Sustainable Craft Design Approaches: Materiality as an Antidote for Materialism

Abstract

I am a glassblower. I am a maker. I am a thinker. I am a designer. I am guilty.

It is difficult to make an argument for glassblowing as a sustainable craft practice. Hand making a drinking glass takes three kilns heated between 500-1200°C. It is an energy guzzling making method. Recognising this problem, however, allows artisanal glass to become a space to explore key problems in the relationship between the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of neo-artisanal practice.

Because it relies on a different kind of engagement between consumers and the material world, there is an understanding that craft, and ‘slow’ production is an antidote to the climate crisis caused by industrialisation and mass manufacturing (Adamson, The Invention of Craft, 140). This position is important, but as the example of artisanal glass shows, some craft production cannot easily defend itself against the accusation that it is highly energy inefficient.

For makers concerned with sustainability, we face a conundrum, and an ethical question - are we being sustainable by creating material objects? ‘If we are truly concerned about sustainability, we should just stop making things’ (Procter, The Sustainable Design Book, 6). Proctor’s question is indeed one we should consider as makers; however we must also question whether our greater contribution to sustainability will come from refraining from ‘making things’, or could it be from a continuation of creating material objects that encourage a closer consumer-product relationship, which affects the sustainability of the complete life cycle of the object? I will argue that it is not the things, themselves as Proctor put it, that are the issue, it is us as producers and consumers, and our relationship to these things that is the problem. I will argue that it is not the energy intensive production of artisanal glass that is the issue but that neo-artisanal practice makes possible a reflection on the relationships that link the object, its production, and its consumption. Although it is important to consider efficient use of energy, it may be equally important to consider the invisible dynamics of consumer culture that influence how we use and reuse material objects. I will discuss how the problematic symptoms that have contributed to the current environmental crisis came from a focus on extrinsic characteristics of materialism ratherthan intrinsic characteristics of materiality. I will build the argument that the solution is in the problem and that indeed a possible antidote to materialism is in materiality - in exploring the relationship between the material and the producer and consumer.

Through case studies of my glass practice, I will illustrate how the use of digital design with traditional glass processes can affect the efficiency and sustainability of artisanal glass production and consumption. Turning to David Pye’s theories (Pye, The Nature and Art of Workmanship) on risk and certainty in making, I will discuss how the risk associated with handmade production can be influenced by the certainty associated with mass automated manufacturing to create a middle ground where artisanal making can become more sustainable. My research is practice-led, and my understanding of it has come through daily material engagement, and reflective journaling. Therefore, this piece of writing will use examples of my material research, as well as drawing upon my reflections of theory from the fields of sociology, craft, design, pedagogy and environmentalism. This article will present a critical analysis of the research I conducted as part of my postgraduate research in 3D design crafts. This body of research output has been analysed in this text as it gives an account of the evolving human-material relationship throughout some of the most pivotal years of my glass practice.