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Articles Relating to Handcrafted Iron Hardware

We've written several articles that are related to our wrought iron hardware. We hope they are helpful to you! Feel free to read on, or click on the link directly below to jump to the next article.

1. Why Buy Handcrafted?
2. What Kinds of Homes Can Use Wrought Iron Hardware?



Why Buy Handcrafted?

Let's say you need a coffee cup. Your choices are almost unlimited! Delicate porcelain coffee cups, colorful ceramic, or sturdy stoneware mugs. Disposable Styrofoam cups, insulated stainless steel cups, spill-proof commuter cups, or cups emblazoned with company logos. Cups made by the thousands in factories, or cups made individually, on a potter's wheel in a quiet studio. And they all hold coffee just fine.

This is an example of a small choice that we are fortunate to have the luxury of making every day. Choices, even small ones, provide us with opportunities to build a life for ourselves that satisfies us, in little but meaningful ways.

Handcrafted home accessories can make your daily life richer. We believe our lives are improved, in small ways, by choosing everyday items that are well made, well designed, and pleasing to look at or use. This isn't always expensive, and sometimes it only requires taking the time to look for something a bit special, and making it a part of your life. It can be something as simple as a turned wooden bowl to hold your fruit, a hand carved wooden spoon to cook with, a handwoven oak splint basket to store your mail, or (you knew we’d get there) a hand forged iron hook to hang your bathrobe on.

These are little things, and easily overlooked; but they play a large role in our lives. We open our kitchen cabinet doors thousands of times, but rarely notice the hardware at all. What if it made you feel good, just for a second, every time your fingers slipped around the smooth curved cabinet handle? What if the beautifully glazed lamp on your bedside table pleased you, every time you clicked it off at night? We think those brief moments of pleasure matter!

Handcrafted home accessories are a link to the traditional skills that built our country. Many traditional crafts contain history that helps us better understand our place in the modern world. Craftspeople like tinsmiths, weavers, potters, spinners, coopers, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, silversmiths, broom makers, folk artists, and others are part of the rich artistic fabric of our country's past. Understanding the role they played only helps us to enjoy and appreciate our contemporary surroundings more fully. Without modern-day artists practicing and furthering these honorable old trades, many of these skills would be lost to future generations, and our society would be much poorer for it!

Handcrafted accessories often last longer than manufactured items. Most artists or craftspeople enjoy making something they can be proud of, and they want the quality to be high. Manufactured items, by comparison, are often designed to be quickly made, inexpensively shipped, and replaced often. Because they often outlast their manufactured counterparts, handcrafted items are quite often a better value over time. When you invest in fine craftsmanship, you are much more likely to be purchasing something that your children and grandchildren will enjoy for years to come, after it has served you well for many years.

Most importantly, handcrafted accessories speak to our human side. A coffee cup is just a material object, but a handmade cup unavoidably carries with it a sense of the person who made it. When you reach in your cabinet, does your hand stray to the giant plastic mug you got free at the convenience store? Or, do you reach for the ceramic mug that your child made in grade school...with the crooked handle and lumpy rim? Most of us will reach for the lumpy mug, because it means something personal in our life. A handcrafted item means something personal to the artist or craftsperson who made it. It gave them happiness to make the piece, and part of that happiness is the thought that others will use and enjoy it.

Fortunately, there's an an army of craftspeople and artists out there who want nothing more than to spend their lives making truly wonderful things for your home. Seek them out! Examine their wares, ask them questions, and learn about their craft. Look for the things that make you smile, and will make your daily life a tiny bit richer. The rewards of owning lovingly crafted home accessories will be with you every day for years to come.

At the end of the day, when you settle down in your handcrafted mesquite rocking chair, with your hand sewn sheepskin slippers on your feet, your soft handwoven mohair throw across your lap, and your hand-thrown redware mug in your hand, your coffee will never taste so good!

Go to next article,
What Kinds of Homes Can Use Wrought Iron Hardware?



Richard and Sheri Ross
Guadalupe Forge Inc.
Email us: sales@guadalupeforge.com


Copyright 2002-2005 Guadalupe Forge Inc., All Rights Reserved. All contents are the copyrighted property of Guadalupe Forge, Inc., and may not be reproduced in any manner without our express permission.