Sand Art Crafts

Will there ever be a need for master crafters again?

I was in a building built in 1883 or so in my home town with a friend who is an interior design artist. We were looking at the carvings on the wooden wall panels. He showed me how the scrollwork had parts where it went into deep curves that hid parts of the woodwork from the eyes. Those parts were fully sanded and finished, just like the exterior part that was easily seen. I was told by him that extremely few people alive in the US have that kind of skill anymore, in scrollwork the carved parts that are hidden from the eyes are no longer sanded or finished, but left rough. This is due to a lack of demand for exceptionally skilled crafters, because we as a nation are all about what can be produced quickly and cheaply with little regard for careful crafting of objects. Do you think this will ever change? Or as we progress technologically will those arts be forgetten completely?

Public Comments

1. My husband was an art restorer for decades, he was taught by an old German guy. His work was impeccable and I know they have schools now and techniques but I doubt they could duplicate my husband's work.
2. Unfortunately those arts will be lost to the masses! To build and craft in the way you are speaking of takes time and it is time that we seem to lack respect for. I was reading Henry David Thoreau this evening and he wrote "life is short art is long" Its funny though in that we have the ability to be able to do so many more task in such an efficient manner compared to the age of which you are referring to, YET it seems that we hold very little sacred, we live to excess and self-indulgence. In earlier times it wasn't unusual for a craftsman to spend his life on on structure... For instance the LDS temple in Salt Lake City took 40 years to build. We speak of freedom and yet look at the homes of suburban America and they are cookie cutter boxes, I think this is sad... I could go on and on, I am passionate about what could be. I sculpt now but for 25 years I served as a mason. David Andersen http://www.andersenskulptur.com
3. maybe if we payed people two dollars an hour, but are wages are much higher than they payed in 1883. that detailed work would take a craftsman hours opon hours to produce and it would be more cost effective to put up cheap, plastic moulds . sadly we've become a product of the corparate world.