I'm Ricardo.

And these are my thoughts on things made manually.

Handcrafts and Software Development.

Is known to everyone that one important stepstone in a Software career is to reevaluate tangible crafts.

For some this means going to the jungle and build a hut with their bare hands.

For me it started a bit earlier, while working in a mexican museum dedicated to Popular Handcrafts.

Knowing more about the creating process of beautiful and useful things helped me develop a soft spot for the artisanal.

But I love automating tedious tasks.

Differences between Artisanal and Tedious processes.

Artisanal Tedious
The process adds joy. The process removes joy.
The imperfections are precious. The imperfections are failures.
The tools are part of the experience. The tools are mere means to ends.
The output has intrisic value, at the very least, to its creator. The output must have some commercial value.

Handcrafts I love

This is an evergreen/evergrowing/unfinished list of handcrafted things I really like, order does not mean anything.

  1. My wife's handcrafts.
  2. My friends handcrafts.
  3. Mexican handcrafts.
  4. Japanese handcrafts.

    Specially (but not limited to):

    1. Kintsugi
    2. Netsukes.
    3. Woodblock prints.
  5. Paper mache figures AKA Cartoneria.
  6. Cut paper art.
  7. Wood furniture.