Types of Craft

Types of Craft

There are hundreds if not thousands of different varieties of handicrafts. The following list of crafts is included merely for illustrative purposes.

Textiles
Appliqué, Crocheting, Embroidery, Felt-making, Knitting, Lace-making, Macramé, Quilting, Tapestry art, Weaving.

Woodcraft
Wood-carving, Wood-turning, Cabinet making, Furniture making, lacquerware.

Papercraft
Paper Modelling, Collage, Decoupage, Origami paper folding, Papier-mâché.

Pottery and Glass Crafts (see also Ancient Pottery)
Ceramics (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain), Mosaic Art, Glass Beadmaking, Glass Blowing, Glass Etching, (see Stained Glass Art Materials/Methods).

Jewellery
Includes metalwork involving processes like embossing, repoussé work, engraving, enamelling (types include champlevé, basse taille, cloisonné, plique-à-jour), granulation and filigree decoration. For more, see: Jewellery: History, Techniques.

Other Examples of Craftwork

Basket weaving, Beer-making, Book-binding, Doll-making, Enamelling, Floral Design, Ikebana, Jewellery-making, Knife-making (cutler), Leatherwork, Metalwork, Model-making, Tattoo Designing, Toy-making.

History and Development of Crafts Craft Guilds (c.1250-1850) Originally coined during medieval times in Europe, the term "Craft Guild" refers to an occupational association which typically consisted of all the artisans (and sometimes the suppliers, retailers and wholesale merchants) involved in a specific branch of industry or commerce. Largely developed after 1250, Medieval craft guilds (eg. for goldsmithery and metalwork) varied little in their general organization. Each had an assembly of all members, which possessed some rule-making authority, but real control lay in the hands of a few top officials and a council of advisors. A typical Guild was divided into three categories: Masters, Journeymen and Apprentices. In the wealthiest trades, a guild might also have an inner circle of Master Craftsmen. The main economic aim of craft guilds was to achieve a complete monopoly over everyone involved in the profession, in order to protect and promote the financial interests of their members, but this was rarely achieved. Generally, there were too many competing guilds, and too much state interest for this to occur. For example, from the 15th century onwards, rules regarding apprenticeship and key areas of guild policy became the target of State intervention. As a result, from the late 16th century onwards, the power and activity of craft guilds began to decline: a process accelerated by the standardization and mass-production techniques introduced by the Industrial Revolution, as well as the emergence of regulated companies and other associations. Guilds were finally abolished in France (1791), Rome (1907) Spain (1840) England (1835) Austria and Germany (1860) and Italy (1864). The disappearance of craft guilds signalled the end of master-craftsmanship as an integral part of industry and commerce, and its replacement with machine-tool dexterity in both factories and workshops. This issue - the redundancy of individual hand-based craft skills, and the emergence of mass-production methods to produce faster, cheaper but less "beautiful" products - informs much of the debate surrounding the inherent value of crafts. The first reaction against this mechanization was the Arts and Crafts Movement, which gathered momentum during late Victorian times.