Craft Economies provides a wide-ranging exploration of contemporary craft production, situating practices of amateur and professional making within a wider creative economy. Contributors address a ...diverse range of practices, sites and forms of making in a wide range of regional and national contexts, from floristry to ceramics and from crochet to coding. The volume considers the role of digital practices of making and the impact of the maker's movement as part of larger trends around customisation, on-demand production, and the possibilities of 3D printing and digital manufacturing.
Contemporary craft, art and design are inseparable from the flows of production and consumption under global capitalism. The New Politics of the Handmade features twenty-three voices who critically ...rethink the handmade in this dramatically shifting economy. The authors examine craft within the conditions of extreme material and economic disparity; a renewed focus on labour and materiality in contemporary art and museums; the political dimensions of craftivism, neoliberalism, and state power; efforts toward urban renewal and sustainability; the use of digital technologies; and craft's connections to race, cultural identity and sovereignty in texts that criss-cross five continents. They claim contemporary craft as a dynamic critical position for understanding the most immediate political and aesthetic issues of our time.
Throughout the 21st century, various craft practices have drawn the attention of academics and the general public in the West. In Craft is Political, D Wood has gathered a collection of essays to ...argue that this attention is a direct response to and critique of the particular economic, social and technological contexts in which we live. Just as Ruskin and Morris viewed craft and its ethos in the 1800s as a kind of political opposition to the Industrial Revolution, Wood and her authors contend that current craft activities are politically saturated when perspectives from the Global South, Indigenous ideology and even Western government policy are examined. Craft is Political argues that a holistic perspective on craft, in light of colonialism, post-colonialism, critical race theory and globalisation, is overdue. A great diversity of case studies is included, from craft and design in Turkey and craft markets in New Zealand to Indigenous practitioners in Taiwan and Finnish craft education. Craft is Political brings together authors from a variety of disciplines and nations to consider politicised craft.
This book examines individuals, families and communities of craftworkers and their changing experience in town and country. Based on case studies drawn from personal, business, institutional and ...official records, as well as newspaper reports and visual illustrations, it looks at workplace dynamics and handmade wares shaped by personal consumption, rather than industrial production. Stana Nenadic examines the ‘things’ that were made and the values they embodied at a time when most Scots were still engaged in hand making – either for income or pleasure – despite Scotland’s emergence as a great industrial powerhouse.
Politically adrift, alienated from Weimar society, and fearful of competition from industrial elites and the working class alike, the independent artisans of interwar Germany were a particularly ...receptive audience for National Socialist ideology. As Hitler consolidated power, they emerged as an important Nazi constituency, drawn by the party's rejection of both capitalism and Bolshevism. Yet, in the years after 1945, the artisan class became one of the pillars of postwar stability, thoroughly integrated into German society.From Craftsmen to Capitalists gives the first account of this astonishing transformation, exploring how skilled tradesmen recast their historical traditions and forged alliances with former antagonists to help realize German democratization and recovery.
Sloppy Craft Cheasley Paterson, Elaine; Surette, Susan
2015, 2015-09-24
eBook
Sloppy Craft: Postdisciplinarity and the Crafts brings together leading international artists and critics to explore the possibilities and limitations of the idea of ‘sloppy craft’ – craft that is ...messy or unfinished looking in its execution or appearance, or both. The contributors address ‘sloppiness’ in contemporary art and craft practices including painting, weaving, sewing and ceramics, consider the importance of traditional concepts of skill, and the implications of sloppiness for a new 21st century emphasis on inter- and postdisciplinarity, as well as for activist, performance, queer and Aboriginal practices. In addition to critical essays, the book includes a ‘conversation’ section in which contemporary artists and practitioners discuss challenges and opportunities of ‘sloppy craft’ in their practice and teaching, and an afterword by Glenn Adamson.
Exploring a contemporary Judaism rich with the textures of family, memory, and fellowship, Jodi Eichler-Levine takes readers inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement. As she traveled ...across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions, she joined in the making, asked questions, and contemplated her own family stories. Jewish Americans, many of them women, are creating ritual challah covers and prayer shawls, ink, clay, or wood pieces, and other articles for family, friends, or Jewish charities. But they are doing much more: armed with perhaps only a needle and thread, they are reckoning with Jewish identity in a fragile and dangerous world. The work of these crafters embodies a vital Judaism that may lie outside traditional notions of Jewishness, but, Eichler-Levine argues, these crafters are as much engaged as any Jews in honoring and nurturing the fortitude, memory, and community of the Jewish people. Craftmaking is nothing less than an act of generative resilience that fosters survival. Whether taking place in such groups as the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework or the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, or in a home studio, these everyday acts of creativity-yielding a needlepoint rabbi, say, or a handkerchief embroidered with the Hebrew words tikkun olam-are a crucial part what makes a religious life.
In an era of increasingly available digital resources, many textile designers and makers find themselves at an interesting juncture between traditional craft processes and newer digital technologies. ...Highly specialized craft/design practitioners may now elect to make use of digital processes in their work, but often choose not to abandon craft skills fundamental to their practice, and aim to balance the complex connection between craft and digital processes. The essays collected here consider this transition from the viewpoint of aesthetic opportunity arising in the textile designer's hands-on experimentation with material and digital technologies available in the present.
Craft provides the foundations for thinking within the design and production of textiles, and as such may provide some clues in the transition to creative and thoughtful use of current and future digital technologies. Within the framework of current challenges relating to sustainable development, globalization, and economic constraints it is important to interrogate and question how we might go about using established and emerging technologies in textiles in a positive manner.
Handicraft is the backbone of rural economy of countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bell metal handicraft known as “Dhokra craft,” is an important metal handicraft practiced in India. ...Commercialization of this craft industry has increased working hours but the business model is still cottage‐based. Manual manufacturing for commercial needs has increased incidence of hand injuries among the artisans affecting sustainable growth. The objective of this research is to find the cause of work‐related hand injuries of the artisans of bell metal handicraft industry to provide direction for future research. Occupational risk on hands were identified using Modified Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Severity of hand symptoms were assessed by Modified Boston Hand Evaluation Questionnaire. Direct observation and task analysis was further used to understand the risk involved in the job. Use of hand tools and power tools play significant role in the development of hand injuries among the artisans. Hand problems such as amputation, burning marks, loss of sensitivity, and tingling sensation were highly observed among artisans, those with experience >31 years. Experienced artisans undergo more occupational hand injuries, causing absenteeism, job turnover, and job loss. This ultimately affects the sustainable growth of the Dhokra trade community.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Using the lenses of Porter’s value chain theory and pro-poor tourism strategies, the current study investigates the pro-poor value chain impacts of the handicraft sector in four tourist destinations ...in Ethiopia. The study employed a qualitative research approach with an exploratory design. We recruited research participants from relevant stakeholders using purposeful and convenient techniques. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and personal observations. Research findings reveal that although the handicraft-based tourism activity in the study areas seems promising, the handicraft sector in the region is less pro-poor due to a lack of solid and sustainable value chain formation. Drawing upon its findings, the study develops a comprehensive handicraft value-chain framework that can serve as a blueprint for various rural area handicraft actors and destination planners. Policy-relevant implications, study limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.