Sunday 15 November 2009

crafts in the Telegraph

We get second hand copies of the Saturday Telegraph from my mother in law, the weekend section sometimes has nice craft stories. From yesterdays paper I spotted a separate magazine called "Telegraph Luxury" and on the cover it announced "The exquisite craft of the cobbler, the jeweler and the trunk maker." That sounded like a fine article to me, no less than 8 pages with full colour pictures.

How disappointed I was then to read not about craftspeople but about design and marketing businesses. The first was the best because at least the marketing was based on craftsmanship. Hermes riding boots from £1290 a pair "the jumping boot is made neither in-house nor even in France, but instead by an artisan bootmaker in the North of Italy near Venice." There are some lovely pics of him I would rather have had an article about him, or better still an article about an English shoemaker.

The other articles were even further removed from telling us about exquisite craftspeople. Another attempt to relaunch the Faberge name as a very high class jewelry brand and Luis Vuitton bags. "The principles of the trunk-making craft, of which Luis Vuitton was a pioneer, are the same today as they were 150 years ago." This may be true for the hyper expensive Asnieres workshop that produces just 550 bespoke orders a year though we learn little about the process, the people, or how things are made in the 15 Vuitton factories.

Flicking through the Telegraph magazine I came across a section called the new-to-do list. "you don't have to climb a mountain to realise your potential-just doing something new can make a difference."

Down below I spotted "learn basketry" how wonderful what a good plug for the basketmakers association....but "According to fashionable sources, contemporary basket weaving is the craft du jour. Fans of this ancient eco-art claim it's every bit as therapeutic as knitting. Learn now and by Christmas you could be magicking up bags, or-for the truly adventurous-boats."

I have no idea what that is about.

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