Timeless things

Today I was doing a bit of tidying and noticed a quote by JD Sedding that my mom had crafted into a cross-stitch sampler which I have made up into a cushion cover. Sedding was a Victorian architect who was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK in the late 1800s.

The Arts and Crafts artists were reacting to the excessive ornamentation that characterised many of the artefacts that were produced in the early industrial era. In particular, they criticised ornament that did not derive from the function of the object, its method of manufacture or the materials that it was made from. This was possibly the first movement that purposefully aimed at authenticity, even to the extent of encouraging designers to engage in the manufacture of their products. 

Today, hand-made objects are often unaffordable, unless one is lucky enough to have one passed down or find a treasure in a thrift shop. In some parts of the less industrialised world, craftspeople are still very much in evidence, doing basketwork, pottery, beadwork and stone carving. The decoration of these pieces is often passed down through generations, with small adaptations by individuals, but still totally consistent with the materials and process of manufacture.

A hand carved spoon 

This spoon has much that could be viewed as "honest error", whether in response to the features of the particular piece of wood, or whether through the crafter's manual process. By contrast, the highly mass-produced decorative "A" is extremely precise and regular, but with none of the character of the spoon. 

A decorative letter from a composite material, machine-cut to precision

This is not to say that industrialised processes are bad - so much around us is both beautiful and machine-made. I am looking at the screen of my Mac - a wonderful example of industrial design, completely consistent with its materials and perfectly ergonomical. But to go back to Sedding's quote: what were the issues that these Arts and Crafts designers were reacting to? In the first wave of mass-production, designers for these factory processes felt that the consumer would not be interested in goods that reflected the machine aesthetic. Also, a number of mechanical processes, such as glass and ceramic casting, could be as elaborate as one wished, an opportunity to mimic the most expensive hand-crafted objects. 

A Victorian cruet set
Creative commons licensed: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victorian_Cruet_Set.jpg

As these processes became more entrenched, decoration that started as a replica of high-end craft, but usually of the same materials, became quite divorced from any craft tradition, and became decoration for its own sake. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, designers started questioning the excessive (and often meaningless) decoration. Decoration that comes from the craft itself, generally has to follow the logic of the material and the processes that are current at the time of manufacture. With cast objects, the only constraint is the properties of the mould, especially as we move into the era of plastics, which can be engineered to a very wide variety of finishes and thickness.

There were several divergent reactions to this Victorian aesthetic: on the one hand, the Modern Movement aimed for what we might now call minimalism, exploiting the machine's facility with creating highly precise and materially consistent pieces. The inspiration often came from objects that were purely utilitarian, such as glass test-tubes, where the shape and detailing was strictly governed by function.

Other movements that sprang up at the end of the nineteenth century had a somewhat romanticised reversion to craft traditions, such as Art Nouveau in France and Belgium, and some of the proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK. Some, like William Morris, worked on evolving a style that was both decorative and exploited some of the features of mass-production such as printed textiles, but inspired by nature rather than replicating past styles.

Printed fabric using a design by William Morris

These days, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the vast choice, yet so much of what we can buy will look outdated in just a year or two. "Fast Fashion" does not apply only to clothes: the array of items on offer in most home stores are driven by a small handful of high-end designers, who determine the style of the following year for us ordinary people with out limited budgets.

So how can we buy furniture and decor and style our spaces for a more permanent look? My first thought is to look at the material - is the detailing consistent with what makes sense and what will still look good many years from now, with solid construction. 

A flatpack bookshelf with flimsy components and detailing

This bookshelf is intended to have adjustable shelves, but the pieces of veneered composition board are so flimsy that they have warped and bowed over time. By contrast, the solid pine bookcase, of similar price, will look good many years from now, and can be up-cycled many times (painted or re-varnished) before the end of its useful life.

A solid pine bookcase treated with a dark stain.