ABSTRACT
Craft knowledge is skilled knowledge, understood as trained practice that necessitates practical understanding of materials and tools. As such it requires both declarative and procedural knowledge—knowledge of facts and of how to do something. Craft knowledge embodies the ideal of crafting—making things beautifully and well. A good craftsperson is motivated by material challenges, like working with the resistance of materials or managing ambiguity, and the difficulties and possibilities they throw up. The traditional apprenticeship model of craft training fits uncomfortably into formal educational contexts. The slowness of craft training that is essential for securing craft competence—a suggested 10,000 hours, according to Sennett—is difficult to accommodate within formal institutional structures. According to Trevor H. J. Marchand, creativity in art and design rests on technical craftsmanship in that the use of tools in certain ways organizes imaginative experience with productive results.
