Nothing we do or own or make or think is ever definitively ours. We are constantly collaborating with the world around us, as we interact with any aspect of it we collaborate with its heritage.

As you open a door you didn’t install, on hinges you didn’t design, in a house you didn’t build, made of bricks you didn’t bake from clay, with fire you didn’t kindle, you are working with all of those craftsmen and all of the people that influenced and taught them. More than that, you are working with all the people that tweaked the design from its original form and all the people that worked on every door you have ever opened that has contributed to your knowledge of how doors work.

Craft is constantly evolving. In the hands of craftsmen everywhere tiny tweaks or errors are being made that are taught or observed and passed on. In this way, much as with genetics, a complex tree of relationships forms. A tree of influence. Although unlike a family tree I believe that craft has 3 strands of parent hood (design, process and material), each with its own rich heritage.