This column was published in CRAFT:05.
Professor Kevin Henry called me one day from Columbia College in Chicago, where he is Coordinator of the Art and Design Department’s Product Design Program. “Do you think we’re witnessing the rise of a new craft movement?” He asked me curiously. Kevin explained that he had been interviewing crafters on the East coast for a study he was conducting. “Almost none of the crafters I spoke with considered themselves part of a larger movement,” he complained. ”Most of them just craft for fun!”
Surely people who are just having fun do not a movement make? Let’s first turn around and look back at a historical precedent – the Arts and Crafts Movement at the end of the19th century. At a time when industrialization and minimum-quality mass production were booming, a group of artists and designers, William Morris among them, issued a call for the revival of the lost spirit of crafting in design: return to simplicity, to sincerity, to good materials and sound workmanship. Morris’ group never evolved into a social or political organization. Rather, it was a loose community of professional craftsmen who shared the same artistic ideals.
Today the story’s different. First, there is a whole universe of coexisting artistic styles and aesthetic ideals. Second, today’s crafters are more often hobbyists than professionals. They’re also driven by various personal motives.
Take my sister-in-law Kukka, who studies history at the university. She lives on a tight student budget, and perhaps because of that, she crafts a lot of cool stuff. She sews her own skirts and bags, builds clever Christmas presents out of recycled materials, and paints beautiful greeting cards. She saves her pennies and gets more delight by crafting unique creations instead of buying expensive merchandise from the store.
My journalist friend Liisa is another example. She just loves making cool things and realizing her ideas. Once she made pillows with a wonderful cat design that grew so popular she had to make a whole bunch for her buddies. The other time she crafted necklaces and swapped them for lunch company. She also organizes crafting get-togethers. One Saturday she had us sew outfits for going out that night. For her, crafting is about having fun with friends.
Then there is Stefan who runs a yoga retreat. Following Mahatma Gandhi’s swadeshi philosophy of good life, he hates imported mass-produced products and always tries to find a way to support local makers and entrepreneurs. He thinks that by setting an example to others, he can help make the world a better place. For Stefan, crating is an alternative lifestyle.
The one thing that my sister-in-law, Liisa, and Stefan have in common is the celebration of individual creativity. And that’s the whole point. The emerging new craft movement is not about outspoken leaders or violent controversy. Instead, it’s about regular people following their passion and connecting with their friends.
Still, it’d be a mistake to shrug crafters off as clueless. Below the innocent appearance they are planting the seeds of change. Without making a big deal about boycotting big brands or saving the environment, crafting changes the way we consume. It exposes us to the original ideals of William Morris: the preference of creativity, sincerity, good materials and sound workmanship over wasteful mass-production. It’s just that this time the movement is not limited to a group of professional craftsmen. Instead, it’s spreading much further and broader than Morris could have imagined in his wildest dreams.
