Mastercrafts on BBC

[Silver Ether]

I really enjoyed tonight prog ... blacksmithing ... awesome ... and looking forward to next one as it stained glass ... yay

[spider8]

I did a one day stained glass course here in Orkney last year........was much more difficult than I'd ever imagined. There were 8 of us in the class and one tutor, enough tools for 4 people and not a lot of glass to choose from. It was a long and rather fraught day but we all managed our own little work of art and, once the panic had subsided, we were all happy we'd done it. These programmes are really good and show you just how much hard work and determination you need to do these crafts but wow, such beautiful results . Wish there were more programmes like this on TV.

[MuddyWitch]

Trouble is thoug,h I now dream of a thatched cottage, with a wrought iron gate, bodged chairs & stained glass windows and next comes stone masonary!

MW

[theabsinthefairy]

This is proving to be the best thing on TV at the moment. Really enjoyed the smithing and stained glass work.

[southeast-isher]

Monty Don: spotted on Question Time tonight with the all women audience...

Looking forward to catching up with the recent Mastercraft show that i missed...

[Silver Ether]

I have been doing an adult education class on stained glass for the last to terms and its really hard but so satifying ... but if the tutor and been such a paiin as the one on the tele I would have lasted a week ... We started with copperfoiled pieces and I have almost finsihed a lead piece.

Looking forward to the weaving one ... but I think my hbby lives in terror of me wanting a loom ...

[Green Aura]

This is proving to be the best thing on TV at the moment. Really enjoyed the smithing and stained glass work.

I sort of agree, but the regular "theme" of one person - will they/won't they make the grade is driving me nuts. Why can't we just have a straight forward programme - these people are learning ...... and this is how they did it.

If I want high drama and tension I'll watch the Sopranos!

[Big Al]

This is proving to be the best thing on TV at the moment. Really enjoyed the smithing and stained glass work.

I sort of agree, but the regular "theme" of one person - will they/won't they make the grade is driving me nuts. Why can't we just have a straight forward programme - these people are learning ...... and this is how they did it.

If I want high drama and tension I'll watch the Sopranos!

It's an up market version of the x factor !!

What narks me is in every programme it says the apprenticship [for a weaver, smithy, thatcher etc] is 5 years ..... but we are going to have a 6 week course to get them up to speed so they can be unleashed onto a national trust property...... what !!

Typical magazine type programe which, whilst I like the subjects contained within the series I hope none of them actually get let loose onto a national truist property etc.

[southeast-isher]

I do agree it's a bit of a shame about the fomat but i guess they had to compromise a bit to get it in the schedule, and i'm glad they did... get it in the schedule not compromise on the format.

I know people moan about the BBC but i must admit i have a bit of a softspot for them - there always seems to be something ishy related on in the scheduling somewhere.

[grahamhobbs]

Yes it is a great shame that Monty Don has allowed the programme to follow the formula set down for such programmes these days, like Masterchef, with invented, hyped up, competition; because it is very refreshing to see such trades on the telly.
If they left out all that hype, the psuedo-psychological insights, the false competition, etc how much more detail of the skill and art of the trade would they have been able to get across.
Fortunately I have at various times learnt (well, the basics of) all the skills so far shown but I think it is great that a much wider audience is getting to see them.
Nowadays I feel people live in a world that they are totally disconnected from. People live in houses that they don't know how they are built, they drive cars that you daren't lift the bonnet of, use machinery, phones, computers, etc that are just mysterious black boxes to be thrown away and replaced every year or so, and eat processed foods without knowing what the hell is in it.
People have become alientated from the world and become passive consumers, this is a million miles from just my grandparents generation who would grow, make and repair much of what was around them and if they couldn't do it a neighbour could.
I see in Mastercrafts and the River Cottage programmes a yearning of many people to reconnect with the real world and get ISHY. Lets have more of them

[Big Al]

Yes it is a great shame that Monty Don has allowed the programme to follow the formula set down for such programmes these days, like Masterchef, with invented, hyped up, competition; because it is very refreshing to see such trades on the telly.
If they left out all that hype, the psuedo-psychological insights, the false competition, etc how much more detail of the skill and art of the trade would they have been able to get across.
Fortunately I have at various times learnt (well, the basics of) all the skills so far shown but I think it is great that a much wider audience is getting to see them.
Nowadays I feel people live in a world that they are totally disconnected from. People live in houses that they don't know how they are built, they drive cars that you daren't lift the bonnet of, use machinery, phones, computers, etc that are just mysterious black boxes to be thrown away and replaced every year or so, and eat processed foods without knowing what the hell is in it.
People have become alientated from the world and become passive consumers, this is a million miles from just my grandparents generation who would grow, make and repair much of what was around them and if they couldn't do it a neighbour could.
I see in Mastercrafts and the River Cottage programmes a yearning of many people to reconnect with the real world and get ISHY. Lets have more of them

So true Graham, so true.

The thing is the people who are wanting "to learn" these skills are not the young but people of aged 35 plus. The sad part for me is that the youth of today, and in that I include ages up to 25 are, in general not interested in anything remotly like this.

Many of them cannot even spell, punctuate or even talk correctly. I' no Einstein but I can get by without modern techno gadgets. Many can't comunicate without their face book page etc and listening to radio 4 the other day a school teacher said that they have a school facebook page and use this to comunicate messages to their pupils " because they all check their facebook at least every 10 or 15 minutes" then she correcterd herself fast to conclude that it was about 4 times a day. My thoughts were why were they allowed to check their fascebook page every 10 minutes when they should be learning but then they are only taught how to pass exams and not "learn".

If we have a major power cut or emp strike, civil breakdown then people like us will be kings and queens because of the skills we know and practice without the use of electricity.

[theabsinthefairy]

Weaving was the episode I was most looking forward to - if only the programme could have been just about the craft and not have to have the personal histories and histrionics of the people doing the training.