Pye focuses specifically on artifacts of wood and metal as examples, but I have found this book incredibly useful to canonize and quantify the ideas of workmanship in multiple disciplines.
I teach sewing classes in Chicago (among other things) and use The Nature and Art of Workmanship as a way to help people start to think more about the work they are doing as they construct garments. I've found it useful for beginning sewists and designers who are hampered and harried by ideas of perfection and I've found it useful for advanced sewists who want to start thinking about techniques and theories to analyze their own work. Personally, these ideas are always in the back of my own mind as a creator and designer whether I am reinterpreting Art Deco murals, designing interior spaces, or sewing shirts and dresses.
I've found even the most basic ideas in the book - discerning between the workmanship of risk versus the workmanship of certainty - highly useful when talking about craft and creation with beginners especially. It is no good to begin a skill with the idea that you want a mechanical result exclusively.
It can be heavy and a bit dry in tone if you are looking for light reading, but if you are a creator and your thinking is cloudy-to-nonexistent around workmanship, this is the ticket. Pye takes us through his thinking in defining good versus bad workmanship, then explains and defines not *what* to think about it, but rather *how* to think about it.
For any creative person, this helps establish boundaries so that you understand your own process and don't get mired in useless criticism that comes from the broader culture or detrimental criticism that comes from within. Creation through workmanship is a journey and Pye will help you refine and define that journey.
Think of it this way: If you are told that you *have* to cross the ocean, and you *have* to build your own boat to do it, this book will help you build something much more seaworthy than you would otherwise have and help you refine your needs for the trip. It doesn't tell you how to build the boat and doesn't ensure that you will make the journey at all, but it is a tool that helps.
If you are a creative person of any stripe, and if you feel hampered by internal or external criticism about what "perfect workmanship" is and is not, then this may help you sift and sort those critical demons. It can free you by giving you a system to use to evaluate and execute your work.
As just a side note, with what Pye talks about here, it is too bad he hasn't been around to comment on what technology has brought us over the past 20 years with regards to artifacts and workmanship. It would be really interesting to read commentary as things relate to 3D printing, AI, &c.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019
I teach sewing classes in Chicago (among other things) and use The Nature and Art of Workmanship as a way to help people start to think more about the work they are doing as they construct garments. I've found it useful for beginning sewists and designers who are hampered and harried by ideas of perfection and I've found it useful for advanced sewists who want to start thinking about techniques and theories to analyze their own work. Personally, these ideas are always in the back of my own mind as a creator and designer whether I am reinterpreting Art Deco murals, designing interior spaces, or sewing shirts and dresses.
I've found even the most basic ideas in the book - discerning between the workmanship of risk versus the workmanship of certainty - highly useful when talking about craft and creation with beginners especially. It is no good to begin a skill with the idea that you want a mechanical result exclusively.
It can be heavy and a bit dry in tone if you are looking for light reading, but if you are a creator and your thinking is cloudy-to-nonexistent around workmanship, this is the ticket. Pye takes us through his thinking in defining good versus bad workmanship, then explains and defines not *what* to think about it, but rather *how* to think about it.
For any creative person, this helps establish boundaries so that you understand your own process and don't get mired in useless criticism that comes from the broader culture or detrimental criticism that comes from within. Creation through workmanship is a journey and Pye will help you refine and define that journey.
Think of it this way: If you are told that you *have* to cross the ocean, and you *have* to build your own boat to do it, this book will help you build something much more seaworthy than you would otherwise have and help you refine your needs for the trip. It doesn't tell you how to build the boat and doesn't ensure that you will make the journey at all, but it is a tool that helps.
If you are a creative person of any stripe, and if you feel hampered by internal or external criticism about what "perfect workmanship" is and is not, then this may help you sift and sort those critical demons. It can free you by giving you a system to use to evaluate and execute your work.
As just a side note, with what Pye talks about here, it is too bad he hasn't been around to comment on what technology has brought us over the past 20 years with regards to artifacts and workmanship. It would be really interesting to read commentary as things relate to 3D printing, AI, &c.
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Helps you start to think about your work as you create.
By Tchad Elliott on July 15, 2019
Pye focuses specifically on artifacts of wood and metal as examples, but I have found this book incredibly useful to canonize and quantify the ideas of workmanship in multiple disciplines.By Tchad Elliott on July 15, 2019
I teach sewing classes in Chicago (among other things) and use The Nature and Art of Workmanship as a way to help people start to think more about the work they are doing as they construct garments. I've found it useful for beginning sewists and designers who are hampered and harried by ideas of perfection and I've found it useful for advanced sewists who want to start thinking about techniques and theories to analyze their own work. Personally, these ideas are always in the back of my own mind as a creator and designer whether I am reinterpreting Art Deco murals, designing interior spaces, or sewing shirts and dresses.
I've found even the most basic ideas in the book - discerning between the workmanship of risk versus the workmanship of certainty - highly useful when talking about craft and creation with beginners especially. It is no good to begin a skill with the idea that you want a mechanical result exclusively.
It can be heavy and a bit dry in tone if you are looking for light reading, but if you are a creator and your thinking is cloudy-to-nonexistent around workmanship, this is the ticket. Pye takes us through his thinking in defining good versus bad workmanship, then explains and defines not *what* to think about it, but rather *how* to think about it.
For any creative person, this helps establish boundaries so that you understand your own process and don't get mired in useless criticism that comes from the broader culture or detrimental criticism that comes from within. Creation through workmanship is a journey and Pye will help you refine and define that journey.
Think of it this way: If you are told that you *have* to cross the ocean, and you *have* to build your own boat to do it, this book will help you build something much more seaworthy than you would otherwise have and help you refine your needs for the trip. It doesn't tell you how to build the boat and doesn't ensure that you will make the journey at all, but it is a tool that helps.
If you are a creative person of any stripe, and if you feel hampered by internal or external criticism about what "perfect workmanship" is and is not, then this may help you sift and sort those critical demons. It can free you by giving you a system to use to evaluate and execute your work.
As just a side note, with what Pye talks about here, it is too bad he hasn't been around to comment on what technology has brought us over the past 20 years with regards to artifacts and workmanship. It would be really interesting to read commentary as things relate to 3D printing, AI, &c.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
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Low Resolution Reprint
By DJ 5 on September 13, 2019
Purchased for $29.95 direct from Amazon. Since the original is out of print you will receive a black and white reprint of this book. Unfortunately this particular reprint from Herbert Press of the original A&C Black is of poor quality print and paper. The black and white images are less than ideal for woodworking since the detail is lost. I was able to find a Cambium Press version at my local library which is also black and white but much better picture quality.
By DJ 5 on September 13, 2019
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