Consider not only the things we are making,
but the things we are destroying.
It is annoying to us that when we buy a pleasing object, the company may use our money to buy five very unpleasing objects, things that we may not believe in at all, maybe even things we are against. ETWAS works against ugly and excessive structures and systems of production and distribution; we have washed our hands of industrial parks, transformers, storerooms, offices, generators, and janitorial closets. This lack of driving to work, this lack of plastic carpeting and insipid factory lights, this is our beauty.
ETWAS the company, like a bicycle, requires nothing
but the human hand to function.
We apply modern reductionist functionality to a craft system. Our bags are made using a portable workbox that contains all the supplies and tools needed for the bag. This system is halfway between bespoke and mass production, and has many of the benefits of each.
We have no buildings and no offices.
We use neither electricity nor water nor plastic.
We are light. We are mobile. All of our materials are durable, natural and low impact. From our wooden benches, to our steel tools, to our copper rivets- the patina of age and the scars of use will only add richness, texture, and the comfort of familiarity and use. We design everything to be repairable- because things that get ruined are no good. That said, we also believe objects should fade gracefully. The truly well designed thing will last forever if cared for, but if left in the field will rot away quietly and respectfully. That mix of robustness and sensitivity is pleasing. There is poetry in the act of caring for or fixing a thing that you know will be with you forever, if only you love it enough.
ETWAS bags is a design project by Will Lisak. We produce great bags within a craft production system. We are a handmade, energy independent operation with consistent design values throughout objects and means.
To evaluate something like a company as a whole we must see all of the objects and interactions it produces, not just the salable products© that are thrust before us with marketing. We must understand all of these silent products to be desirable or insipid; to be purchased into existence, or to be declined.