FREE delivery Sunday, February 12 on your first order

Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).

[{"displayPrice":"$22.28","priceAmount":22.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"22","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Yi%2B3xkZSRSehT4HHxBlmt47CSa7UrJzhfC1iAJ1JM0OzEhzi5Ciueqc%2Bju%2BrgLjahDnxlXWa%2BrnoD72eoUquT5KUNY36FNaPO%2Fby3jr38BjLSpprx7kfQPI1WBar3GNU3MM9Z8rhSqA%3D","locale":"en-CA","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$8.57","priceAmount":8.57,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"57","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"QoeIZT5KgXlE4%2FKvkT%2BiAGaUdToQ1OMxjINwjKa3NbjtCfaQpCukLQJn3k30ZDxihHJR2KRegm0wYnNk7lUHJ4hzG31BZ7s396hGcKbl%2BeAzQwon0TMAhAJfIYHgNgyTffuSLQ27zXj%2FEgKZjNYTn%2FmbhH651aE6XNRAW0uTCRc7wwqDe39e3jn65gF4Ua9j","locale":"en-CA","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$22.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.

Add gift options

$6.49 delivery February 28 - March 21. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very good | Details

Sold by momox_Shop

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Peter Korn

Why We Make Things and Why it Matters: The Education of a Craftsman Paperback

256 ratings

See all formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

$13.73

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$42.69

$77.09

$41.19

Paperback

"Please retry"

$22.28

$16.55

$8.57

Audio CD

"Please retry"

$27.35

—

Kindle Edition
$13.73 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$42.69

4 Used from $41.19 2 New from $77.09
Paperback
$22.28

3 Used from $8.57 9 New from $16.55
Audio CD
$27.35

1 New from $27.35

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

Enhance your purchase

In this moving account (and favorite of America's most famous woodworker, Nick Offerman), Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer/maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching, and finally founds a school in Maine.

Through this beautiful exploration, Korn works to get at the "why" of craft, in particular, and at the satisfactions of creative work, in general - to understand their essential nature. What is it about craft and creative work that makes them so rewarding? What are the natures of those rewards? How do the products of creative work inform society? In short, what does the process of making things reveal about ourselves? Korn draws on forty years of hands-on experience to answer these questions eloquently in this personal and revealing inquiry.

Language

English
Dimensions

12.9 x 1.3 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

1784705063
ISBN-13

978-1784705060
See all details

Frequently bought together

+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

One of these items ships sooner than the other.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Paperback
$22.28
Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
by Matthew B. Crawford Paperback
$19.80
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.

Gary Rogowski
104
Paperback
14 offers from $16.36

Product description

Review

What a superb book this is... the central premise being so clearly intelligent, so engagingly correct... As it is, the perfectly planned prose and stylish design could elevate Peter Korn's account of his life and career, as a craftsman (a furniture maker) to the status of a modern classic. This is one cool piece of work. -- Robert Crampton "The Times (U.K.)" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Peter Korn is the founder of the Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship, and has been a furniture maker since 1974. He is the author of the best-selling book. Woodworking Basics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1784705063
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1784705060
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 170 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.3 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #191,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
256 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Peter Korn

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

PETER KORN is the founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, a non-profit woodworking and design school in Rockport, Maine. A furniture maker since 1974, his work has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums. Born in 1951, Korn grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended Germantown Friends School. He majored in history at the University of Pennsylvania. More information is available at www.peterkorn.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

256 global ratings

5 star		68%
4 star		18%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Ty Schultz

A celebration of craft

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

This personal journey is a fabulous and enlightening exploration of craft and creative thought. Much more than a book about making furniture.

Helpful

Mackenzie

Some insight but not a lot of depth.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

More biography of the author with some insight but not as much depth as expected after reading book description. Would not recommend.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Bricomani57

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Excellent livre

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

Great book

Helpful

Robert Morris

How and why the creative effort "is a process of challenging embedded narratives in order to...."

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 18, 2014

Peter Korn poses an intriguing question: "Why do we choose the spiritually, emotionally, and physically demanding work of brining new objects into the world with creativity and skill?" This book is his extended response to that question. After completing his academic assignments for the University of Pennsylvania, he embarked on what became a journey of discovery during which two epiphanies occurred. (More about them later.) "My intuition from the first day I picked up a hammer was that making things with a commitment to quality would lead to a good life." In this book, he retraces the steps of his journey "with reference to larger frameworks - historical, sociological, psychological, and biological - to discover how and why that intuition turned out to be valid."

His readers tag along with him from Nantucket Island to Frederick (Maryland) to New York City and then Philadelphia before relocating (again) to the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village (Colorado) for which he served for the six years as Program Director before finally founding (in 1992) the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport (Maine). Along the way, he published Woodworking Basics: Mastering the Essentials of Craftsmanship (Taunton Press, 2003) and The Woodworker's Guide to Hand Tools (Taunton Press, 1998). Why We Make Things and Why it Matters is his third book. And along the way, he was stricken by cancer and struggled with personal losses best described by him,

With regard to the aforementioned epiphanies, the first occurred in November (1984) when he had been hard at work on a cradle: "After three days of intense focus, cold, and solitude, the cradle is complete -- a miraculous birth in its own right. I have somehow transform benign intent into a beautiful functional object. This is my moment on the road to Demascus. I am overtaken by the most unexpected passion." (Page 28).

