What is a Crafter

The term ‘crafter’ is a more modern term but truly the same meaning as historical ‘craftsman’. Historically, it was said that what a man did for his livelihood, was his craft.

So what is a craft? Actually it’s anything that produces items of worth:buildings;vehicles;horse shoes or harnesses;clothing;shoes;hats;toys;plumbing, and so forth.

Today, we seem to have taken on the specialized term of crafter, to mean someone who creates with their own hands, as though only decorative items could possibly be a craft.

The truth is a flooring man is a crafter (or craftsman), as is a plumber. This is their craft.

There is the modern day argument about what is art and what is craft. Art has nothing to do with life necessities. It does not produce utilitarian products. Art is appealing to the eye and can be applied to just about anything, including a craft. Art is entertainment, while craft produces something of need.

To answer the modern day argument, if you make a quilt or ceramics or even wooden toys, you are both a crafter and an artist, simply because you apply eye appealing design. An artist can enhance your craft but cannot produce a self sustaining useful product.

I can produce a water pitcher but until I also apply art, there is nothing unique about it. If you were not both a craftsman and an artist, you would not be sitting at craft shows. If you did not also apply art to your woodwork, what would you be offering that didn’t look just like everyone else’s?

To view yourself as any sort of crafter, aside from other needful crafts, is to think yourself a hobbiest. This, you are not, because you craft with the intent to sell.

So to know whether you are a ‘crafter’ or an ‘artist’, simply ask yourself if you produce a necessity in life. Do you produce pretty shelf sitters? That’s an art. Do you produce quilts? That a craft.

Utilitarian is the dividing line. The shoes are utilitarian, the color is not. The bowl is utilitarian, the painted design is not. The wooden wall hanging is not.

Anything produced only for the decorative value, is art. Anything produced for utilitarian purposes is a craft.

Art:
pictures of any sort
wall hangings
garden decor
theater
sculpture
jewelry
applied decoration
crochet as in doilies
tatting unless to be worn
macrame’

Craft:
quilting
sewing
crochet (to be worn)
knit
woodwork
utilitarian ceramics
weaving (rugs and clothing)
and
homes
flooring
plumbing
shoe maker
clothing manufacturer
and so forth

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