Decorating
3 Things Designers Would Like You to Know About Craft
Craft calls to us on many levels, but do we know what it is? Singaporean designers give us the behind-the-scenes story
Virtually everything we buy is mass-produced and same ol‘ same ol‘. We swipe satin-smooth touchscreens and tap on plastic keyboards all day. Devices operate/unlock without so much as a touch. So it’s not surprising that when a drawer features a hand-braided leather pull or if handmade tassels adorn a scarf, we are immediately drawn to its tactility and the evidence of human touch. Suddenly, the object is lifted from ‘utilitarian’ to ‘crafted’.
1. Craft doesn’t have to be made from natural materials
Leave the notion of organic, unbleached textiles or beeswaxed reclaimed-timber tables at the door.
“As much as Studio DAM’s product design side prefers to work with natural materials, we don’t see that working with engineered materials cannot be a craft,” says Lim. “Personally, I see craft as an occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skills. Crafting is to make or manufacture an object or product with skill and careful attention to detail.”
Craving a one-off piece of craft for your home? Find local artisans near you on Houzz
Leave the notion of organic, unbleached textiles or beeswaxed reclaimed-timber tables at the door.
“As much as Studio DAM’s product design side prefers to work with natural materials, we don’t see that working with engineered materials cannot be a craft,” says Lim. “Personally, I see craft as an occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skills. Crafting is to make or manufacture an object or product with skill and careful attention to detail.”
Craving a one-off piece of craft for your home? Find local artisans near you on Houzz
Inspired by traditional timber and marble inlay, Rikken and partner Debby Yu inlaid different laminates for their Facet Series, a collaboration with Admira Laminates in Singapore.
“We wanted to modernise the look and feel and created our own graphics,” says Rikken. “[We] created 34 portraits using 134 different laminates to showcase a portion of Admira’s product range,” he says.
Though the creative process was performed by computer and the pieces cut by laser, the process of sketching, prototyping, sanding, cleaning and pasting was done by hand.
“We wanted to modernise the look and feel and created our own graphics,” says Rikken. “[We] created 34 portraits using 134 different laminates to showcase a portion of Admira’s product range,” he says.
Though the creative process was performed by computer and the pieces cut by laser, the process of sketching, prototyping, sanding, cleaning and pasting was done by hand.
“The thought of craft only being made from natural materials sits very uncomfortably with me,” says Lim.
“The whole point of craft to me is making use of items or resources [that are] readily available to you to make. Those resources will not always be natural. I mean, you can explore themes in your work where you only want to use natural media for that particular piece or series, but I don’t think you should limit yourself.”
The Pro Panel: “The Material I Love to Work With Most…”
“The whole point of craft to me is making use of items or resources [that are] readily available to you to make. Those resources will not always be natural. I mean, you can explore themes in your work where you only want to use natural media for that particular piece or series, but I don’t think you should limit yourself.”
The Pro Panel: “The Material I Love to Work With Most…”
2. The computer is a tool just like a hammer
There is no hushing up craft’s complex relationship with technology. “Everything starts with the hand even if it’s the keyboard,” says Rikken. The internet is a fount of inspiration and learning opportunities – and it’s the place where many designers start before closing their laptop to begin creating.
There is no hushing up craft’s complex relationship with technology. “Everything starts with the hand even if it’s the keyboard,” says Rikken. The internet is a fount of inspiration and learning opportunities – and it’s the place where many designers start before closing their laptop to begin creating.
Lim, who ran his own solid-surfacing materials company before turning to concrete, works with the literal heavyweights of materials. He includes a skilled CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine operator in his definition of craftspeople and artists. Being able to cut fish-scale tiles out of concrete or engineer a concrete pyramid requires a machinist who knows their craft.
The Arts and Crafts Movement for the Modern Home
The Arts and Crafts Movement for the Modern Home
3. There is invisible labour behind craft
Yong often gets asked ‘why is your chair so expensive?’. A clean-lined piece of furniture can look so simple to make that we question the gap between price and visible ‘work’.
“First of all, expensive is relative,” he says. “Secondly, the cost of a product is not solely based on the production of the piece you see at the end. It is what you cannot see which is hard to explain to the consumer. There are costs like rental, labour, marketing, exchange rate and wastage. All of those are controlled by different companies in the chain,” says Yong.
“The cheaper chair is made of a different species of wood and cut at a younger age, laminated to form a thicker leg, stained to a colour for perceived higher value, put together with screws and produced at 1,000 pieces per run. The higher-priced chair is cut from an older tree that gives strength. Each leg is a solid piece of wood; there is no staining; the chair is well made with time-proven methods and produced in small batches.”
Yong often gets asked ‘why is your chair so expensive?’. A clean-lined piece of furniture can look so simple to make that we question the gap between price and visible ‘work’.
“First of all, expensive is relative,” he says. “Secondly, the cost of a product is not solely based on the production of the piece you see at the end. It is what you cannot see which is hard to explain to the consumer. There are costs like rental, labour, marketing, exchange rate and wastage. All of those are controlled by different companies in the chain,” says Yong.
“The cheaper chair is made of a different species of wood and cut at a younger age, laminated to form a thicker leg, stained to a colour for perceived higher value, put together with screws and produced at 1,000 pieces per run. The higher-priced chair is cut from an older tree that gives strength. Each leg is a solid piece of wood; there is no staining; the chair is well made with time-proven methods and produced in small batches.”
Yong’s Soft Chair is a fine example of a traditional raw material reimagined by technology. The designer discovered a factory in Indonesia that was able to bend marble and designed this chair to show that marble can be “soft, fluid and friendly” for his recent exhibition, In The Scheme of Things. Nathan Yong: A Retrospective Show 1999-2019.
Your turn
What crafted item do you treasure? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story, save your favourite images, and join the conversation.
More
Is it time to declutter your home? Read How to Declutter Digital and Printed Photos the Easy Way
Your turn
What crafted item do you treasure? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story, save your favourite images, and join the conversation.
More
Is it time to declutter your home? Read How to Declutter Digital and Printed Photos the Easy Way
Just as technology has given artisans a new way of selling, it has also equipped them with new ways of learning and making. We spoke to three Singapore-based designers actively making products that represent what their work means in the digital age. These artisans include Matthijs Rikken, co-founder and creative director of the multidiscipline Studio DAM; industrial designer and veteran in the field of furniture design in Singapore, Nathan Yong of Nathan Yong Designs; and Justin Lim, founder and head artisan at Tsuri Custom Concrete.
Each designer was part of a forum at this year’s Archifest in Singapore, Machining Touch: Artisans & Fabricators.