Craft-as-Vocation: Farriery
As modern society changes how we value work by hand, contemporary craft has been our reaction against industrialisation. Craft-as-vocation – craft with a highly practical output – shines a light on how we can view craft as functional, why these practices have survived and how we can learn from them in an increasingly automated world.
Essential for transport, labour and warfare, farriers enabled horses to become the backbone of the Industrial Revolution, yet the profession itself survived industrialisation. Combining the skills of blacksmith and vet, farriers work with instinct and skill to balance and protect horses’ feet.
Intended as the first of a series, I have explored how these less recognised crafts could be understood through a contemporary lens. Using a byproduct of the shoeing process, horse hoof, recreations of three tools represent the skills of a farrier beyond the physical shoeing process.
