craft
All over the world humans have been creating art and craft for use, adornment, ceremony, and more.
The word “craft,” originates from the word ‘kraft,’ meaning force or spirit in Scandinavian languages. Yet defining what it means to craft an object or aesthetic situation is very open to interpretation. How craft is defined can determine economic value as well as cultural significance. In the past, art and craft were separated, yet newer artists and galleries are closing the gap.
Emphasis on using one’s hands and the sense of touch is significant when an artist or artisan crafts a work. How might it be experienced, what level of need or desire might it satisfy, and on what scale might one work… all are factors in determining how to choose a medium that an artist or artisan might skillfully craft to carry the idea or concept.
Ceramics
The earth yields clay of many types. As humans would meet basic needs for thousands of years, soft, pliable clay would be formed with hands or simple tools.
Earthenware, stoneware and porcelain are fired and baked at different temperatures in a kiln, an oven, resulting in bisque-ware which can then be painted with glaze and re-fired.
Fibers
Botany, zoology, minerals or synthetics can be sources for fibers. Grasses, branches, twigs, tree bark or leaves, along with animal hair, fur, or gut, or even plastic, nylon or metal wire can all be viable materials for crafting with fibers.
Methods for working in the fiber arts might be cutting, twisting, braiding, weaving, sewing, knotting, gluing, crocheting, knitting, macrame, embroidery and more.
Fibers can be temporary or permanent, and may embody many spiritual or utilitarian purposes.
Glass
Clear, opaque, iridescent or textured, glass is a material with an extreme amount of potential for personal, community and architectural expression.
At high temperatures, glass can be formed in a furnace with minerals for color and texture. Cooled, glass can be cut with watered tools to create facets that reflect light in many directions. When broken, pieces of glass can be re-assembled into colorful mosaics applied to walls or other objects. Glass has an intrinsic beauty that allows for the shaping of form and refinement of ideas.
Metal
The Periodic Table of Elements contains over 77% metals, 91 of 118 elements on this earth.
Artisans can utilize pure metals such as lead, copper, gold, silver or alloys, mixtures, such as bronze, brass, or steel for functional use or aesthetic pleasure.
Melting, forging, molding, cutting, pounding, or hammering are a few ways that metal can be manipulated.
Incising, scraping, engraving, tarnishing or polishing can change the surface whether dull, shiny or textured.
Welding and soldering are methods to adhere pieces of metal to each other.
Protection, food preparation, adornment, vessels and commerce are just a few utilitarian uses for metal objects.
But when an artist takes a traditional object and infuses it with his or her fresh idea, an original hybrid is created that helps us think differently about the material and the subject matter.
Wood
A tree’s wood has grain, color, density and weight.
There is colorful wood around the world such as the mellow African Bubinga Rosewood, light tan Canadian Jack Pine, Australian Red Cedar, yellow-green Mideast Pistachio, the dark maroon Ceiba wood of Central America, Amazonian Purple heart or buttery Southeast Asian Bamboo.
Carving, sawing, incising, burning, gluing or nailing might be used to cut, adhere or join wood. Sanding and varnishing bring out the rich surface qualities in plain or exotic woods.
Useful objects such as a chair, boat, box, table or musical instrument unique meaning or symbolism.
Leather
Animal skin can be treated and tanned as hide for use as protection from the elements - the wind, rain, cold, or as symbolic personal adornment or for covering floors or furniture.
Cow, sheep, deer, goat or buffalo hide yield different kinds of surface texture, thickness and flexibility.
Whether configured in a saddle, shoes, drum head, an overcoat, or a chair seat, leather can be decorated with beads, gold thread or embossing and can be made into objects that are specially tailored to a situation and embedded with cultural significance.
What Else ?
Often there are craft practices that are found only in a certain town, region or country.
Pyzanky eggs are a traditional craft in Ukraine that is thousands of years old. Crafted during Easter celebrations in Eastern Europe, these eggs are decorated using a wax resist and intensely colored dyes.
The designs have cultural meaning and are applied with a kitsky, a tool holding hot wax . The eggs are dyed starting with the lightest color, applying more wax to protect it, then immersed in a deeper color. The layered process produces complex results and maintains a vibrant tradition of cheerful color in the springtime holiday.
Mosaic
A mosaic is created by piecing together fragments of materials, adhering them to a substrate, and adding mortar between the tile pieces.
Glass, stone, bone, glazed clay tiles, beads, metals and more can allow a mosaic to tell a story differently than if made from one material.
The idea of small pieces creating a whole picture is repeated historically in Pointillism - optical color painting experiments by Georges Seurat in the late 1800’s in Europe, and in present day electronic screen displays made of pixels of red, green and blue which create millions of colors when combined.
Ceramics. Moche People. Llama Stirrup Spout Vessel. 100BC. Peru. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ceramics. https://springfieldmuseums.org/press-release/contemporary-ceramics-considered-craft-now-elevated-fine-art/
Metals. Armor Garniture of George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland. 1586. England. The Met.
Metals. https://www.worldofmolecules.com/elements/
Wood. Armchair, ca.1904. JS Ford Johnson Co. The Met.
Wood. Ocean Liner Sculpture by Po Shun Leong. FAL License.
Wood. https://www.wood-database.com
Leather. Muscogee or Creek, Native American. Moccasins, ca.1830. Georgia or Alabama, USA.
Other craft. A mix of modern and traditional Ukrainian pysanky. Author, Luba Petrusha. 2006.
Other craft. Pysanky eggs. Aliza Mizahar. 2017. Ukraine. Pixabay.
Mosaic. Roman. Lion Mosaic in Jewish Synagogue. 3rd century AD. Naro, Tunisia. Brooklyn Museum.