"Useful arts (also called technics) are concerned with the skills and methods of practical subjects such as manufacture and craftsmanship. The word has now gone out of fashion, but it was used during the Victorian era and earlier as an antonym to the performing arts and the fine arts."
This blog is about the things I make. I've always loved the phrase "useful arts", not only for its original meaning, but for what it suggests to the modern ear, wrong though it may be: that which is both art, and serves a practical purpose. Both meanings, "right" and "wrong", have truth in them. Art is much more than something to be put in museums, or even just framed and hung on the wall - art can be a tool that is a pleasure to hold and look upon, or the lamp in your living room. Sadly lacking (though it need not be so!) in many of the mass-produced items we surround ourselves with today, it's what I strive for in my own work. Bringing together engineering, aesthetics, and touch of techno-magic, my projects aim to embody everything evoked by the phrase "the useful arts".
