Why do people say "handmade"?

[Handstitched]

" The movie was very much historically accurate too." I'll correct that  to " mostly historically  accurate". They  actually made a few faux pas in the movie. 

Moving on.....

@Rahere Would I be right in saying that theres a bit of.... 'snobbery'  and/or aristocracy  involved,  being part of a guild ? 

Just to  verbally say to someone" I am in a guild" , can't help but think it sounds a bit ....snobbish    

HS

[chrisash]

We have lots of guilds or Royal  Charters / Associations etc still in the UK though their powers have been diminished over the years so non members can often compete be it accountants , Surveyors saddle makers and so on we also have fresh start ups like Guild of master craftsmen but i understand that's just a marketing thing with no practical or academic qualifications needed. Germany i think still has very powerful guilds

[Rahere]

The Royal Society led to the Professions, though: part of my father's responsibility was membership and discipline of the Mechanical Engineers, and an accident of history made him good friends with Prince Phillip in coordinating that entire sector. It paid off in trumps a year ago getting ventilator production off the ground in just 5 days, his successor in the IMechE leading the entire project. It's illegal to set yourself up as a doctor or accountant, though, if you've not done the exams and gained the experience.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Rahere

[Rahere]

5 hours ago, Handstitched said:

" The movie was very much historically accurate too." I'll correct that  to " mostly historically  accurate". They  actually made a few faux pas in the movie. 

Moving on.....

@Rahere Would I be right in saying that theres a bit of.... 'snobbery'  and/or aristocracy  involved,  being part of a guild ? 

Just to  verbally say to someone" I am in a guild" , can't help but think it sounds a bit ....snobbish    

HS

The Guilds are more visible as the Livery Companies of the City of London, with input into its very autonomous governance. That aligns with wealth, quite often, in much the same way as the Boston Brahmins behave in the US, albeit with slightly less scandal. Sometimes it's family: I once gave my former boss a reference when he'd built a sufficient stache to make tax exile in Jersey attractive. Why me? My family are Channel Maritime, and that includes Jersey's oldest hotel. That's the connection with a certain Flotilla Captain. Grandpa, Officers' Mess CPO. It's not what you know, nor who you know, but what you know about who you know.
I'm often seen as having a superiority complex - and why not, I was the visionary on the team which won the 2012 Peace Prize, but that mostly counts because a certain bespectacled Indian gets his claim through me: I was privileged to tie up the loose end he left when he was assassinated. It worked precisely because his values of humility are cardinal. Yes, when I was a nipper, my neighbours, babysitting, were both the Duke of Norfolk's old nanny on one side and a gypsy rawnee on the other, so I've known high and low, and there's more spark in the low than in the high. It's because we're hands-on, craftsmen.

[Rahere]

Returning to the subject, I've just had to replace a curtain rail, plastic fatigue after 30 years. The same design shows a difference in the runners, the old ones have metal axles, the new ones, plastic, and don't run as smoothly. That's mass production for you, slow degradation of standards. Us, either it's right or it never sees the light of day. There's the difference: their product was never perfect and is declining to the point where "good enough" has to be prefixed by "barely", with the though that in a couple of years, even that won't be true.

[chrisash]

Doctor is a academic qualification and there are different qualities of academia, Accountant is not a protected qualification any one can use the title

[Rahere]

I'm talking doctor of medicine. I'm functionally a doctor of history, without the gown, because I chose to work in the real world, turning Peacemaking into a functional reality. I know that, because I'm a founding member of the Warburg Institute's Esoteric Studies Reading Group, which is strictly post-doctoral, working in the origins of the Renaissance. I'm also coming out of a year studying applied trauma, and am widely quoted in both in Academia. The New Yorker described the Warburg as The Library of the Weird a few years back, and as the core of the University of London's Advanced Studies School, we dare to look at the world as they did then. It can be very practical, looking at how they shook out after the Black Death, linking directly to the issues of global trauma we face now: my input is via Bruce Perry.

[Rahere]

I've sailed as close to the wind as an unqualified accountant as it's possible to do, working as HQ Accountant and Head of Finance in a peer body to NATO and the OECD, because the accounting standards resoect but are not constrained by the IAS. I've also been a volunteer accountant for a major UK charity, and as an economist, I started as a Corporate Money Markets and Foreign Exchange Treasury Dealer, before using my economics training at the hands of two future Governors of the Bank of England to dig several Nations on their beam ends out. I still fart at dawn.

[Tugadude]

Nigel Armitage is a member of The Guild of Master Craftsmen.  Perhaps he will see this thread and comment on the organization.  Having said that, here is some verbiage from the guild's website:

 

The Guild emblem recognises businesses that are approved Master Craftsman. Following our application process, including a visit by an experienced Guild of Master Craftsmen Assessor, approved businesses can join the Guild and be able to show the Guild emblem on their marketing. 

This recognition will ensure you get the work you expect every time by a skilled and experienced Guild member. To find a Guild of Master Craftsmen member simply visit findacraftsman.com. You can search by trade, post code or even name. There you will be able to see images of their work, reviews and find details to help you choose. Don’t forget the Guild’s experienced Conciliation team can only be used with Guild members. 

Based on the following, it doesn't sound like just a "marketing thing".

 

 

Members of the Guild of Master Craftsmen are required to maintain our Aims and Objectives, or membership will be revoked.

These are:

1. To bring together all artisans engaged in a craft, art, trade, profession or vocation, in order to safeguard the interests of both craftsmen and the public.
2. To ensure that the minimum qualifications for membership preserve the high standards of The Guild by excluding unskilled tradesmen.
3. To publicise these high standards through national and local media, thus increasing public awareness of the ideals and aims of The Guild and its members.
4. To promote to the public the trading assets of its members, their honour, integrity, professional expertise, high standards of workmanship and the value for money which they offer.
5. To provide clear identification and recognition for members, in order to enable the public to distinguish them from unskilled tradesmen who try to pass themselves off as master craftsmen, and so to attract and direct work to members of The Guild.
6. To assist all members and to protect them against the damaging and devaluing activities of the unskilled, against bureaucratic discrimination, against penal taxation and adverse legislation. Equally, to protect the public by instilling in our members a greater sense of responsibility, alerting them to the national importance of the services they render, monitoring these standards to ensure that The Guild’s high standards are being maintained, and by encouraging members to always strive for excellence.
7. To encourage an interchange of views amongst members, to unite these views and to bring them to the attention of the Government and local authorities in order to safeguard the livelihood and welfare of members and their dependants.
8. To constitute a pressure group to seek the support of one or more Members of Parliament to make sure that someone speaks out for the interests of Guild members where it matters most.
9. To promote continual research within the craft, trade, art, profession or vocation in which members are engaged, thus benefitting both members and the public. 
10. To foster learning amongst apprentices and students in order to perpetuate the survival, evolution and success of their particular craft. 
11. To promote sponsorship of The Guild by persons, firms and organisations, whether by financial support, by endorsement of the activities of The Guild, or by patronage.

[fredk]

I think there may be 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen' and 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen'

A long time ago, when I had a business making wooden toys, all 'hand made' by craftsmen I was contacted by a 'The Guild of Master Craftsmen' and invited to join them. Basically they wanted £1500 per year as a member so I could use their logo and say I was a member, but there was absolutely no need to prove our quality or standards. Just sign up and pay the fee.  It had, generally, the same aims as set out above.