Gustav Stickley and Frank Loyd Wright are my American Arts & Crafts hero's . Frank for his houses and Gustav for his Mission furniture , so wonderfully bold and elegant / balanced the same time . Only the greatest artists can master this delicate game of balance . They , together with William Morris are my lifelong inspirators . A house in itself is just a kind of bare box , but these giants gave it a hart and soul worth living in .
Brilliant. I’ve been a (serious) amateur woodworker for over 45 years and my style of choice is Arts and Crafts. Not necessarily the very stark original Stickley - and not the over ornate (for me) Greene and Greene, but in between there are stunning examples of furniture design. I wish I had either the skill to make or the money to buy some of the stained glass work. Truly emotional. We live about an hour from London and our favourite museum is the Victoria and Albert. Such stunning works on display. I was asked if the A&C move,ent were the first Hippies; well, the idea to reject the standards around them and build their utopia is common to both but it seems to me that there are stark differences. However, these differences may well be a result of the different eras in which each movement was founded. The products of the English A&C movement were never cheap enough so that ordinary working people could furnish their house so. In that sense, the socialist principles failed. Where they succeeded was in the whole treatment of their workforces. Sadly, I see little evidence of that today .
You are so right sir ! William Morris was more an idealist than a realist . When you concider the amount of hours that go in to manual labour , you just can't beat the machine . Gustav Stickley the American furniture maker understood that much better . Where ever possible he used machines for the fabrication of joints and that kind of repetitive work , what made his quality Mission furniture affordable . But I guess socialists are usualy more idealistic than realistic anyway . 😄😄😄
I have been a craftsmen for 40 years and the movement today has gone more to a buy sell movement- buy overseas and sell as their own and will out and out tell the customer they made the craft.......
The new movement will be 3 -D printing and push out the last of us who make out craft one at a time. Visit a craft show in your area and see how it has gone down hill.
