# craftmanship Caring about quality, about the work itself, the product and the process. It seems there is a lot that needs to be said about this. I've talked about it for years in my classes and yet it seems that I haven't actually spent any time talking about it here. How is that possible? Craft and quality are the foundation that everything else is built upon. Craft transforms the work to a level of grace and complexity through a wisdom born from dedicated experience and earned knowledge. Craft contains an intelligence and efficiency that is only taught through the effort of repetition and exploration and even failure. Quality is the byproduct of doing the work. It is a mindset of obsessing over the subtlest of details coupled with an awareness of the overall vision. It isn't easy but it is a knowledge that the effort is worth it. > Craft is dedication and respect for the invisible work. > > — [DOC](https://www.doc.cc/articles/craft) > I believe that my attitude and my interests were strongly influenced by my grandfather, who was a master joiner. At the age of 12 or 13 I was often to be found in his workshop. My grandfather had no machines, he didn't like them, and he preferred to work alone; apprentices never did things well enough… > > Now and then he made small, one-off pieces of furniture. The wood for these he carefully chose from the timber merchant, then edged and planed it into shape by hand. The resulting simple and utilitarian pieces came into being in a totally natural way … Their design reflected the economy of his way of working, they grew out of his handcraft. > > — Dieter Rams, Less But Better Here's Patrick Flegel (from the band [Cindy Lee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Lee_(band))) writing about craft. Mostly, it boils down to [[get to work|getting to work]] and doing what needs to bed. Also, a good reminder that quality can come even when not focused on using the best tools or gear. ![[02d82e4d2f7feae5d86f115dc9207e64_MD5.jpg]] --- tags: #creativity #process home: [[! creative process]]