As the joke goes, when you do it yourself, you get what you get. In her last Design Stories column for now, Hanna-Katariina Mononen reflects on what else besides new skills we could learn by doing things ourselves.
I WENT TO a glass studio with some friends to try glass blowing. “That went really well!,” we cheered each other on while taking turns to blow into a narrow metal pipe with all we got, turning red in the face. At the same time, the master glass blower worked alongside us, turning and rotating the molten glass at the end of the pipe with decades of experience and artfully manipulating it as if performing a meticulous choreography.
Later, we compared results eagerly. The perfect shapes and beautiful colors of the glass baubles and the texture of the glass felt like a direct result of us having a natural talent for glass blowing. Of course, we knew that the great result was owing to something quite different than our input, but already being part of the process made us form a special attachment to the objects we created.
The experience reminded me of the joy of doing something yourself, even when you learn a skill completely on your own, turning an idea into a finished product. And, when you do something yourself, you also get to control the quality of the object all the way from the start. It feels amazing to learn new skills, broaden your understanding and gradually develop in something you knew nothing about just a while ago.
“When you do something yourself, you get to control the quality of the object all the way from the start.”
The start of a new year is a great time to learn new skills. Typically – and particularly around this time – ceramics courses and other workshops are full of new, enthusiastic participants looking to craft something to cherish. Brushing up on my knitting with the help of a more skilled knitter last summer made me miss the wool socks expertly crafted by my late grandmother. The tightness of their legs was always just right, and I was given a new pair for every birthday. My own tragicomic attempt at knitting, on the other hand, became a thing of the past as soon as summer turned to fall.
Italian designer and design theorist Enzo Mari encouraged everyone to learn by doing. His book Autoprogettazione?, published in the 1970s, featured furniture designed by Mari as well as detailed instructions for making them. The project commented on the role of design as the privilege of the wealthy and made good design more accessible to everyone, as the manufacturing methods were simple and materials affordable. The furniture can be regarded as a series of exercises in understanding good design and industrial production.
If nothing else, doing it yourself teaches that manufacturing objects is a complex and arduous process that contains multiple stages. At best, it makes us better and more detail-oriented consumers. When you understand what making an object requires, you learn to take a closer look at quality and, first and foremost, appreciate – and choose – objects of high quality.
The author, Hanna-Katariina Mononen, reflects on the issues of a beautiful and sustainable life in her monthly column for Design Stories. She thinks that just like in life, in the home, the most beautiful parts are unplanned – and often relatively ordinary as well.
Text and image: Hanna-Katariina Mononen