Dovetail Artisans

Now, I'm an economics major, and if you have ever read the beginning of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, you will learn that the reduction of the creation process to simple repetitive processes is the source of modern wealth.  Eventually, age old traditions of crafting were sucked into the vacuum of factory produced goods.  Craftsmen who had been self-employed since the beginning of civilization finally found themselves putting down their tools and putting on their overalls as they filed into the factory to make 300 shirts a day, or 200 pots, or 30,000 sheets of paper.  Adam Smith's example is the mass production of nails, which I think is a wonderful thing to gain a lot of efficiently.  There isn't much noticeable art to nails or sheets of paper, but other things were taken over by the system that should have stayed with the now deceased craft class.  The traditional society's economy is described by administrators, artisans, farmers, and merchants.  The modern economy could be described by Capitalists (investors and entrepreneurs), white collar (bureaucrats and office workers), blue collar (factory workers, non-creative service jobs like waiters and retail), and academics. (note the exception that doesn't seem very important to me is the small sector of creative service jobs that could not be called a substitute for the craftclass such as event planners, non-chain restaurants and others who mostly fall under capitalists in a small business sense).

But there is something soulful about the design made by the unique human hand movement and unique human thought.  The handmade good, the good with heart, with soul.  Do we really need more vases, more factory made vases?  Or do we need less vases but soulful vases.  I would argue market failure, but I think a legitimate argument could be made against that in the form of "people like the things they get at walmart and target and not everybody enjoys to step outside of the comfortable and into the artistic."  For the Glenside resident looking for an avenue to push back against the factory, there is Dovetail Artisans.

My friend Elayne (If I may take the liberty of claiming friendship) adopted the store and has accumulated a wonderful array of handmade pottery, woodwork, glassware, jewelry, and other pieces of art.  You can find this store next to Rizzo's on Glenside Avenue near the east road intersection. (Be sure to check out Hamid's ethnic art gallery also while your there, just for the experience)  Now let's get to some pictures:

Everytime I go in there, I find these bowls, that are handmade from start to finish absolutely striking

When I went in there today, she had all of these excellent new canvas prints that this picture can not do justice to.  Here is the arrangement of the prints on the floor while she plans how she wants them to go on the wall.  I acted as her apprentice in layout plan, note my foot

This does absolutely no justice, if you can, go look at them, treat it like a chance to see a display of a particular artist.  The one to the right of my foot ended up being my favorite, and started out as my least favorite.  It is full of subtle characteristics that lead to a vision of a free life.  It is a fashionable woman in a fancy trailer, and the trailer's brand is "Lifestyle" I really recommend you look at this one for awhile.  If I could only remember for the life of me the title of the piece.

Finally we arrive at Elayne, the best piece of art in the store!  Also note the clocks in the background (Not that you could miss them, I had them frame her head)

Things I don't have pictures of that are worthy of admiration:  Navajo Tiles, all of the wooden goods, the other clocks (She has a lot of clocks), the glassware, a lot more pottery, the knickknack type things, the handbags, and a ton of other things.  All I can say is GO VISIT!  Here's praying that there is some way to fully revive the craft and the creativity we have lost in the death of the craftclass.