Draft Craft Manifesto

I’ve been trying to pin down what is driving the increasing popularity of crafting for a while now. This is what I’ve got so far:
1. People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.
2. The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.
3. The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.
4. People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.
5. People who believe they are producing genuinely cool things seek broader exposure for their products. This creates opportunities for alternative publishing channels.
6. Work inspires work. Seeing what other people have made generates new ideas and designs.
7. Essential for crafting are tools, which are accessible, portable, and easy to learn.
8. Materials become important. Knowledge of what they are made of and where to get them becomes essential.
9. Recipes become important. The ability to create and distribute interesting recipes becomes valuable.
10. Learning techniques brings people together. This creates online and offline communities of practice.
11. Craft-oriented people seek opportunities to discover interesting things and meet their makers. This creates marketplaces.
12. At the bottom, crafting is a form of play.

UPDATE:

See Craft Manifesto in MAKE.

Comments

[Ulla-Maaria]

Hi York and Sophie! Thanks for the great post. I'm glad to see you have been reading Mike Cole. Would you be intrested in reporting about "creative eco-oriented" projects and thoughts in Japan and elsewhere? Other people could also send you links.

[York]

To my knowledge, Mike Cole is a cool theorist and practitioner. Especially, "Cultural Psychology" is one of my favorite books!

By the way, it strikes one as important that we share the delight, eagerness, and creativity with each other. So I think the Internet is some kind of vehicle through which we get to communicate with people all over the world.

Though there is undeniable sense that it is tautological, any person who is involved in creative activity (for example, craft, music, illustration, painting, engraving, sculpture, ceramics) possesses the ability to creatively do eco. I want to glocally orchestrate a creative-eco project. There is a saying to the effect that "Think globally, act locally". But I have a vague sense that the possibilities offered up by the Web 2.0 makes it possible to expand to "Think globally, act locally, share, learn, innovate, and transform glocally and collaboratively", like this wonderful blog HobbyPrincess.

I am ashamed to say, the creative-eco project is in an initial phase of development. We call for help and welcome the collaboration from everywhere under the sun!

[mad]

Hello Ulla-Maaria-
I have found you through York, who posted a comment on my blog yesterday. I would like to post your crafters manifesto on my blog, also, with a link to yours. I am a philosopher/potter/activist and am delighted to meet you here. I look forward to the collaborating aspect of this internet with artists and thinkers around the globe.
My very best regards-

[jack]

Thanks for your post

[Debra]

Along the lines of craft as therapy... back in 1984, Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock, predicting trends for the next 30 years. One of his key predictions was that as an individuals work became more high tech (remember, this was the beginning of the personal computer explosion), people would turn a personal life that was "high touch". This predictions explains both "nesting" and crafting as ways to personally reconnect with our environments.

[Carol]

Ulla-Maaria,

Today I watched a video of your lecture at Google headquarters, I think. At the time of the lecture thinglink had been up and running for four days. I was so taken by The Craft Manifesto. I've tried bringing up the site, but get an internal error message.

I think I've always crafted. In the late 60's-70's I remember making a seed bead vests with macrame. I drew psychedelic pictures and made greeting cards with them, wrote poetry that revealed my feelings of the Viet Nam War. I made candles and insense. I learned to throw clay on the potter's wheel in the late 80's and was taught raku firing in Anchorage in the 90's. Always crafting, making gifts, cards...learning and being inspired by others who love the art of making things with their hands and their heart.

I so hope your site is up and running and that I can participate. The last post here was last March. I'll keep trying. Carol (Michigan, USA)

[Chris Shaddock]

I think it a biological rejection of electronics and the digital. We're animals made of senses. The computer simply lacks the physical affordances our body and mind needs to interact properly with "things". This "craft revival" - from my perspective - is our need to be tactile. I can concept map and digram faster on paper with pencil than with my computer. The marks made with paper and pencil supports greater ranges for communication which I can't as easily get from digital mediums like thick or thin lines to illustrate emphasis or perspective. Just a thought but one thing craft is all about is texture and tactility which is why I believe we goo-goo and fondle the "crafty" artifacts. My index finger says he wants a felt mouse... I don't know.

[mosaic]

........making such craft is great...if you were to finish one ,youll feel self-fulfillment..

[Gilles Roy]

Hei Ulla-Maaria,

Thanks for this very useful summary of the new crafter's ethic in the age of the Internet.

I've added my two cents to the already long list of commentators and reviewers of your Manifesto, linking your key points to the ongoing Pro-Am movement in leisure, and to the hacker ethic in open-source software development.

You can read here:
http://www.amateurmusicians.net/2007/08/05/make-your-own-economy/

Thanks again, and keep those insights coming!

Terveisin,
Gilles

[Valentina]

i'm very inspired from this discussion. thank you!

[christine Kennedy]

I love all things crafty, and am planning to curate an exhibition on the best of the best....

In the meantime, I am happy to be introduced to this site and to see such interesting work..

Keep it up!

[http://crafttutorials.net]

This really cool and i have loved the discussion within the comments.

Good work, keep it up!

Thanks

Crafttutorials.net

[nahualnola@gmail.com]

Exceptionalist Manifesto I wrote in verse. Interested in collaboration with visual artists on webpage, e-journal.

http://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=220&Itemid=34

[Dissertation Sample]

Blogs are so interactive where we get lots of informative on any topics nice job keep it up !!