The Archaic Arts and Skills
There are still niches for the archaic arts. And it is our job to help preserve them, to help them endure through the cacophony and clutter of the modern world.
There are still niches for the archaic arts. And it is our job to help preserve them, to help them endure through the cacophony and clutter of the modern world.
What, exactly, is reskilling? The answer to this question is not so obvious.
There were several objectives behind making the Solar Tree but the foremost was to find new and interesting ways to engage households on energy issues.
I still feel that childlike thrill each time I learn something new.
The mental image we were brought up with of Santa’s workshop was of hoards of elves working away making new stuff, painting wooden trains with paintpots and so on. But what if we were able to shift that image, and instead tell our children that the elves aren’t making stuff, they’re repairing it?
Waste nothing. Keep a stock pot going for soups and stews. Use up leftovers. Cook without meat several times a week, using eggs, cheese, lentils, pearl barley, rice. Use seasonal ingredients. Use cheaper cuts of meat, cooked long and slowly. Have fun foraging for wild food: mushrooms, blackberries, nettles; if you live near the sea, mussels etc. Share and barter: if you keep hens, swap eggs for your veg-growing neighbour’s glut of courgettes.
In the 10 km radius of where I live I can source 80% of my favourite fruit, mostly for free, for a token sum, or in exchange for my own homegrown produce.
Carpenter Maria Klemperer-Johnson is used to being the only woman on the construction site—but, thanks in part to her own work, that is beginning to change.
But what can we pull out of Vincent’s story that might illuminate our discussions about education and learning over this month?
Transitioning includes reinvigoration of heirloom technologies and traditional skills needed to thrive in a carbon-constrained future.
What would it look like to consume and use resources in a way that does not look the other way?
One of the most important skills we have lost, that facilitates the learning and practicing of all the other skills, is the skill of sharing. This is particularly true if you are on the receiving end, we are still fairly good at telling other people what to do or at doing a good deed, but so many people are no longer comfortable with asking for help or to borrow something. I wonder how much of this stems from the fact that you are then ‘in debt’ to the other person?