---
product_id: 8142970
title: "The Nature and Art of Workmanship"
brand: "david pyeezra shales"
price: "R763"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/8142970-the-nature-and-art-of-workmanship
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# The Nature and Art of Workmanship

**Brand:** david pyeezra shales
**Price:** R763
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Nature and Art of Workmanship by david pyeezra shales
- **How much does it cost?** R763 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/8142970-the-nature-and-art-of-workmanship)

## Best For

- david pyeezra shales enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted david pyeezra shales brand quality
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## Description

The Nature and Art of Workmanship

## Images

![The Nature and Art of Workmanship - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81LBL9BwVoL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Helps you start to think about your work as you create.
  

*by T***T on Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019*

Pye focuses specifically on artifacts of wood and metal as examples, but I have found this book incredibly useful to canonize and quantify the ideas of workmanship in multiple disciplines.I teach sewing classes in Chicago (among other things) and use The Nature and Art of Workmanship as a way to help people start to think more about the work they are doing as they construct garments.  I've found it useful for beginning sewists and designers who are hampered and harried by ideas of perfection and I've found it useful for advanced sewists who want to start thinking about techniques and theories to analyze their own work.  Personally, these ideas are always in the back of my own mind as a creator and designer whether I am reinterpreting Art Deco murals, designing interior spaces,  or sewing shirts and dresses.I've found even the most basic ideas in the book - discerning between the workmanship of risk versus the workmanship of certainty - highly useful when talking about craft and creation with beginners especially.  It is no good to begin a skill with the idea that you want a mechanical result exclusively.It can be heavy and a bit dry in tone if you are looking for light reading, but if you are a creator and your thinking is cloudy-to-nonexistent around workmanship, this is the ticket. Pye takes us through his thinking in defining good versus bad workmanship, then explains and defines not *what* to think about it, but rather *how* to think about it.For any creative person, this helps establish boundaries so that you understand your own process and don't get mired in useless criticism that comes from the broader culture or detrimental criticism that comes from within.  Creation through workmanship is a journey and Pye will help you refine and define that journey.Think of it this way:  If you are told that you *have* to cross the ocean, and you *have* to build your own boat to do it, this book will help you build something much more seaworthy than you would otherwise have and help you refine your needs for the trip.  It doesn't tell you how to build the boat and doesn't ensure that you will make the journey at all, but it is a tool that helps.If you are a creative person of any stripe, and if you feel hampered by internal or external criticism about what "perfect workmanship" is and is not, then this may help you sift and sort those critical demons.  It can free you by giving you a system to use to evaluate and execute your work.As just a side note, with what Pye talks about here, it is too bad he hasn't been around to comment on what technology has brought us over the past 20 years with regards to artifacts and workmanship.  It would be really interesting to read commentary as things relate to 3D printing, AI,  &c.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    An interesting take on crafts
  

*by F***O on Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2021*

Pye is/was a woodcarver, and his book is an extension of his thinking and reading as part of his art work. He is not a professional crafts critic in the  Glenn Adamson mold. As a consequence he speaks to the maker not the collector, historian or theorist, although every maker is all of those things too. I think Pye has a good deal to say and a perspective that is useful.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Highly recommended for anyone interested in craft of any kind
  

*by M***N on Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2017*

Deserves its status as a cult classic. I have used the book to teach photography; I believe David Pye's principles and ideas can be transported to other crafts with relative ease. It's a short, slender book, easy to read, but there's a lot of original thinking and many useful ideas in this book. I bought this reprint for a friend, and it's the fourth time I've bought the book over the years. Highly recommended for anyone interested in craft of any kind.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Nature and Art of Workmanship
- The Nature and Aesthetics of Design
- The Craftsman

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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-02-15*