FBX hands, an anti mass production organization

Our organization was born as a concept in the beginning of 2008, we have discovered that the disadvantages of modern industry has far surpassed its advantages.

The toll on the small communities has been very heavy. Their crafts, from which they earn their living, have been nearly destroyed by the high-quantity, low-quality mass-produced products, and the few who managed to continue working found the markets closed because of the flood of such products.

More and more the world is loosing the human touch from the products, there was a time when each product was unique and one of its kind, thus people were appreciative and happy with the few products available because of the high quality and uniqueness.

Gerald Sheppard who builds guitars explains the difference eloquently :

I believe there are four primary areas by which we should evaluate the quality of an instrument. They are tone, playability, durability, and beauty. Each of these areas is addressed by the larger manufacturers; but in order to sell to a broad range of buyers, they must make trade-offs on the design of their models. Most guitars are "one size fits all" designs. Size, gender and personal preference of the guitarist are handled from a general point of view.

I build to meet the specific needs (and wants) of my customers.

-----

Hand-built guitars are often referred to as ultra-high quality instruments. There are many quality mass-produced guitars, but mass production does not allow instruments to be built with the quality and care that is possible when building an instrument by hand.

-----

Individuals or very small groups of people who are considered luthiers in the truest sense of the word know their craft thoroughly. This includes the development and use of hand tools and an understanding of the physical and sonic properties of the materials they use. Luthiers incorporate this knowledge into each unit. They see each guitar as a group of related components. Each part is chosen with consideration of its impact upon tone, playability, durability and beauty. Assembly line workers build mass-produced instruments. The loyalty, love and care for each unit is often non-existent. It's just a job.

Pharah and his Hand Loom (Video)

First Pharah explains the various parts of the hand loom, then he mentions that he worked in Cairo before in a big weaving factory, he says the machine was comfortable yet very noisy.

By the end of this short clip and as Pharah is launching his shuttle from one hand to the other, we hear a song coming from the neighbors' saying ;

"Moulid ya donya moulid, moulid we sahboh ghayeb"
O life, you are like a carnival, and the master of the carnival is absent
"Fy Naas Fel Farh leeha, we naas malhomsh naayeb"
Some people have a share in happiness, while others have no share

Pharah then comments: "Then it (the share of happiness) is at our Lord"

I think this song demonstrates the general sentiment of the people of Naggaada. Pharah said that even though thousands have hand looms in their houses, the craft is in decline because of less and less demand of the "Ferka" fabric. The modern industry has indeed stolen happiness along with the markets from those skilled craftsmen. By the way his name "Pharah" means "Happiness".

A Trip Back In Time (Nagada,Egypt)

Map courtesy of touregypt.net

Once i saw a very nice fabric with lively colors, i asked and they said it was handmade in Naqada, a tiny village located on the west bank of the Nile just where the river bends taking this special curve. The name is famous because it is the name of the predynastic culture that dominated that region 4400-3000 BC according to Wikipedia .

First i went to Luxor and from there took a boat to the west bank of the Nile, then took a car 26 km to the north where i met an old weaver called "Pharah", a very kind and hospitable old man.

His house is very simple, yet original and has a natural peaceful atmosphere to it. He recounted how back in the days he worked for a weaving factory, the machines were very noisy and inflexible, he told me that handmade fabrics have a feeling and a meaning to them or in his words;

"This hand loom is pure feeling, it makes me satisfied, unlike the factory machine. It has a meaning, whatever you want to say, it does it for you. As for the factories' steel machine, it can only make one model, not like what the 'shuttle' does" - Pharah

The "Shuttle" or "Makkook" as the master craftsman Pharah called it, is the main piece of the hand loom, and Pharah was very much proud of it, he said he inherited it from his grandfathers.













From Wikipedia:

A shuttle is a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. Shuttles are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed , between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft.

The simplest shuttles, known as "stick shuttles", are made from a flat, narrow piece of wood with notches on the ends to hold the weft yarn.

Here are some photos of the very old hand loom that belongs to the experienced craftsman Pharah.

Mass production, the problem of the modern world

Peace be upon you friends,


By June of 2008, i have had enough with the practices of "Mass-Production". In my work as a mechanical engineer, i witnessed first hand the exploitation of the human being by the capitalist whose main priority is profit.

That is not to say that all capitalists are bad, but i have come to the conclusion that the very concept of capitalism and mass-production is fundamentally flawed.

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products on production lines.
Mass production is capital intensive, as it uses a high proportion of machinery in relation to workers. With fewer labour costs and a faster rate of production, capital is increased while expenditure is decreased.

This is the Wikipedia definition of mass-production, but my definition of it is as follows:

Mass production is how to amass huge wealth in the hands of a few through exploiting the masses of workers, who have to turn into skilled robots, doing the same thing again and again without using their creativity or their God given human-touch.

And from Wikipedia again:

In craft production, the craftsman must bustle about a shop, getting parts and assembling them. He must locate and use many tools many times for varying tasks. In mass production, each worker repeats one or a few related tasks that use the same tool to perform identical or near-identical operations on a stream of products.

The probability of human error and variation is also reduced, as tasks are predominantly carried out by machinery. A reduction in labour costs, as well as an increased rate of production, enables a company to produce a larger quantity of one product at a lower cost than using traditional, non-linear methods.

However, mass production is inflexible because it is difficult to alter a design or production process after a production line is implemented. Also, all products produced on one production line will be identical or very similar, and introducing variety to satisfy individual tastes is not easy. However, some variety can be achieved by applying different finishes and decorations at the end of the production line if necessary.

One factory i worked in was producing handcrafted furniture, the owner of that factory had this vision of preserving the ancient craft which Egypt has been always famous of, since the times of king Tut and before.
But when that visionary man left the factory to be managed by his sons, they started neglecting gradually the handcrafts and focusing more and more on producing identical modern furniture by introducing more machinery and high technology. The factory made profit more than ever, but that was on the expense of the workers' physical and mental health, numbers and of course salaries.

In our organization FBXhands we are launching an initiative of encouraging handcrafts, in order to reclaim the markets that have been dominated for more than a century by the mass-production industry and we are asking for your support.

We are not against technology, but we are calling for balance, technology should be used only when necessary, and not on the expense of the human craftsmanship that could never be replicated by a machine.