A Craftsman's Legacy

March 15, 2019
"I wanted to be the driver of my own life." Metalworker/mechanic/TV host Gorges writes about the pleasures of--and lessons from--working with one's hands.Handwork is challenging, and, as the author writes by way of an affable if admonitory opening, sometimes it involves pain: "My hands bleed all the time," he writes, "their skin is rough and cracked like a dirt road, and there's a gnarly scar across my right index knuckle." Yet, he reflects, such disfigurements are really badges of honor, pointing to the things that one learns through artisanal work that calls on the practitioner to step away from the "larger churning machine" that wants to chew us up and instead do cool stuff. This is a book full of cool stuff and the people who do it, from making swords--swordsmiths are "our last line of defense from this craft being completely lost to history"--to rebuilding vintage motorcycles and carving gargoyles for cathedrals. Gorges, who hosts a TV show of the same title as the book, also notes that doing such pursuits can take passion to levels of mania, with no such thing as time off, no social or family life, and no chance of ever winning that "never-ending struggle to find that work-life balance." Nevertheless, like the kindred-spirit book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Gorges' narrative serves up the lessons that one learns from hard, deliberate, artful work, including persistence, planning, gumption, stick-to-itiveness, and focus--about which he writes memorably, "some of the frame has to be blurry in order to sharpen the object you're shooting," which goes a long way to explaining that whole work-life balance thing.A friendly, pleasant manifesto; without the philosophical depth of Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft, but still a fine read for DIYers looking to up their game--or get their hands callused in the first place.

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April 1, 2019
Is craftsmanship dead in this age of technology? The answer, says Gorges, host of PBS' A Craftsman's Legacy, is an emphatic no. Though, unlike its European counterparts, American business does not encourage apprenticeships, every year any number of graduates, corporate dropouts, and career transitioners turn to some kind of craft for work, be it metalworking, pottery, furniture making, or glassblowing. With coauthor Sternfeld, Gorges chronicles the trajectories of 24 artist-craftsmen, explaining a bit of the subjects' backstories as well as their craft, then describes a slice of their actual time spent in fashioning. It's a serious tome that deals with the significance of work and with principles like honesty, integrity, and purpose, which oddly mirror the world of business. There is indeed much to ponder: where craft and art meet, how to deal with imperfection, harnessing concentration and drive, and finding and living a purposeful life? Kentuckian furniture-maker Mark Whitley summarizes it best: The universe will let you know one way or another if you are where you should be. Includes the author's notes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)