Quote Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome View Post
The good news, though, is that I am also meeting more and more people my age and younger who are making a purposeful effort to learn these kinds of hand crafts and not let these old skills die. I work with college students part time, and many of them are very much interested in learning to bake, learning to sew, learning to knit, learning to quilt, learning to do for themselves. I think that's a good sign.
Matt,

I think so too...or I did.

My wife bakes bread once a week...two loaves generally last us that long...spins, knits, and works in the bootshop. She's also involved with several spinners and weavers groups and they try to pass on "lost" knowledge. We have raised chickens, geese, hogs, and goats...collecting eggs, surgically caponizing pullets, milking, and butchering. Gardening, canning and preserving.

I have spent the last 35+ years of my life not just making boots but fostering students, answering questions and trying the best I knew how to encourage interest in what was/is considered nearly a lost art (at least in this country). I teach bootmaking seminars and have written several books about bootmaking. I also run a discussion forum dedicated to bespoke boot and shoemaking which I created. We have a student coming from Brussels next week...one of three or four international students in the last year alone. On the surface all that tends to make me hopeful. And after all, hope is surely more attractive than despair.

But when I got to thinking about it, I realized that we were a "magnet" of sorts for folks who want to learn to do this kind of stuff. Years ago, most shoeshops had at least one employee who knew how to make shoes...or at least repair quality shoes. Today, finding a shoe repair shop is much harder, let alone expecting to find someone who is either a qualified maker or a competent repairman working there. So, if you want to learn, you've got to look elsewhere.

I suspect that we...you and I...see the folks that have nowhere else to go and who have probably exhausted every other avenue for learning. As spokesmen for our Trades and as people interested in fostering students...and the Trades, themselves...we naturally attract those who are seeking guidance or mentoring.

And bravo for you...and bravo for me...sincerely. It's good work. And rewarding.

But as a percentage of the population...as a percentage of the annual increase in population...I doubt the numbers we are seeing are significant.

But maybe that's just me...