycle-Wine-Rack-angle-front.jpg

oopsmark Bicycle Wine Rack

£27.00

Perfect for that boozy bike ride (don't drink and drive)

If you like wine and you like biking, you're going to love this. The handmade leather bicycle wine rack is perfect for taking wine with you on the go. It easily attaches to most bike frames with antique brass fasteners, while the hidden clamps hold the bottle securely. Best of all, the vegetable-tanned leather will only look better as it ages.

"the vegetable-tanned leather will only look better as it ages" is one of those things that jumps out at me as sort of an arriviste shibboleth. Like, leather looks better as it ages, that's a thing about leather, right? It wears in. Nobody with decades of history of selling things made of leather would bother to point that out, their customer knows that about leather.

jfc sooooo tired of "man____" manbags manbun manhamper mancave i will vomit next time i hear this

manvom

seriously we're just passing over "brotique" or is that on another thread

I was gonna comment, but I can't believe they're not also in on the joke, so...

Was "mantiques" already taken?

chapcessories

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/introducing-new-level-of-customization-moto-selfie-stick.html

The 21st century riding crop

Gee, I hope that is an April fool.

Might as well throw this in here, too:

http://carles.buzz/the-contemporary-conformist/

and this! http://carles.buzz/artisan-meaning-contemporary-conformist/

A Contemporary Conformist is a ‘jack of all trades’ when it comes to art/design, therefor they view everything they create as artisanal. If they made dinner and microplaned some parmesan on top of it, it was an artisanal event. If they put something in the over, it was artisanal. Everything that Contemporary Conformists make at home is artisanal, even if they just put something away in a baggie.

Make.
Everything.
Look.
Artisan.
As.
Fuck.

Contemporary Conformists see everything they do as artisanal, and want everything they consume/buy/ingest/style their homes with/talk about with every one to seem ‘artisanal.’

A Contemporary Conformist wants to walk over from their factory-converted lots/newly renovated home-apartment in a historical section of town to get artisanal coffee. They want an artisanal egg from an artisanal farm with a side of artisanal avocado toast served on artisanal Ezekiel bread for breakfast. They want an artisanal small plate lunch from an artisanal food truck while taking a break from their Contemporary Conformist job that allows them/office-pressure-forces them to wear artisanal Business_Contemporary-Conformist-Casual to work.

We are just trying to validate our 3rd-5th tier American cities.

i think there's a kernel of insight buried in there but i think it's more interesting to think of 'contemporary conformist' as an design aesthetic or a mode of production & consumption than a type of person, since that's where it comes across as a bit strawmannish for me.

patron sailor might I invite you to at some point update this thread on what you've been learning on your fiber journey? (A yarn store employee once told me "good luck on your fiber journey" and that has stuck with me)

my fiber journey is currently involves an exploration of an iron age weaving technique, namely tablet weaving (also known as card weaving). from what i understand, most people who tablet weave these days are into creative anachronism and/or reenacting viking battles. i don't do those things but the weaving is fun.

tablet weaving is mainly used for making patterned bands and braids, which can be used as straps, belts, or garment trim. it's an interesting technique to learn because it doesn't require a loom at all (though it can be done on many types of conventional looms). all you need is a set of cards (square, with a hole in each corner) and yarn (threaded through the holes); as you weave, you turn the cards forward or backwards, changing the position of the warp yarns. depending on how the cards are threaded and the sequence of card turns, you can make make extremely elaborate patterns. it's pretty neat.