Ar-teez-in-ul: So you made it by hand, eh?

Over a cup of coffee, plate of crepes, and an apple this morning I was really wishing that I had the talent to take really artsy pictures of my food to post on my blog. It seems like all the other food and lifestyle blogs have really great photos of handmade food or similarly crafty items. They always have perfect mood lighting and shot in close detail so you can see the time and effort it took to produce the items. But then I realized, in an epiphany of sorts, that really it's about whether or not you actually had to use your hands in the process, whether or not some modicum of skill was necessary.

You almost never see pictures of manufactured stuff. It's never, "Check out this box of wheat thins I picked up at the store. They're so good!" It's always, "Rolling out the cracker dough by hand using my antique rolling pin I cut them into squares, mismatched due to my lack of experience, and baked in my own oven only to smother them in hummus afterwards."

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of making stuff by hand. A big fan, even. It's not for nothing that I spend hours pouring my efforts into loaves of bread, practicing making pasta on my new machine, or other such endeavors in the kitchen. It's more satisfying to me to have something that I've made myself and I know exactly what's in it. But it can get out of hand.

It seems we've become so used to machine production of everything in our lives that when it's made by hand, it automatically becomes better and highly prized. This is the world of artisan production, in simpler terms, making stuff by hand. Here in Sonoma County people are crazy for artisan stuff. Wine, cheese, food, clothing: if it's made by hand and can claim that artisan stamp, then it's good stuff to Sonomians (not a real moniker, I just made that word up).

It confuses me though, that on one hand some artisan products (like food) are highly prized while others are looked down on. What about all those artisan meth dealers? The guys who cook the stuff in their backyard sheds? They made those drugs by hand, can't we call that artisanal drug making? Or how about those guys who were mailing out pipe bombs a few years ago. Sure, they were dangerous and caused a lot of harm, but they were artisanal! With the fervor that some are devoted to only buying handmade, you'd think they'd have a broader sense of the word. I'm not saying I do, I just don't buy into the hype.

Sometimes when I'm successful in coaxing a loaf of bread out of my bowl of flour and yeast I remember that people have been this for thousands of years and the fact that I'm semi-able is not remarkable. Making stuff by hand is not new, and maybe we shouldn't treat it like a subculture of defiance against "The Man", we should just keep in mind that everyone used to know how to do this stuff. It's not so special as we think, just unusual in these times.