As a reaction to the negative impact of the industrialization, the arts & crafts movement emerged in Britain in the late 19th century. It changed the general importance society placed on the production of goods and reformed design and manufacturing process of everything, including architecture and jewelry. It also gave the decorative arts a higher status. The movement gained momentum and reached its peak around the turn to the 20th century.
There was an awareness the negative impacts of mass-production for at least two decades before changes emerged in the 1860s. There needed to be a reprioritization of values in order to create products with integrity, that didn’t dehumanize workers during manufacturing. The Arts & crafts movement wanted to do this by orientation on a set of ideals.
The movement set out to popularize decorative art. “The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society mounted its first annual exhibition in 1888, showing examples of work it hoped would help raise both the social and intellectual status of crafts including ceramics, textiles, metalwork and furniture.” One of the defining artists of this movement was William Morris, who became a commercially celebrated designer whose style influenced many artists. His vision was to create beautiful, well-made objects for every day. For this he was inspired by medieval ways of production, that focused on manufacturing on a small-scale. He didn’t oppose the use of machines but disapproved the efficiency-focused splitting of tasks during production. He wanted the working class to enjoy their jobs by being able to creatively construct a product from beginning to end, instead of having to do the same small repetitive tasks day after day. The leading art critic of the time, John Ruskin also argued that isolating the creative process from the manufacturing had social and aesthetic disadvantages. This goes as far as designers creating a total interior. Because many of the arts & crafts leaders trained as architects the common idea emerged, that every object on a room should blend in a harmonious way. Therefore, the designers would work on a huge variety of different design disciplines. Another ideal the movement was striving towards was a rural lifestyle. That’s why many designers moved to the countryside and established new forms of living there. They revived traditions of craftsmanship and improved the economy by giving jobs to locals. When hiring they encouraged even untrained workers to join.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/arts-and-crafts-an-introduction
This movement is a good example of how the handmade style can holistically and authentically work. I think that the arts and crafts movement had a big impact on giving the crafts and hand-made aesthetic an ethical and political connotation, similarly as craftivism, which means craftwashing can also be traced back to this movement.
