People today live with mass-produced goods and depend on electronics to get through the day. However, vintage crafts have not lost their appeal. Many people collect them, while others practice them as a hobby or a livelihood. Some historians also want to preserve old skills so they won't be lost entirely.
Crafting is working by hand with almost any material you can imagine, while the word 'craft' can denote the skill itself or the object made. Arts and Crafts shows are so named because many objects made to serve a necessary function are also works of art. In fact, the artistic urge leads many people to engage in crafting as an outlet for their creativity.
A good example is knitting. Fishermen in northern climes needed to keep warm even when drenched to the skin by rain or sea spray. Their women made them thick, closely-knitted sweaters out of wool from their native sheep. The natural lanolin was often left in the wool for its waterproofing qualities. The women were not content to knit plain patterns but developed intricate cables and ribbing that have beautified knitted garments ever since.
Everything needed for the home and farm was made by the people who would use it or by artisans that worked near-by. Furniture, bedding, eating utensils, candles and lamps, clothes, shoes and boots, and tools of every kind were homemade. But consider the creativity that embroidered sheets and pillowcases, made colorful quilts and woven blankets, turned the legs of chairs and tables, trimmed dresses, and waterproofed leather boots.
People made useful things beautiful, like baskets, pottery jugs and urns, decoy ducks, hooked rugs, needlepoint chair pads, and stained-glass windows. They improved soap with fragrance, dried flowers for their scent and color, tapered and twisted their candles, and made tablecloths out of lace. Much of the charm of earlier days came out of the artistic nature of those who needed more than mere function.
It's exciting that the traditional skills have not been entirely lost. Careful owners, museums, and collectors preserve the objects themselves. Vintage clothing, old books, household implements, farming tools, and decorative objects exist that are a hundred years old or more.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
It's important that the old skills not be completely lost. Not only are they part of every society's heritage, but they also evoke the times and people of long ago who loved beauty and incorporated it into their everyday lives. Working in wood, stone, metal, clay, animal skins, riverbank reeds, or worn-out things (old files were made into pocket knives), people used to and still can make utilitarian things that are works of art, too.
Crafting is working by hand with almost any material you can imagine, while the word 'craft' can denote the skill itself or the object made. Arts and Crafts shows are so named because many objects made to serve a necessary function are also works of art. In fact, the artistic urge leads many people to engage in crafting as an outlet for their creativity.
A good example is knitting. Fishermen in northern climes needed to keep warm even when drenched to the skin by rain or sea spray. Their women made them thick, closely-knitted sweaters out of wool from their native sheep. The natural lanolin was often left in the wool for its waterproofing qualities. The women were not content to knit plain patterns but developed intricate cables and ribbing that have beautified knitted garments ever since.
Everything needed for the home and farm was made by the people who would use it or by artisans that worked near-by. Furniture, bedding, eating utensils, candles and lamps, clothes, shoes and boots, and tools of every kind were homemade. But consider the creativity that embroidered sheets and pillowcases, made colorful quilts and woven blankets, turned the legs of chairs and tables, trimmed dresses, and waterproofed leather boots.
People made useful things beautiful, like baskets, pottery jugs and urns, decoy ducks, hooked rugs, needlepoint chair pads, and stained-glass windows. They improved soap with fragrance, dried flowers for their scent and color, tapered and twisted their candles, and made tablecloths out of lace. Much of the charm of earlier days came out of the artistic nature of those who needed more than mere function.
It's exciting that the traditional skills have not been entirely lost. Careful owners, museums, and collectors preserve the objects themselves. Vintage clothing, old books, household implements, farming tools, and decorative objects exist that are a hundred years old or more.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
It's important that the old skills not be completely lost. Not only are they part of every society's heritage, but they also evoke the times and people of long ago who loved beauty and incorporated it into their everyday lives. Working in wood, stone, metal, clay, animal skins, riverbank reeds, or worn-out things (old files were made into pocket knives), people used to and still can make utilitarian things that are works of art, too.
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