6 : Craftsmanship + Mechanisation Part I
Figure 30 RAJINDERPAL S, R. (2013). Ginge Table Lamp. [Image]. London: Own Private Collection.
In collaboration with Gong London Guillaume Everard, in 2015 I was involved in creating a lighting range. The brief was very loose and I could look at different movements in which to form my conceptual approach. The initial design development I investigated was lighting styles in 1920/the 1930s in furniture and fashion: detailing in shape and form, referring to films such as Grand Hotel 1932, and The Great Gatsby 2013.
Although I did not take the Art Deco linear lines, shapes and form the of the period the colouration of black and gold. The lamp became a hybrid of different influences from shapes I warmed too from the period and the lace beaded hats worn by women at the time.
I developed a set of drawings, that were later modified as the prototype evolved. The base of the lamp change form and the angle of the hood of the lamp took on a more angular formation. The prototype was constructed with a base antic brass finish, inlay gold spray, top hood black matt finish. I am particularly pleased with the form and the contrasting colour of inlay gold and black matt finish.
The prototype was made in India, old Delhi, on an industrial site, with small shopfronts, where the individual components were handcrafted and modelled using traditional methods and machinery to create a circular dome for the base and hood. While the parts sprayed in a different section of the market. The finish was rough, smooth and elegant.
With a self-reflective eye and my own critique of the design cycle and process, I now question why this prototype was produced in India? This becomes dependent on other products being manufactured and shipped to the UK by the practice from India at the site. This process has indeed made me reflect on whether craftsmanship and machine production would be beneficial with the use of local crafts where I/we would be responsible for all aspects of the design decision and production.
I recently watched a BBC2 programme looking back at the Industrial Revolution (Cruickshank, 2003) and how it affected Shropshire. Although only a small part of the UK, it still highlighted the same issues. The technology was becoming a breakthrough, and mass-production was a cost-effective means for new markets to develop in Britain. It targeted a large part of the population which was on an average income, which reflected on their buying habits. Manufacturing has a lot to do with social and consumer acceptance, it was influenced partly by Government intervention and the revolution in the nineteen century.
The Arts and Craft Movement was gaining new ground as soon as it was established industrialisation and mechanisation was starting to take shape. Although Frank Lloyd Wright suggests mechanisation was not at fault but the designers as machines simply repeatedly produce objects they do not produce art.
I believe that integration of the two methods Arts and Craft (handcraft) and machines should become an equal partnership. Penny Sparke suggested products were becoming standardised via pattern books. The moral ground would be for designers to have control of their original designs. Designers should learn to embrace mechanisation and technology like the American craftsmen and women, while craftsmen and women have the freedom to explore the arts and craft from a mechanisation view. Adrian Forty’s theory of effect would suggest an ever-changing social structure is moving toward the new age of technology, where traditional craftsmanship could be integrated with mechanisation and new technology. For example, designing a clock radio using hand-craftsmanship, where machines shape and size the object and the craftsman finishes the object with the use of new technology.
I develop this area in my further research in part II where I will discuss the developmental approach of technology, mechanisation and craftsmanship.
CRUICKSHANK, D. (2003). What The Industrial Revolution Did For Us. [video] Available at: <https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/ou-on-the-bbc-what-the-industrial-revolution-did-us-series-summary?in_menu=13412> [Accessed 15 January 2021].
RAJINDERPAL S. R. (2013). Ginge Table Lamp. [Image]. London: Own Private Collection.
