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Chapter 3 THE MEANING OF MAKING II: Craft Today

In the eighteenth century, ‘craft’ referred primarily to political cunning and a sly, jocular, tricksy approach to social issues.1 At that point, though, craft was not associated with any particular methods or objects, and could be applied to any cultural practices.3 During the nineteenth century, the notion of ‘craft’ or a ‘craftsman’ appeared even less often, remaining pretty dormant until the last quarter of that century, when it sprang into action.4

ideological van Paul Greenhalgh

• decorative art - ‘applied’ forms of creativity, second-class feeling of being excluded from the category of ‘fine art’

• the vernacular - (volkstaal) unselfconsciously communicated through everyday things that people have made

• politics of work - the actual crafted objects become secondary to the broader ideals about the conditions in which they are made.

Arts and Crafts was first used in this context in 1887 this movement built on the ideas of Ruskin and Morris in different ways, but central to the movement was the idea that all creative work was of equal status, and was the means by which human beings could connect with nature, with their own sense of self, and with other people.