Welcome!

This is not the kind of dusty old museum you walk into and wander around,

The "Art" of great craftsmanship

"A person who works with his hands is a laborer.

A person who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.

A person who works with his hands, his brain and his heart is an artist"

—Louis Nizer

Joe Martin is the president and owner of Sherline Products Inc. an American manufacturer of precision machine tools. He is also a model builder and toolmaker. As such he has had much experience with precision tools at both ends of the size range. The quote above, recalled from the shop wall of Joe Martin's uncle, sums up his belief that craftsmanship goes beyond mere technical quality. While good machinery can produce parts of great consistency and accuracy when properly operated, without the craftsman's touch the results will be acceptable but not noteworthy. Pieces that truly grab our attention and admiration go beyond the minimum of what is required to add what we can only call the "craftsman's touch". Anything from furniture to stained glass to a clock to a model steam engine that is made by a master of his craft is worthy of a special kind of admiration. This museum will feature works that represent the spirit and skill of individuals; not committees or manufacturing companies. These projects were built by people with skilled hands and brains, but, most importantly, they were built for the love of doing it. Coming from the hands, the brain and the heart, they should be judged not just as a collection of parts, but rather as art. Other forms of art, such as dance, painting, music and so on are sufficiently represented elsewhere, so we are concentrating here on small things made by hand by an artisan using the tools of his trade.

The craftsmen represented here have devoted many hours over a period of years to develop the skills to produce these projects. The most worthy candidates are those who have contributed a significant amount to the body of work in a particular field over their lifetimes. This is not just a showcase for any project, but rather a place where you can see the work of the people who are acknowledged to be the "the best of the best" in a particular field. We also plan to add a "projects" section where the work of up-and-coming craftsmen will be featured, as often many innovations come from enthusiastic newcomers to a field. The featured rooms, however, are from those who have "paid their dues" and truly deserve to be called not just laborers or even craftsmen, but artists in their field.

Craftsmanship

What is craftsmanship? Joe Martin's main reason for establishing this foundation is to attempt to make the average citizen aware of the beauty of great craftsmanship. An object that exhibits outstanding craftsmanship has a quality to it that inspires beyond the object itself. For most trades, competent work is good enough. It’s simply a case where standards are met and doing the work any better would be a waste of time, effort and money. The type of craftsmen we honor here are the few who use the skills of the trades to produce a form of art. Their level of work rises beyond what is needed to complete the job with competence to a level of perfection that can be recognized by many but achieved by few. Often their work will be building exact scale models of something that interests them, and they do so simply for the love of doing it. Their satisfaction comes from attempting to achieve perfection. Car Modeler Michael Dunlap* sums up the mindset it takes to produce work of this quality as follows:

"The issue I struggle with most days in my shop is, “When is it good enough?” Whether I’m assessing the quality of an individual part or a complete model my answer is this: It’s good enough when, based on my current ability, any further attempt to improve it will probably cause it to be damaged. That having been said, my constant goal is to improve my abilities tomorrow over what they are today. For me, building models cars is a very personal expression. When I cease to improve my skills and thus, my models, I’ll go do something else." —Michael Dunlap

*See Michael's work in his museum section or at his own web site at  www.michaeldunlapstudio.com.

What Happened to Craftsmanship?

by William Gould

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Organization of the museum and how you can contribute

Tax deductible donations to the Foundation or to the museum

CLICK HERE to learn how you can support craftsmanship in your own community.