About this blog

A blog about the meanderings of a craft designer and hand maker living in a beautiful island at the end of the earth....I'm a weaver addicted to her little Ashford Knitters Loom, a crocheter, knitter, painter, gardener and grandma. Rowena lives in Tasmania - a world apart, not a world away!

Craft is a social activity, shaped by communal resources and motivations. Leonardo Bonanni and Amanda Parkes Virtual guilds : collective intelligence and the future of craft JMC vol 3, no 2 July 2010 pp. 179-190

WHAT IS CRAFT ?

Some interesting reading for practitioners

Professor Tony Fry in Looking forward : craft at the perceptual crossroads
Craft Australia ca enews Issue #56 - October 2010

Craft is artifice; it is care exercised in, and expressed by, making. Craft is that which exceeds utility. Craft is a sign of human presence (but not just reducible to the hand). Craft is a communication from the maker to the user. Craft is an acknowledgement of the responsibility of the maker to the materiality of their practice (how they work and with what). Craft is a means to conserve skill and knowledge, and as such is an attunement with making. Craft is a means of fusing pleasure with 'the thing'. Craft is that which makes the craftsperson - it is thus object and self-forming. Craft is an invitation to make. Craft can even be a bridge between things and the sacred.

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And if you really want to get into the deep and meaningful, this one is worth a read.  It's a heafty publicationfrom the Australia Council, but worht a look for those hoping to earn their living from their art.