The Good Piece: An Aesthetics of Making

In Maestro Jesús’ workshop performances of making and the performance of made things are bound together by an ethos of crafting “goodness” rather than beauty. Maestro Jesús defined the good copper piece as one that is “well-made,” not “beautiful.” Sure, firm hammering and even strokes are required to create the “perfect” piece, free of blemishes, solidly formed, balanced, stable, symmetrical, and clearly articulated. This technical system requires that intense physical labor and exertion must be subsumed by accretion and accumulation resulting in “clean” planished surfaces and symmetrical forms free of uncertainty or traces of doubt. Despite a praxis of perfection, these aesthetic technologies also include the mastery of un-mastery which privileges the contingencies of material engagement and creative ongoingness. Although Maestro Jesús distinguished himself from cauldron-makers like his father who produced the same thing day after day, he too relied upon faith and grace, as much as hard work and routine. Like other artisans he trusted the copper piece to guide him. Why did Maestro Jesús’ tools mean more to him than his finished pieces? What bodies of knowledge and aesthetic freedom are revealed by these steel stakes, hammers, and chisels? What can tools teach us about habit and imagination?