It´s easy to overlook and not appreciate the human effort, energy and resources that go into designing and making everything around us. Sometimes I feel as humans, we have lost touch with the built world and how difficult and time consuming it is to make something. The modern world seems to have caused a decline in craftsmanship.
Is this due to rising labour costs, technology, machine manufacturing, profit and the availability of artificial materials pretending to be something that they aren´t?
Where has the appreciation gone for human brilliance and creativity, something that is made of exceptional quality that is long lasting and has a story to tell?
Let´s have more value for the relationships we have with our possessions and environments. Let´s place more importance on something that is creative and unique, locally designed and manufactured. Products that have less impact on the environment, that support small businesses and give back to our local economy. Products that are designed and well thought out, that have a deeper meaning and stimulate and inspire us. Objects that intrigue us are beautiful and highly functional or even multifunctional and that are more about the experience than the status.
Where does everything we buy and consume come from? What is its story, where does it all start and finally end? Is it mass produced in an overseas sweatshop on the other side of the globe or is it locally designed and produced in a small shed down the road? Where in the world do these raw materials come from and what is the process and impact on the environment from the entire lifecycle?
Are we properly informed? And how much of a contributing factor is this on our habit to consume? And if we aren´t informed, do we want to do the research to ask questions and find out more to make an informed decision?
It´s interesting to stand back and question where we are now and where we used to be, what we have gained and also what we have lost.