The creation of buildings, furniture, stained glass and other goods by people for other people to use, in accordance with local traditions & human nature.
This publication is about creativity and the spiritual work ethic which is in harmony with nature and other people. It is about the creation of buildings, furniture, stained glass and other goods by people for other people to use, in accordance with human nature, and not to concentrate wealth and power. It describes work which is a joy to do, carried out as habitual acts of kindness according with timeless natural organic principles within local traditions with consideration of the suitability of materials and techniques, allowing innovation and creativity within a context of continuity, relevance to place and created presence.
This is the antithesis of mass production of consumer products by anonymous producers for the profit of the few, dislocated from any spirit of place and without relevance to people's social and cultural needs and traditions which is currently the norm of globalised capitalism.
The Arts and Crafts movement is not a phase in the history of design, nor can it ever become obsolete. It is an expression of timeless human nature which has been articulated in the European tradition from antiquity by Plotinus and nearer our own time by William Morris, W R Lethaby and others. Nigel (himself a practitioner) sets out the spiritual and social dimension of all this in this most important radical traditionalist essay.
Patrick McFadzean