Imagine...

...I have to rein myself in, but it is uplifting the making of things -- anything at all. Taking something quite raw, perhaps even waste, and converting it into a project built to last for a lifetime, is a part of what we do. Crafting of every kind is usually the harvesting of raw and refining it for the making of something highly defined to enhance life by its functionality and then too its beauty. Mass made and cheapness is here to stay, we accept that. What we cannot accept by our complacency is that there is no place for the development of skilled making for all and then too the owning of things made to enhance the life of all.

Imagine, two kids, a single parent, perhaps two parents, all sitting around with their devices open and one says to the others,

"Hey, have you seen this. This guy is suggesting people can make all their own furniture to furnish the whole of their home with. I mean from the ground floor up. Bunk beds, special beds, waste bins, and lampshades. And he says you can do 99% of the work with just hand tools and no machines if you want to. Wouldn't it be great to make a dining table or a coffee table?"

"Send me the link!" another says, closing her device in excitement.

"And me! I've never heard of such a thing."

"So who does the actual work?"

"Well, this guy is saying that we all can do it; work on different projects or the same one all working together."

"That's so very cool. I wish we could. I never did any woodworking, only what I learned in school a bit. I wasn't very good at it."

"Well, he says the projects are as near to hands-on courses as you will ever get, and that he already provides hundreds of other videos you can learn from that support you too. Not only that, he has Q&A's planned for everyone to get involved with over the next few years so that you never are left on your own."

"Sarah! What do you think? Can you find the time to do it too.?"

"If you and mum find time so will I. Count me in."

So my thoughts run ahead. I'm thinking this will pique the interest of those who might well have been left out seven decades ago in state schools that had even more vision then than they do today in that educationalists have stolen the years when generations should have had strong exposure to crafts of every kind but were denied it for a lack of vision. Admittedly these leaders are more the puppets of blind visionaries that see no value in the art of craft, but they could at least have turned to those that do. Unfortunately, there is no qualifying body of experts any more who can steer a committee of academics to embrace the reality that not everyone should apprentice in their pseudo systems under that 'apprenticeship scheme' banner without putting their economy price tag on it.

So we have wrestled the future from their hands as best we can and our testing the water over the previous decades means we will all be taking the plunge into an unknown, uncharted future. Can we do it? You bet your life we can! Imagine...