Not long ago, woodworking was considered to be in a downward spiral with diminishing followers and practitioners. Pundits were proclaiming the demise of woodworking as a hobby. Fewer young people were taking up woodworking and interest in building their own furniture was waning. Why bother, with so much commercially mass-produced furniture available at reasonable prices. In addition, style trends come and go and being saddled with an out of style furniture piece became an issue. Staying on top of style trends has become instilled in us through the proliferation of interior design and renovation shows on television. Furniture has slowly become a disposable or recyclable object instead of a heirloom piece to be handed off to future generations. When you think about it, this trend flies in the face of environmentalism and celebrates the creation of even more trash. Out of all this doom and gloom rose the maker movement.
This younger generation of makers has slowly begun to appreciate the creation of things with their hands. Increased waste going to landfills brought awareness to the never-ending cycle of consumerism. Let's face it, people are much less likely to throw out something they have created themselves. The virtues of designing and making an object has returned people to their heritage of being self-sufficient, inventive and to not be reliant on industrially produced goods. Through handcrafting, people could imprint their own mark on an object and customize the design to reflect their own aesthetic. The current maker movement is simply an evolution of the arts & crafts movement which has defined creative people for countless decades. The maker movement is an updated form of the craft movement where new materials, technology and ideas are being incorporated into craft.