Hand-Craft History Dates Back to Plato

Arts and Crafts have long tied generations and cultures together in an organic way that little else can. Handcrafting has been more emphasized in some time periods and among certain groups than others and has experienced many resurgences throughout the ages. As we are experiencing one such resurgence in the Western world in this generation, it is a wonderful time to look back at our various histories and examine where this beloved hobby (and for some, career) came from.

Crafts are sometimes called "handicrafts," and while sometimes no distinction is made between the two, the term handicraft sometimes subtly implies a more useful or non-decorative hand made good while "crafts" or "arts and crafts" may imply items made for entertainment or decoration, often solely as a hobby instead of a trade. Both kinds of craftsmen have found their place in our history however, and are equally valuable to the development of culture. In fact, Plato taught that craftsmen of all types were absolutely necessary for society to be just.

Yes, my friends, Plato is the Father of Craft.

His idea of "specialization," as introduced in his Republic states that in society each member has his own role to play according to what he is skilled at and should stick to that role in order for society to function efficiently. Now, The Republic is a dramatic fictional dialogue and not necessarily a treatise on all of the philosophies of Plato himself, but it has still been very influential in western culture. Philosophers and politicians throughout the ages have debated over the value of class and caste systems and the role our family heritage should play in our vocation. This is, in fact, where crafting takes it's most familiar form.

The idea of "apprenticeship" is one still understood by us though it is not so prevalent or organized as when it began in the middle ages. Craft Guilds helped the government place young children with master craftsmen to formally learn the trade that would one day be their livelihood. In modern times this might look like an internship or a vocational program, and many governments (England, Germany, India, Turkey, and Australia are good examples) still put special emphasis on this type of education.

Some cultures have adopted a more informal type of apprenticeship within families, passing down skills from one generation to the next. The purpose of this transfer of information has sometimes been utilitarian, and sometimes for the sake of preserving an artistic tradition. The Metro Parent http://www.metroparent.com/index.php?action=show_article&article=2775 recently published an excellent article on the value of passing crafting down even now.

While skills have continued to travel via family members and communities throughout the ages, there have been some large cultural movements in our recent past that have helped crafting make it this far. In our ever-growing global economy trends in industry and fashion travel far and wide, so while I will focus here on craft movements in the history of the United States, the influences of these movements have reached and been influenced by much of the rest of the world.

In the 1880's a movement began in Britain and the U.S. that would come to be called the Arts and Crafts Movement. John Ruskin and other European critics and writers warned against the loss of individual artistic expression due to the dawning of the industrial revolution. This movement focused on taking pride in work done by one's own hands. Today we see its influence mostly in architecture. The Arts and Crafts style exhibits a simple elegance that often used locally handcrafted materials. The structures were sturdy and included elements such as front porches in homes, square pillars, and hand-crafted stone and woodwork. The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright is an excellent example of this style.

A few decades after the Arts and Crafts Movement ended, the U.S. entered World War II. The devastation of the war also ended up bringing cultures together to exchange art forms. European and Asian influences began to change crafts in this country and the need to make a personal connection with events happening thousands of miles away led many American women to begin knitting or sewing winter items for the men overseas. In 1943, the American craft Council was founded to support and build appreciation for hand crafts.

Hand crafts continued to gain popularity until the turbulent '60s and '70s when the highly creative and anti-establishment hippie culture adopted things natural, hand made, and personal in their effort to give meaning back to things. While this didn't diminish the popularity of hand crafts within families who valued and taught certain traditional crafts, it gave the world a new perspective on individualistic art forms. Art along with music became a very personal means of expression that helped to create bonds among like-minded people.

Now a new generation of creative people have thrived in this DIY culture inherited by those innovative minds. We can see this influence everywhere from hardware stores to books on home-improvement and automobile mechanics. These every-day things may seem unrelated to crafts, but they are evidence of the idea that we can better our lives on our own, in our own way, and with our hands. As this has given birth to an uprising of independent (indie) artists and crafters, we have seen an increasing interest in crafts as a hobby, and more recently, a livelihood. We are beginning to see hand crafted items as high quality and desirable instead of inferior to those mass-produced by efficient machinery.

As lovers of Craft, it's important to enjoy every moment of this time that we live in and seek to make hand crafting something we value as an expression of ourselves and our times. Someday someone will be writing about this "movement" of crafts and marveling about the wonderful advances it brought in our cultures. If you would like to read more about how we got here, I'd recommend this book:

Sources:
Paul Greenhalgh, The History of Craft
Peter Dormer, The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, Manchester University Press, 1997