HANDICRAFT
My one more experiment with many colorful crystal and beads.
My one more experiment with many colorful crystal and beads.
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade,
is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects
are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional
main sector of craft, and applies to a wide range of creative
and design activities that are related to making things
with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid
materials, paper, plant fibers, etc. Usually the term is applied to traditional
techniques of creating items (whether for personal use or as products) that are
both practical and aesthetic.clickhere
Collective terms for handicrafts include artisanry, handicrafting, crafting,
and handicraftsmanship. The term arts and crafts is also applied, especially in the United States and mostly to
hobbyists' and children's output rather than items crafted for daily use, but
this distinction is not formal, and the term is easily confused with the Arts and Craftsdesign
movement, which is in fact as practical as it is aesthetic.
Handicrafting has its roots in the rural
crafts—the material-goods necessities—of ancient civilizations, and
many specific crafts have been practiced for centuries, while others are modern
inventions, or popularizations of crafts which were originally practiced in a
limited geographic area.
Many handicrafters use natural, even entirely indigenous,
materials while others may prefer modern, non-traditional materials, and even upcycle industrial materials. The individual artisanship of a handicrafted item is the paramount
criterion; those made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods.
Seen as developing the skills and creative interests of
students, generally and sometimes towards a particular craft or trade,
handicrafts are often integrated into educational systems, both informally and
formally. Most crafts require the development of skill and the application of
patience, but can be learned by virtually anyone.
Like folk art, handicraft
output often has cultural and/or religious significance, and increasingly may
have a political message as well, as in craftivism.
Many crafts become very 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, then their popularity wanes until a later
resurgence.
Contents
The Arts and Crafts movement originated as a late 19th-century
design reform and social movement principally in Europe, North America and
Australia, and continues today. Its proponents are motivated by the ideals of
movement founders such as William Morris and John
Ruskin, who proposed that in pre-industrial societies, such as the
European Middle Ages, people
had achieved fulfillment through the creative process of handicrafts.
This was held up in contrast to what was perceived to be the alienating effects
of industrial labor.
Works Progress Administration, Crafts Class,
1935.
These activities were called crafts because originally many of them were
professions under the guild system. Adolescents were apprenticed to a master craftsman, and
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 many handicrafts are increasingly seen, especially when no
longer the mainstay of a formal vocational trade,
as a form of hobby, folk art and sometimes even fine art.
The term handicrafts can also refer to the products themselves of
such artisanal efforts, that require specialized knowledge, may be highly
technical in their execution, require specialized equipment and/or facilities
to produce, involve manual labor 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 "fine art" tradition, such as ceramics, glass, textiles, metal and wood. These products
are produced within a specific community of practice, and while they mostly differ
from the products produced within the communities of art and design, the
boundaries often overlap, resulting in hybrid objects. Additionally, as the
interpretation and validation of art is frequently a matter of context, an
audience may perceive handicrafted 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.
At the Buell Children's Museum inPueblo, Colorado,
children and their guardians partake in "arts and crafts" (i.e.
handicrafts).
Simple "arts and crafts" projects are a common
elementary and middle school activity in both mainstream and alternative
education systems around the world.
In some of the Scandinavian countries, more advanced handicrafts form part
of the formal, compulsory school curriculum, and are collectively referred to
as sloyd in Swedish, and käsityö or veisto in Finnish. Students learn how to work with mainly metal,
textile and wood, not for professional training purposes as in American vocational–technical
schools, but with the aim to develop children's and teens' practical
skills, such as everyday problem-solving ability, tool use, and understanding
of the materials that surround us for economical, cultural and environmental
purposes.
Secondary schools and college and university art departments
increasingly provide elective options for more handicraft-based arts, in
addition to formal "fine arts",
a distinction that continues to blur, especially with the rise of studio craft, i.e.
the use of traditional handicrafting techniques by professional fine artists.
Many community centers and schools run evening or day classes and
workshops, for adults and children, offering to teach basic craft skills in a
short period of time.
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