How much does “Hand Made” affects our perception?

[Patrice Lemée]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the feedback and some of it addresses my original question. :thumbup:
But it is not about the "hand made" / power tools debate.
I thought I was clear about that in my original post.

Of course there is the whole thing about what really constitutes “hand made” and how much machinery can be used before it can't be called that anymore. There are probably as many opinions about that as there are folks on here so I don't want to start a debate.

I like provocative Coop but in this case there is sadly too much potential for things to go wrong. I am sure I already offended many folks even if it was the last things I wanted to do.

Am I the only one who's vision of beauty is influenced by the hands on time spent making something and the talent needed to make it?

I think I found my mistake and it was using the dreaded "hand made" term. Maybe "hands on" would have been better?

 

[SharpByCoop]

Patrice, don't think too hard. You only tossed a small line into the pond. What comes biting isn't in your control.

Most good threads have a life well-beyond the OP's intention.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul.

Coop

 

[wonderlab]

I like wabi sabi, the beauty of things imperfect and so value work done by hand, but nevertheless, I can also appreciate the sleek perfection of a modernist object if it stands out. I would find it stupid to drill a hole as you did it few centuries ago when you can achieve the exact same result with a motorized drill. Machines are not the problem if there is creativity in using them. It's like in music, synthetisers are fine when you don't recognize them as such while listening, when the musician transcends the factory inbuilt sounds to make them his own.
I think today we value more and more work done by hand because it is becoming rarer as manufactured objects are everywhere, but "done by hand" doesn't mean beautiful or better, there is also quite a lot of awful objects and knives "done by hand". To add to the confusion there are even some "done by hand" knives that look like industrial knives and the only difference is that the maker took time and pain to arrive to a machine perfect finish. So to me the only things that counts is the creativity of the maker, some are good at hand jobs other better with machines.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Coop.

Wonderlab, all good points and much better said than I could.

 

[yoda4561]

I'd say it depends on the person, and how much they're fascinated by the process of creation vs the end product. Of course there are people who might value state of the art technology being used in creation, some of the stuff made with 3d printers, never a human hand touching them during their making is absolutely fascinating.