Is 'handmade' the new luxury?

Over the last few weeks, I've seen many social media posts along the lines of 'in an age of AI, handmade is the new luxury'.

I'm no great fan of generative AI, and I welcome any move towards recognising the value of human-made artefacts, particularly in traditional and heritage crafts, but the statement did make me wonder about the notion of 'luxury' in the work that we do.

People often stop to chat when I am out in public with my spinning wheel. Regular comments along the lines of "You don't see that every day" and "I've never seen anyone using a spinning wheel in real life before" have made me realise that it's very easy for people to go through life without engaging with traditional crafts. I usually like to point out that prior to the Industrial Revolution in the UK, everyone would have known spinners and weavers, even if they weren't directly engaged in the craft itself. Everyone needed woven cloth for clothing and homewares, and with about 5 spinners needed to support every individual weaver, adults and children alike would have been adept with a spinning wheel (or spindle and distaff in even earlier times).

With the arrival of the Spinning Jenny and other new technologies as we headed into the 19th century, and the increased ease of international trade, the home spinning wheel has now become the preserve mainly of hobbyists, artisans and small-scale manufacturers of beautiful, unique and high quality yarns. Even more so, I'd venture that in much of the industrialised world, heritage crafts are now most often practised by those that can afford the time to do so - the relatively financially stable, the retirees, those deliberately looking for a new purpose beyond a career.

Mohandas Gandhi learned to spin, and encouraged others to do likewise, as a very practical and visible step towards Indian independence and a method of self-improvement. He wrote "The message of the spinning wheel is much wider than its circumference. Its message is one of simplicity, service of mankind, living so as not to hurt others, creating an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor, capital and labour, the prince and the peasant." (Young India, 17 September 1925, p. 321) A little grandiose, perhaps, but at least appreciative of the value of time spent working at the wheel beyond just producing usable fibre.

It seems that the real 'luxury' inherent in traditional craft is the time taken to do it. Humans invented machines that would save them not only the time spent in production, but also the time that would have been spent (over many years) developing the skill and mastery required to make a high quality product. This time could then be spent doing other things - usually doing a job to earn the money that enables us to purchase the product made by the machine! I'm fairly confident in saying that most people could learn to spin their own yarn and create their own clothes if they wanted to, but it's having the luxury of time to do so that makes handmade so special.

• 

• 

• 

  Plied and finished handspun yarn

We can all make choices about how we spend our time, but only some of us are fortunate enough to be able to choose to invest it in the development of traditional and heritage crafts. It is a privilege for us to pass on the knowledge of our crafts through workshops, demonstrations and courses, and even more delightful to see those that have embarked upon their own spinning, weaving and bookbinding journeys as a result.

So maybe yes, in an age of AI and technological advance, human-made or handmade is a luxury - but it is not one that is always beyond our reach. Sometimes the only cost is time, and we can choose the best way to spend that.