Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's own hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into
handicrafts or "traditional crafts" (doing things the old way) and the rest. Some crafts have been practised for centuries, while others are modern inventions, or popularisations of crafts which were originally practiced in a very small geographic area.
Additionally, this term refers to the
Arts and Crafts movement which was a social revolution veiled in a design movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, whose proponents included
William Morris and
Edwin Lutyens. They believed that medieval craftsmen achieved a joy and fulfillment in the excellence of their work, which they strove to emulate.
These activities are called
crafts because originally many of them were professions under the
guild system. Adolescents were apprenticed to a master-craftsman, and they refined their skills over a period of years in exchange for low wages. By the time their training was complete, they were well-equipped to set up in trade for themselves, earning their living with the skill that could be traded directly within the community, often for goods and services. The
Industrial Revolution and the increasing mechanisation of production processes gradually reduced or eliminated many of the roles professional craftspeople played, and today 'crafts' are most commonly seen as a form of
hobby or art.
Most crafts require a combination of skill, speed, and patience, but they can also be learnt on a more basic level by virtually anyone. Many
community centres and schools run evening or day classes and workshops offering to teach basic craft skills in a short period of time. Many of these crafts become extremely popular for brief periods of time (a few months, or a few years), spreading rapidly among the crafting population as everyone emulates the first examples.
The term
craft also refers to the products of artistic production or creation that require a high degree of tacit knowledge, are highly technical, require specialized equipment and/or facilities to produce, involve
manual labour or a
blue-collar work ethic, are accessible to the general public and are constructed from materials with histories that exceed the boundaries of western art history, such as
ceramics,
glass,
textiles,
metal and
wood. These products are produced within a specific
community of practice and while they differ from the products produced within the communities of art and design, the boundaries of such often overlap resulting in hybrid objects. Additionally, as the interpretation and validation of art is frequently a matter of context, an audience may perceive crafted objects as art objects when these objects are viewed within an art context, such as in a museum or in a position of prominence in one's home.
The term can also refer to the useful
rural crafts of the agricultural countryside.Craftmanship=plato's idea of specialization, onto which the lower society has a specific job in society
*There are almost as many variations on the theme of "arts and crafts" as there are crafters with time on their hands, but they can be broken down into a number of categories:
Crafts involving textiles
*
Banner-making*
Bootmaking*
Canvas work*
Cross-stitch*
Crocheting*
Curve stitching*
Dress-making*
Embroidery*
Knitting*
Lace-making*
Lucet*
Macrame*
Millinery*
Needlepoint*
Patchwork*
Quilting*
Ribbon embroidery*
Rug-making*
Sewing*
Shoemaking*
Spinning (textiles)*
Spirelli (also see
Scrapbooking)
*
String art*
Tapestry*
Tatting*
Weaving*
T-Shirt Painting*
Metalworking*
Jewelery*
Pottery*
Sculpture*
Woodworking*
Cabinet making*
Chip carving*
Marquetry*
Wood burning*
Wood turning*
Bamboo craft*
Bookbinding*
Calligraphy*
Cardmaking*
Collage*
Decoupage*
Marbling*
Origami*
Papier-mâché*
Pergamano - parchment craft
*
Quilling *
Scrapbooking*
StampingCrafts involving plants
*
Basket weaving*
Corn dolly making*
Pressed flower craft*
Straw MarquetryOther crafts
*
Balloon animal *
Beadwork*
Doll making*
Dollhouse construction and furnishing
*
Egg decorating*
Etching*
Lapidary*
Mosaics*
Pioneering*
Stained glass*
Toy making*
Tenability of the Distinction Between Arts and Crafts*
Redefining Craft*
craftster.org : Craft forum with tutorials and ideas*
Children's charity that provides arts and crafts supplies to sick and needy children*
Lost crafts from the past*
Articles on family crafts
