In Search of the Iron Fairy (aka Alabama Whirly) + excerpts from Sonetsu's 'Unknown Craftsman'

 Fundmentally, human beings...need belief, free play of the imagination and intuition in their homes and workshops or they become starved.

All the cog-wheels and electronic brains cannot assuage these human needs in the long run It is for lack of such essentials that we turn to dope of one kind or another, or to destructiveness.

Basically this is not so much a revolution against science and the machine as a seeking of a means of counterbalance by employing man's first tools, his own hands, for the expression of his inner nature The problem is how artist-craftsmen are to function rightly in a world of machines.

Probing further, one is forced to ask what the function of the artist-crafstman is...

 Enthusiasm and play of imagination, for example, occur as wet clay spins under fingers, but take place with varying degrees of intensity, depending on how free of inhibitions one is.

Both the creative gift and the freedom are essential

In an artist-craftsman it is the degree of life force canalised into a craft.

The degree: the purity: the intensity. We can relate the work of individuals to the magnificent communal creations of unknown, humble, and usually illiterate artisans of past ages and draw inspiration from them

His main criticism of individual craftsmen and modern artists is that they are overproud of their individualism.

the good artist or craftsman has no personal pride because his soul knows that any prowess he shows is evidence of that Other Power

"Take heed of the humble; be what you are by birthright; there is no room for arrogance".Handcraftmanship, if it be alive, justifies itself at any time as an intimate expression of the spirit of man.

Such work is an end in itself and not a means to an end

If, however, it ceases to serve a functional need, it runs the risk of becoming art for art's sake and untrue to its nature, depending upon the sincerity of the craftsmanThey did not do it for its beauty, they merely did it.

And yet, "merely doing" something is in itself a great source of beauty, implying as it does a state of freedom not bound by concepts of beauty, much less fear of the ugly.