Handicrafts and Fashion Accessories

"Craft" denotes a skill employed in decorative arts (e.g., ceramics) or artistic practices (e.g., lace-making).
Key feature: hands-on craftsmanship.
"Studio craft" is a vague term for crafts practiced by solo artists (e.g., metalwork, wood turning, glass blowing, pottery).
Bernard Leach exemplified the studio pottery movement in Britain.

Renaissance: painters and sculptors' status upgraded to "artist."
"Crafts" classified as lesser creative activity than "arts."
Rationale: Craftsman can predict creation, while an artist cannot.
However, the line is often meaningless; a ceramicist can't predict glaze impact.

The etymology and meanings of “arts” and “crafts” are complicated by areas like "Decorative Arts" and "Applied Arts".
"Decorative Art": ornamental and functional works in ceramic, glass, metal, wood, and textiles including pottery, furniture, interior design, and architecture, distinguished from "fine arts."
"Fine Arts": created purely for aesthetic reasons ("art for art's sake").
"Applied Art": design and aesthetics applied to utilitarian objects e.g., architecture, interior design, graphic design, fashion design, industrial or commercial design, decorative art, and functional art; the Bayeux Tapestry is an example.
Overlap exists between decorative, applied arts, crafts, and fine art sculpture.
The "Arts and Crafts Movement" influenced all artistic endeavors, as did "Art Nouveau" and "Art Deco."

Hundreds/thousands of handicrafts exist.
Textiles: Appliqué, Crocheting, Embroidery, Felt-making, Knitting, Lace-making, Macramé, Quilting, Tapestry art, Weaving.
Woodcraft: Wood-carving, Wood-turning, Cabinet making, Furniture making, lacquerware.
Papercraft: Paper Modelling, Collage, Decoupage, Origami paper folding, Papier-mâché.
Pottery and Glass Crafts: Ceramics (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain), Mosaic Art, Glass Beadmaking, Glass Blowing, Glass Etching.
Jewellery: Includes metalwork (embossing, repoussé, engraving, enamelling, granulation, filigree).
Other: Basket weaving, Beer-making, Book-binding, Doll-making, Enamelling, Floral Design, Ikebana, Jewellery-making, Knife-making, Leatherwork, Metalwork, Model-making, Tattoo Designing, Toy-making.

Craft Guilds (c.1250-1850)
- Medieval Europe: occupational associations of artisans, suppliers, retailers, and wholesale merchants.
- Developed post-1250; goldsmithery and metalwork guilds had similar organizations.
- Assembly of members for rule-making, but control was held by top officials and advisors.
- Guild categories: Masters, Journeymen, and Apprentices; wealthiest trades had Master Craftsmen.
- Economic aim: complete monopoly to protect members' financial interests (rarely achieved).
- Competing guilds and state intervention prevented monopolies; from the 15th century, apprenticeship rules targeted by state.
- Decline from the late 16th century due to standardization, mass-production (Industrial Revolution), and regulated companies.
- Guilds abolished: France (1791), Rome (1907), Spain (1840), England (1835), Austria/Germany (1860), Italy (1864).
- The disappearance of craft guilds signaled the end of master-craftsmanship as an integral part of industry and commerce; individual hand-based craft skills were replaced with machine-tool dexterity.
- This replacement raised debates about the inherent value of crafts.
- First reaction: Arts and Crafts Movement in late Victorian times.

Asian art: Mastery of different art types (India, China, Korea, Japan).
Artforms: Lacquerware, jade carving, bronzes, pottery, porcelain, Buddhist sculpture, silks, textiles.

Arts and Crafts Movement (Flourished c.1850-1900)
- Social and aesthetic movement (late 19th/early 20th century).
- Advocated good design and craftsmanship against mechanization/mass production.
- Concerned with architecture and decorative arts; originated in Britain, impacting the continent and America.
- Emphasis on "honesty": Products showed materials and function (plain materials and surfaces).
- Name from Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society (1888), but origins in John Ruskin's (1819-1900) ideas (1850s).
- Ruskin abhorred machine-made products from the Great Exhibition of 1851; medieval art's beauty came from individual craftsmanship pride.
- William Morris (1834-96) recreated hand industry, producing textiles, books, wallpaper, furniture; his work was a triumph commercially and aesthetically but he failed to produce art for the masses due to affordability (rich people only).
- Morris's ideas influenced craftsmen/teachers; led to bodies promoting Arts and Crafts ideas (e.g., Artworkers Guild, 1884).

Inspired designers (Henry van de Velde) and styles (Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Honan Chapel, De Stijl, Viennese Secession, Deutscher Werkbund, Wiener Werkstätte, Bauhaus Design School).
Some see it as a precursor to Minimalism.
American styles: