Why We Make Things and Why It Matters: The Education of a Craftsman

Korn, Peter (Author)

Brief Description:
In this moving account (and favorite of America's most famous woodworker, Nick Offerman), Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer/maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching and administration at Colorado's Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and finally founds a school in Maine: the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an internationally respected, non-profit institution. Through this beautiful exploration, Korn works to get at the "why" of craft, in particular, and at the satisfactions of creative work, in general - to understand their essential nature. How does the making of objects both reflect and refine our own identities? What is it about craft and creative work that makes them so rewarding? What are the natures of those rewards? How do the products of creative work inform society? In short, what does the process of making things reveal about ourselves? Korn draws on forty years of hands-on experience to answer these questions eloquently in this personal and revealing inquiry. Peter Korn writes that his work as a furniture-maker tries to accomplish three goals: integrity, simplicity, and grace. Fortunately, these qualities are also what distinguish his writing. In this book, he gives the reader an almost tangible sense of what it takes to be a creative craftsman, a homo faber, a maker of things, which is one of the central elements of the human condition. But he does much more than that: he explores what the search for self and for belonging entails in our rapidly changing times. --Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Peter Korn's brilliant new book resonates with me as a visual art

Jacket Description/Flap:
In this moving account, Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer/maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching and administration at Colorado's Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and finally founds a school in Maine: the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an internationally respected, non-profit institution.

This is not a "how-to" book in any sense. Korn wants to get at the why of craft in particular, and the satisfactions of creative work in general, to understand their essential nature. How does the making of objects shape our identities? How do the products of creative work inform society? In short, what does the process of making things reveal to us about ourselves? Korn draws on four decades of hands-on experience to answer these questions eloquently, and often poignantly, in this personal, introspective, and revealing book.

Review Quotes:

"The style of Peter Korn's lovely, patient and fastidious ode to craft, Why We Make Things and Why It Matters, mirrors the technical precision and style he has used in his career as a furniture maker and teacher."--The New York Times

"In his beautiful book, Peter Korn invites us to understand craftsmanship as an activity that connects us to others, and affirms what is best in ourselves."--Matthew Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft

"An uplifting title for artisans, novice or skilled, who will benefit from the ideas of a kindred spirit."-- Library Journal 

"Peter Korn's brilliant new book resonates with me as a visual artist in a profound way. I share his passion for craft and admire his ability to take a plank of wood and fashion anything he sets his mind to. Throughout the centuries, furniture makers and painters have shared a set of belief systems centered on craft. The pleasure and calm that I get as a painter fashioning a complicated work from colored dirt on canvas is, I believe, the same pleasure and peace that Peter Korn and his students get as craftsmen."--Chuck Close

Table of Contents:
Introduction -- Chapter 1. A Shared Hunger -- Chapter 2. Hammering Out a Vocation -- Chapter 3. The Seductive Ideology of Craft -- Chapter 4. Live from New York -- Chapter 5. Heart, Head, and Hand -- Chapter 6. Thinking With Things -- Chapter 7. Exercising My Voice -- Chapter 8. The Inward Migration of Truth -- Chapter 9. Second Epiphany -- Chapter 10. Mapping a Craftsman's Mind -- Chapter 11. A Miracle at the Heart of the Ordinary -- Chapter 12. Creating a School -- Chapter 13. The Creative Cycle -- Chapter 14. A Good Life -- Endnotes -- Selected Reading List -- Index.

 Contributor Bio:Korn, Peter

Peter Korn is the founder and executive director of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. A furniture maker since 1974, he exhibits in galleries and museums around the country. He is also the author of award-winning how-to books, including Woodworking Basics: Mastering the Essentials of Craftsmanship.