Jake Middleton-Metcalfe Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 If you haven't already I would really recommend reading about the arts and crafts movement. This is pretty much the most influential reaction against industrialisation by designers which has left a great effect in our culture today. The basic idea of it was that William morris and his mates felt that the industrial mass production happening in the 19th century was miserable for the workers and produced an inferior product for the consumer. The movement favoured hand craftsmanship and preferred the idea of the medieval style of working with hand tools and not so much division of labor. There was great nostalgia for the perceived loss of innocence of life within this movement which heralded the medieval ages as the golden age of creativity. The concertina seems to me to be an industrial instrument, made in a division of labor system in a factory by man operated machine. I think William morris would have hated it. maybe we could view its industrial heritage as something to be proud of, to celebrate even! Embrace the machine! WAAA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Edgley Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) "For me (very important to keep aware of that!) the term 'hand-crafted' has the feel that an item has been made without the use of power-tools, that each tool has been powered and guided by hand." (Hansirow) Sorry, if you go by that definition I don't think anyone has a "hand-crafted concertina." Just watch that video of the Wheatstone factory where a worker is cutting the reed slots for a reedpan. No one is cutting the dovetail reed slots purely by hand and chisel, and I doubt anyone ever did. No, I'm afraid your definition is too narrow. Most musical instruments involve some sort of machinery. Even the Highland bagpipes of the latter 19th century involved the use of a treadle lathe.....foot-crafted perhaps? Edited January 3, 2015 by Frank Edgley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) I suspect of all makers Geoff Crabb would come closest to this definition. Edited January 3, 2015 by Chris Ghent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) The concertina seems to me to be an industrial instrument, made in a division of labor system in a factory by man operated machine. I think William morris would have hated it. I get the impression the very earliest Wheatstones were genuinely hand-crafted in very small quantities, then Lachenal was brought in to industrialise the process with (treadle powered) routing machines, jigs, fly presses etc. For myself, after considering all the responses to my original question both here and elsewhere, I decided to avoid using the term 'hand crafted' on my logo because I got the impression that a significant number of potential customers would be put off by the term for one reason or another. Particularly since I will be making use of CNC in some of my production processes. Edited January 3, 2015 by alex_holden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Middleton-Metcalfe Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Jake's partner talking here: Speaking as a dressmaker lots of garments are sold as hand-made despite using industrial/domestic straight-stitch, overlocking, eyeleting, blind-hemming machines and electric irons, CAD aided (or commercially sold) patterns, etc etc. In other sphere's hand-made items don't necessarily connote an item made entirely by hand but will often involve the use of some machines. More often hand-made in the western world refers to individual, one off production. So don't be too off put by using hand-made in your description. You are not being devious, but would be in line with lots of other products which are sold as 'hand-made'. Tries to log off concertina.net quickly before Jake posts.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 Certainly it can be argued either way, and personally I don't have any problem with describing a concertina as hand crafted. However the logo is likely to be the first thing somebody sees when they visit my web site or see an advert somewhere, and I don't want it to give a potentially misleading/offputting first impression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayman Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) More knitting examples, and working from them to figure out whether I personally consider tools including CNCs count as hand-made for concertinas: I know *a lot* of knitters, and they all get many of (if not all of) their patterns from ravelry.com (or else use the website for research, guidance, and feedback if not directly for patterns), and even when all the actual knitting is done on hand-held needles (whether or not their wool was hand-sheared, hand-washed, hand-carded, hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-skeined) they would all consider their products "hand-made" and so would any consumer. So it doesn't matter -- in knitting -- whether key parts of the creation process rely on computers and the internet, or on industrial yarn-making and tool-making technology. (I don't know anyone who uses hand-made needles, though I'm sure there are some. I don't know anyone who used hand-tools to make their own spinning machine or skein-winder, either -- the simple wooden machines I've seen used were all store-bought and probably made using power tools.) By contrast, I don't (think I) know any knitter who would consider a sweater made on a knitting-machine to be "hand-made". That one thing seems to be the crucial difference between "hand-made" and "not hand-made" when it comes to knitting. And that difference seems to be very universally accepted among people I know. (I haven't surveyed people specifically for this; I'm just going by my impressions. But now I'm inclined to do a survey, and see what a few dozen knitting friends and knitting consumers think! I'll share the results.) So what is it about the knitting machine? Is it that you can program it and then walk away and come back and find a finished significant component? (Concertina analogy: You can't walk away from a table saw ... but you could walk away from a CNC machine under some circumstances.) I think that's it -- "hand-made" is more a factor of "constant person attention to the work, regardless of process or tool or jig" than anything else; maybe that's the only factor. And furthermore, this applies only to the creation of the finished item and its discreet components, and not to the harvesting or production of its raw materials. (Concertina analogy: it doesn't matter how the brass or steel or aluminium was made; what matters is how you cut the parts out and shape them and assemble them. And it's accepted that some universally-used non-product-specific parts can be pre-made, such as screws.) Introducing automatic part-feeding or some sort of automated machining you're so confident in that you can walk away from it and return later when its task is done is what makes the difference for me between "hand-made" and "not hand-made". And I think a CNC machine with automated machining but where you monitor it like a hawk, because you need to regularly manually change bits or change parts, counts as hand-made by this criterion. It certainly does count as hand-made in my book; whether it counts as hand-made universally-enough to be used in marketing, that's the question. Edited January 3, 2015 by wayman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Interesting. My own definition would probably be: if there is a motor involved it is not hand made. CNC has brought about a need for another descriptive classification but the situation is too complex for easy labels. Both a manual worker and a cnc worker will start with a drawn design and follow it. The end result will be fewer imperfections in the cnc and some might see the imperfections in the manual example as being evidence of human hand and endeavour, and somehow more valuable. The irony is the manual worker is likely to have been trying to make it with no imperfections. Detectable evidence of being hand made is their failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Both a manual worker and a cnc worker will start with a drawn design and follow it. The end result will be fewer imperfections in the cnc and some might see the imperfections in the manual example as being evidence of human hand and endeavour, and somehow more valuable. The irony is the manual worker is likely to have been trying to make it with no imperfections. Detectable evidence of being hand made is their failure. The other side of that argument is that a little bit of random variation (within limits) is often more interesting/exciting/lifelike than robotic perfection. See also: live musicians vs MIDI sequencers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Drinkwater Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 How about "Hand assembled"? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Molkentin Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I guess I'd rather keep the "craft"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 How about "Hand assembled"? I think that would be underselling myself - if I saw that claim on something I would assume it was assembled from a kit of bought-in (probably mass-produced) parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w.striediger Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) I suppose the artisan label is the non aesthetic equivalent of artist. samsung galaxy tab 4 8.0 hülle Edited January 8, 2015 by w.striediger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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