I too think about this all the time. Even as a post-doctoral graduate, I still could not make a spoon. Even given a piece of sheet metal, how would I cut, bend and form it into the right shape? And that's a static object made out of one material.
The problem is that you cannot live off of making one spoon a day. Mass-producing everything has diminished the value of one-offs to near nothing. Worse, it has diminished the value of knowing how to make objects. That's why machinists are grossly underpaid.
The closer you get to raw materials, the more price deflation. If you are planning on making something for a living, you'll have to be the most efficient at making a lot of that one object to keep the price down. I met a business owner in Colombia who made "aluminum rods." I don't speak Spanish, and I was confused and asked, "Your company makes rods?" He replied, "Yes, of all shapes and sizes, via extrusion." He is an expert at extrusion. To me, making a rod is harder than making a spoon. Yet, the process is so well understood that there's too many such companies worldwide. There's push by U.S. steelworkers to enact antidumping laws on aluminum extruders from multiple countries (see: https://www.internationaltradeinsights.com/2023/10/petition-...).
The problem is that you cannot live off of making one spoon a day. Mass-producing everything has diminished the value of one-offs to near nothing. Worse, it has diminished the value of knowing how to make objects. That's why machinists are grossly underpaid.
The closer you get to raw materials, the more price deflation. If you are planning on making something for a living, you'll have to be the most efficient at making a lot of that one object to keep the price down. I met a business owner in Colombia who made "aluminum rods." I don't speak Spanish, and I was confused and asked, "Your company makes rods?" He replied, "Yes, of all shapes and sizes, via extrusion." He is an expert at extrusion. To me, making a rod is harder than making a spoon. Yet, the process is so well understood that there's too many such companies worldwide. There's push by U.S. steelworkers to enact antidumping laws on aluminum extruders from multiple countries (see: https://www.internationaltradeinsights.com/2023/10/petition-...).