Working in Wood:An Ancient Craft gets a New Lease onLife
It’s odd that in an age of materialism and dubious values, an old craft style has become the new design focus. Furniture may not be the immediate thought that comes to mind in terms of personal values, but there’s a new cultural movement emerging. It’s being made from some of the finest examples of the craftsman’s art, and it reflects older, more stable values in lifestyle.
Nobody has been more surprised by the re-emergence of high quality wood than the mainstream market. From garish pseudo-modern styles to the fabulous character of solid wood is a real departure. False values tend to fade away, but the new stunning examples of woodcraft have simply put them to shame.
Those who appreciate and respect traditional lifestyle values and the strong qualities of hardwood craftsmanship will be delighted. The new wooden furniture is more than a return to quality values. It’s a reassertion of those values in very practical forms.
Wood as a Solid Art Form
The best possible examples of the new approach to design are highlighted in the extraordinary mission style furniture. As you can see, these are the real traditional wood designs.
(Note: It’s well worth browsing around mission style furniture to see the sheer scope of design and nothing less than breathtaking craftsmanship. Don’t be too surprised if you find yourself with a wish list after looking around.)
This is precision craft as it existed long before the Industrial Revolution. The basic forms date back hundreds of years and in some cases even longer. The use of high quality timbers — expert-selected hardwoods — is the key. It allows full development of design and authentic representation of the entire range of traditional furniture design.
Woodcraft Reinventing the Market? Yes!
The new craftsmanship, interestingly, is now the benchmark for the absolute best in modern design. Quality, comfort and exceptionally good materials have turned the heads of the market leaders. The irrefutable character and style of these pieces has been a major revelation to younger designers.
They simply didn’t know what was possible when working with these superb materials. They may well even have thought these things only existed in museums. Now that they know they can work with these materials themselves, of course they’re keen to see what they can achieve in design.
The result has been a new wave of design. The new approach has created a quite astonishing range of top quality products, each with the traditional stamp of absolute expert standard craftsmanship.
The new ranges include:
- Rustic furniture
- Design pieces
- Home essentials
- Handmade clocks
- Bedroom suites
- You name it
The huge interest in these high quality crafted pieces has a certain historical twist to it, too. You’ll note that these “new” designs really are the authentic articles. They’re not much changed, if at all, from the original hewn timber furniture of old. In fact, if you know the design pedigree of some of these pieces you can actually date them by their style and construction.
Some definitely go back as far as the 1500s. There are traditional Christian pew benches which may well date back to Medieval times in their original design, and a host of other famous designs over the centuries.
The elegant simplicity of old has returned and simply outclassed its modern equivalents. The old crafts have won.
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