ABSTRACT
CRAFT is both the process and the result of applying tradition-based skills and knowledge of materials to the production of three-dimensional objects that conform to community-based sensibilities of aesthetics and use. Although the meaning of the term varies considerably between the popular media and the scholarly world, craft really has more to do with the knowledge and vision an individual brings to a task than with any observable attributes of the object that is its completed result. “Object” refers not only to things such as baskets, furniture, quilts, and dolls to which the term “craft” is commonly applied, but also, for example, to elements of the rooms in which such things might commonly be found. Plastering, the creation of woodwork, and painting employ the same knowledge of materials and methods. Similarly, the repair and maintenance of objects of varying scale and use summon an understanding of how a saddle, a shovel handle, or a tobacco barn is supposed to perform. Such understanding derives from knowledge that is often acquired in informal apprenticeship rather than formal education.
