Wood

In a small brick building in East London, in a school developed by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, before he became King Charles, students from around the world are giving new life to a set of artistic principles that have been nearly lost. Their work is helping to revive a number of nearly obsolete skills in art, architecture, and manufacturing, with a new tilt toward sustainability.

While rural Japan may not be the first place one envisions as a production site for medieval and Renaissance-era instruments from Europe and Central Asia, this was precisely the craft of master instrument-builder Kōhaku Matsumoto, founder of the Catherina Early Musical Instruments Workshop. Matsumoto originally established his studio in Tokyo in 1972, then relocated in…

Since the 16th century, Cremona’s luthiers—including Stradivari himself—have been using an unusually resonant wood from Paneveggio, known as Italy’s “violin forest,” to handcraft the world’s finest string instruments. Then a 2018 storm decimated the forest. A band of experts in Cremona is now rallying to save this iconic tradition. A documentary short.

The word artisanal has become so shopworn that it’s almost devoid of meaning. (To wit: we once saw a pizza outlet on the outskirts of a small town in northern France that was fashioned in the style of an ATM-kiosk under the following sign: “Artisanal Pizza.”) In stark contrast to this sorry state of affairs, we would like to suggest a few items for holiday shopping made by some of the masters we profiled in 2019.

While Scottish culture is branded by its famous Highland bagpipes, its neighbor across the water has long made a very different set of pipes that plays a much wider range of music. Our correspondent visits the indefatigable, obsessive masters of the uilleann pipes.

There are many ways to learn more about Paracho guitars, and to visit the town’s master luthiers. In fact, every August Paracho holds its annual guitar festival. (This year’s festival runs from August 5th-10th.) So if you want to visit this community, here are a few tips to help you enjoy a productive, and safe,…

Initially, Paracho guitars were poor relations to their Spanish cousins, largely because the town’s guitarreros used old techniques and geometry that differed greatly from the approach taken by the Europeans. Ron Fernandez, a Yale anthropologist who imports guitars from Spain, says the main difference was–and still is–in the tools. “The European way to make a…

Step inside a family-owned workshop in Paracho, Mexico — birthplace of the ornate, white guitar made famous by the Disney movie, “Coco,” and home to some of the world’s most accomplished luthiers. Don’t miss the full story, “Mexico’s Master Guitar Makers”, written by Laura Fraser.

For 15 years, the world’s folk art makers and enthusiasts have gathered, en masse, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to celebrate the possible when it comes to indigenous craftsmanship. This summer, in just three days, some 21,000 people spent $3.3 million to show that traditional artisans still matter.