Cameras and Watches

One of the reasons I like making clothing is that the more you work on something the more details you see of it. That even as experienced makers, we look at a yarn and a pattern and we are increasingly better able to predict how they will work together and yet even as I complete the last few rows of a waistband on a top-down sweater, I am still learning about this new project and seeing it more clearly, as though the reality of this object is gradually coming into focus. I think this is one of the most important differences between artisan made and machine-made items and I even think that we can see we can recognize each other's consciousness in an item that has been made by hand. 

Once I went to an antique shop and I looked at a very old camera, it had a leather manifold and brass fittings and each aspect of its construction had been completed by hand. And the more I looked at it the more I could see it kind of glowed! It was as if the maker's experience was still redolent in the item itself and as opposed to a mass-produced camera, its every detail seemed to matter. 

This experience was outside of my day-to-day ability to observe and describe. The more details I turned my focus to the more I saw and there was a kind of sincerity or authenticity to the image and the experience of seeing it that imbued it with added meaning and beauty.

I am not saying that mass-produced objects do not have their own charm. In fact I can see what Campbell soup artist Andy Warhol was getting at. That the mass produced and recognizable imagery of consumer products is its own beautiful and specific experience and, I think that part of this is the cultural iconographic meaning. For example, many people in our culture might see a Campbell's soup can and have many of the same associations or thoughts based on effective advertising, which is its own art form. However, an art form whose purpose is selling and profit is of a different category than an art form whose purpose is beauty and function such as that of the camera maker. 

One of the books I am currently reading is called the Dean's watch by Elizabeth Goudge. It is my mom's favorite book. And now that my mom is nearing the end of her life and is no longer able to read, I am reading for her and with her. Set in the 1870s, in one of the opening scenes, an old man who is a watchmaker repairs a watch by candlelight. The candle is set behind a glass orb filled with water. I think this was a way of creating diffuse light and magnification. 

The man has so much love and affection for the workings of this specific watch that his whole being is called into relationship with the watch and its owner. The watch, he says, is flawless in its design and construction. And so if the owner was not careless the watchmaker would never get to see the watch again. However, the owner of the watch is careless and the watchmaker experiences strong conflicting emotions of resentment that the watch has been mistreated while at the same time feeling gratitude and joy to be able to see and work with this special watch once again.