Lux-Craft: A discussion.

I recent read a brief but telling piece from Core77.com examining a few objects that that are indicative of this phenomena that we have all bee encountering. It was my first exposure to the term Lux-Craft and it perfectly summarizes the objects that were the subject of a recent discussion with a colleague.

Our discussion started when someone had mentioned the Best Made Company and my colleague informed me that the axes are made by Council Tool in North Carolina. I was a little disheartened to learn that the axes weren’t steeped in the handmade tool movement happening in Brooklyn, NY as is a personal favorite Cut Brooklyn. But after some consideration it seemed like a perfect and respectable marriage craft and art. The Best Made axes have a reasonable mark up over the base Council tool axes and it is infinitely better than hawking some tarted up low quality tool, though who would know if you just hang it on the wall.

Curious about how else this Lux-Craft was being applied to businesses and products I did a little searching. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Shaw and Tenney, a Maine based craft oar and paddle company whose products I grew up using, had caught onto the Lux-Craft movement. They seem to have borrowed the aesthetic and marketing from our friends in Brooklyn and cut out the middle man. Though there is a considerable mark up on the Lux-Craft versions of their products it seems to be for good reason with proceeds from the different paddles going to groups that maintain the natural places where the heritage of paddling continues to grow.

These are just two examples of the Lux-Craft that seems to be growing by the day and illustrates the subtle differences in how this movement is designed, made and marketed within a much larger spectrum. Lux-Craft lives and who knows what we will see next.