a satisfying pile of offcuts accumulate as I make chairs for Becoming Independent
Getting back to the studio this week makes me grateful that my work as an artisan requires such a range of activity. After a couple of weeks of project-related proposal-making, site visits, speaking engagements and interviews with the press, I’m delighted to shift the focus back to making furniture and letting my hands do the thinking for a while. While the work of an artisan may not always yield economic rewards in proportion to cumulative effort, the sheer range of activity of a professional maker strikes an enviable balance. Just when I’ve had enough of the public interaction required to promote and manage projects, I’m happy to retreat to the studio for more visceral engagement; then a few weeks of isolated concentration readies me for a another round of sociability.
The cycle follows older patterns than most other ‘work’, more like the harvesting and marketing implicit in agriculture or fishing, but the model seems transferable to the contemporary workplace. I think most people would benefit from predictable cycles of creative isolation followed by dynamic social interaction, not to mention the quality of the work at hand.