Comment by binary132

It’s horrible to think that this kind of creative handiwork could be replaced entirely by automatic processes within my lifetime. It’s reminiscent of how blacksmithing and weaving have almost entirely been replaced by machine process, except that those industries were mostly drudgery, at best. Maybe to the artisan coloring animated films, their work becomes drudgery too. But even if it is objectively more efficient to mechanize, something of the humanity of the craft has left even those simple things, that touched daily life of people in their local community, and has now been replaced by efficient, cost-optimized plain commodity. Probably looking back at such things romantically now would have seemed very silly at the time — it’s just a tool, a garment, or an implement — but hindsight makes it seem so much more alive than the dead plastic and stamped sheet metal things of today, and even now people will still sometimes pay a premium for handmade simple objects.

I hope at least that even if many creative artisan industries are devoured by the efficiency demon, many people will still have a fondness for true artwork and handicraft, and be willing to pay those talented souls the true value of their offerings.

Still, when a huge factory can make millions of garments far more cheaply than an army of weavers and sewers can be paid to, it’s hardly a surprise if the craftwork shop closes its doors. Food for thought.