The second epiphany occurred in 1991 during his sixth year at Anderson Ranch. By way of background, he explains that he had previously composed an artist's statement, one that included a sentence that brought his emerging ideas into focus. It read: My own values became clear when I eventually realized that the words I used to describe my aesthetic goals as a furniture maker -- integrity, simplicity, and grace -- also described the person I sought to grow into through the practice of craftsmanship." (Page 102) That sentence was his second epiphany.

While re-reading the book in preparation to compose this brief commentary, I was again reminded of similar experiences that James Joyce describes in several of his letters and short stories as well as in Portrait of the Artist as a Young m Man. Of course, I have no idea whether or not Korn had Joyce and his work in mind when sharing this especially significant moment during his own development. Be that as it may, his transition from carpenter to craftsman is near complete, with details best revealed within the narrative, in context.

What's my take? Of greatest interest and value to me is what Peter Korn has to say about how he "found his way in the world" by committing himself to (as Richard Sennett expressed it) "doing something well, for its own sake." Consider this brief excerpt from Creativity in which Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi observes: "To achieve the kind of world we consider human, some people had to dare to break the thrall of tradition, Next, they had to find ways of recording those new ideas or procedures that improved on what went on before. Finally, they had to find ways of transmitting the new knowledge to generations to come. Those who were involved in this process we call creative. What we call culture, or those parts of ourselves that we internalized from the social environment, is their creation."

For Korn, these "essential" observations by Sennett and Csikszentmihalyi ring true: "There is great satisfaction to be found in work that engages one as an end in itself." His experiences can be described in many different ways. He found his calling, he found himself, he found his True North...all quite correct.

For me, the key to understanding the experiences that Korn discusses, many of which resemble our own, is to think of how he created a good life as well as a successful career. He and countless others have learned through their own experiences that what they love to do, what they most enjoy, is probably what they do best, despite challenges and setbacks along the way. "And so it is. As a maker you put one foot in front of the other and you own the journey. Finding creative passion that governs your life may be a curse as well as a blessing, but I would not trade it for anything else I know."

One final point: It will come as no surprise to those who are already familiar with Peter Korn’s art and craftsmanship that he complements his lean and effective prose with preliminary sketches and then photographs of some of his creations, illustrations that are of superior quality. They bring his story to life in ways and to an extent words alone cannot. Bravo!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Nick Henley

A wonderful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 18, 2023

Verified Purchase

This little book is for anyone who has made things or wants to make things. The author is a furniture maker, but that is not important, as it's about the compulsion to make the world and what it takes to produce things of quality. The most interesting, and perhaps unexpected part , is that it highlights the importance of making things to the maker. In that, it is more about a way or living - something very relevant to today. The sort of book you want to give to all of your friends - so that they can share the joy and wisdom.

TVR

Inspirational

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

What a great book. Peter says all those things I've had bottled up in my brain for a long time but was not good enough with words to convey. Having been a teacher of Craft design and Technology for many years and then owning my own carpentry business and making some bespoke furniture I really understand Peter's feelings and thoughts. I now work with young offenders helping them to enjoy the wonder of making things in wood.
I would recommend that all educationalists and those academics in Westminster read this book then perhaps we might readdress the lack of practical subjects being taught in our schools these days.
Trevor Hosken
Fleet Hants UK

13 people found this helpful

Dr Ting-Yu Lin

This book takes an intimate look at what craftsmanship is ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book takes an intimate look at what craftsmanship is all about.
Although the author specialises in the art of furniture-making, the principles and the thought processes he attempted to convey, based on his personal views/experiences, seem to be universal.
My only qualm would be his overuse of the word "narrative." After seeing it for the tenth time I started wondering when I was going to see it again, thus distracting me from the main task.
Other than that the book was a pleasure to read.

3 people found this helpful

Hyaku

An interesting biography.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

An interesting life story, but the title doesn't really indicate the exact contents of the text! You'll have a good idea at the end, but you'll need to read it all before you see why it matters!

David Lutkin

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

It turned out to be more of an autobiography with some personal philosophies rather anything really interesting.

4 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	Amazon Business Everything for your business	Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands

Warehouse Deals Open-Box Discounts	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust	Blink Smart Security for Every Home

Buy new: $22.28$22.28 FREE delivery: Sunday, Feb 12 Ships from: Amazon.ca Sold by: Amazon.ca

Buy Used: $8.57

Follow the Author

Why We Make Things and Why it Matters: The Education of a Craftsman Paperback

Enhance your purchase

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product description

Review

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Peter Korn

Customer reviews

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$22.28

FREE delivery: Sunday, Feb 12

Ships from: Amazon.ca

Sold by: Amazon.ca

Buy Used:

$8.57