COVID Craft Commerce

Our hopes that the COVID Pandemic would dissipate in but a few months’ time have been shattered. So, the time has come to find hope among the ashes. And where to look if not social media?

Our overuse of social media worries many, myself included. As I attempt to draw my children back into the real world, I often recall my own parents’ efforts trying to ween me off of TV – the boob tube, as it was called. Most recently I accessed TikTok in an attempt to understand what my young teen daughter was exposed to. I did find some concerning material, and I did learn that there’s quite a bit of censorship too. But to my great surprise and joy, I also found the caveman.

The Caveman – big, bearded, and decked out in khaki – takes questions like: ‘can you build a shelter?’, ‘can you build a tomahawk?’, ‘can you make jewelry?’. He then proceeds to do so just as our earliest ancestors would have: chipping stone into blades, using pine sap for glue, and so on. Next up are the sweet young couples refitting their vans into mini-homes and living life on the road. Then comes the artists, the interior designers, and the building safety inspectors. The creativity on exhibit is unlimited, and just a scroll away.

Personally, I gravitated quickly to the woodworkers. Some are carvers, from all parts of the world, taking whole blocks of wood and chiseling them down to gorgeous objects both useful and artistic. Others are furniture makers using both machine and hand tools to create custom luxury items. Many of these creators maintain channels on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as well.

One consequence of this new mass exposure results in increased marketing potential. Suddenly a blacksmith making artisanal kitchen knives in Oklahoma can sell his product around the world at reasonable prices. This new marketplace seemingly reverses the tables on the old industrial design argument.

One hundred years ago, designers struggled to combine traditional craft values with industrial mass production. The Arts and Crafts movement, Bauhaus, De Stijl, and more recently IKEA helped the middle-class household enjoy artistically designed trappings at mass-produced prices.

It seems the Internet Marketplace may be reuniting consumers and craftsmen. Traditional overhead in the form of rent and advertising can be decreased significantly, shipping is equivalent, and suddenly an artisan’s wares are within a reasonable price, competitive with their factory-made doppelgangers.

Increasing exposure to the value of crafts will reflect back positively on the world of constructions. Today’s architects and designers lean heavily on prefabricated elements and advanced building technology to make their projects look sharp, clean and aesthetic. But the human element is far from being replaced. If TikTok is any indicator, the number of people refurbishing old Victorian homes and sharing their ‘Tiny Home’ projects will have an impact on consumer expectations from their workmen. Today’s 14 year-olds will be tomorrows consumers, developers and architects, and they may demand a return to craftsmanship.