It was a shame that Jess couldn't accompany me to the fair (mainly because she's great company but also partly because I need her to take photos because mine are rubbish), but luckily I had a willing companion: Dad.
In a fit of planning and organisation I bought our tickets online, which turned out to be a winner. We whizzed straight through the gate while the line to purchase tickets stretched for hundreds of people; a testament to the awesome event this fair has already become since its inception in 2014.
From the moment we walked through the gate we were buoyed by the atmosphere. There was a terrific crowd but it was pleasantly relaxed. People came here to spend time milling about, watching the craftspeople at work, talking to them, taking photos and buying the beautiful things on offer.
Dad is somewhat of a lost-tradesman (not sure about the hyphenation; I needed to distinguish between that and a tradesman who is lost) himself. He studied as a civil engineer and worked his four decade long career in local government. He started out with traditional tools of the trade: slide rules, 7 figure log tables, scale rules, drawing boards, t-squares and a pencil. Erasing shield, linen and ink for plans, manual dumpy level, theodolite.
Over the decades though these tools were superseded by, you know, technology. Calculators and computers and the like. It's understandable that he would be a bit nostalgic about how things used to be. Had he set up a workstation at this fair to draw plans of bridges or houses or whatever other mysterious things civil engineers used to draw by hand, he would have been immediately at home with his own crowd gathering to watch him work.
We wandered the length and breadth of the fair over a few hours. We laughed at the number of times we said to each other, "Oh! We could do that!" When you see the tools laid out in front of you with all the materials ready to go, and the experts doing their craft with apparent ease, you really do feel like you could just pick it up yourself. In actual fact we couldn't do 'that' with even a small fraction of the precision, finesse and efficiency that these craftspeople had, but it didn't stop us feeling like we could, and like we desperately wanted to.
With a barrow load of self-discipline I restrained myself and left the fair with only one project: basket weaving. The basket to be woven is small and humble, and appropriately named 'Your first basket'. Rest assured you will read about how it (un)ravels here in the relatively near future.
I wonder what it is about a craft that draws one to it? I found myself gravitating towards the crafts of stone and paper and wood. Letterpress, book binding, stone masonry, spoon carving (which reminds me: we will come back to whittling - we promise!), printing. If I had to narrow it down to the one trade that stood out to me the most, I would have to say it was Colen Clenton, the maker of set squares, cutting gauges, planes and the like, made from wood and brass. I love the fact that these people make the tools that others use for their own trade. They are in the trade of making the tools of other trades. And they need their own tools of the trade to achieve this. Amazing!
Dad was particularly taken by a gentleman who was doing sign writing. He had a brush and a mahl stick (*internet search term: signwriters wooden stick with a rubber stopper on the end) that he rested on the window to steady his arm. With deft flourishes, he wrote some fancy text and scrawled out an eagle. Just like that! As a left-hander who struggles to draw a stick figure on a whiteboard**, this is pretty darned impressive.
The Lost Trades Fair was a perfect celebration of the things that Jess and I are trying to champion here. You know, those things that set our roots deeper into our communities and our place in this world. Tasks/work/crafts that take time, that improve with continued application, and that are built around some sort of necessity. And the event itself was a place to meet, connect and inspire. It's a beautiful thing. It really is.
*Where I once would have said "I Googled such and such..." I now should write "I Ecosia searched such and such..." Ecosia is now my default browser for online searches. Search the interwebs, plant a tree. Winning. Jess got me onto it in this post.
** Yes, I'm a teacher, and yes, I should be better at this most vital aspect of my profession. I almost failed the chalkboard test at uni. No, I didn't go to uni in the middle ages, and no, I don't know why they were still using chalkboards in the New Millenium. But hey, that's what my HECS was paying for.
No comments:
Post a Comment