Handmade Furniture whats so special about it?

While talking the other day, the subject of handmade vs. machine made furniture came up and the point I put forward went something like this. People are always comparing the virtues of one against the other and I don’t think you can do this. Each has completely different aesthetics, although they do both share the same practical function, but this is all. One has the advantage of being comparatively less expensive, an important advantage when filling a house. We generally acquire it new and do not intend to keep it a life time, changing pieces here and there with fashion or as they deteriorate. Generally though, different styles seem to clash and some effort to theme is required. This mass produced furniture can make a house comfortable, but fails in providing a warm welcoming ambiance.

The other can be an antique or newly commissioned piece, the high price tag demands that it be well made and capable of surviving a number of generations. One thing that is immediately noticeable, styles can be mixed and still work. The atmosphere in a room changes, like when a room has people in it and when it doesn’t. These are both human attributes, we don’t need to theme our friends to make them look OK together do we? Here the gap between the two types of furniture widens and gets a little esoteric. Because we have to ask what causes this difference. Some may say, with an antique it’s the age that adds something and this is true, up to a point. The new pieces also exude the same presence of being, enough that people will unconsciously walk up and caress it; how do we explain this?

In Japan it is said that when a craftsman makes an artifact part of his soul inhabits it. While I do not believe this is entirely true, I do think it captures the essence of an exchange that definitely does take place. I believe the piece is becomes vitalised by the living touch of the craftsman, it is his child, his creation and therefore his thought forms are embedded into it. Although a tree has been cut down and is no longed living in the true sense, there is still movement and life on an atomic level. It is this life I believe that responds to the craftsman’s touch and like all life, it emits vibrations, People are like radios, they are receiving signals from their surroundings all day, mostly on an unconscious level; one of the reasons we form impressions. Those with sensitive nature's can respond quite strongly.
D.H.Lawrence put it like this

“Things men have made
with waken hands, and
put soft life into, are awake
through years with transferred touch,
and go on glowing for long years.
And for this reason, some old
things are lovely, warm still with the life
of forgotten men who made them.”