Outline of crafts
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to crafts:
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional term craftsman is nowadays often replaced by artisan and by craftsperson.
A craft is a work of physical expression drawn from imagination or existing culture, largely by using hands. A craft is typically birthed by creativity and intentional design, through the application of skill(s)/ techniques and can extend across a wide range of areas from dance, embroidery to photography. Good 'craftsmanship' is marked by dexterity and experience.[1][2]
What type of thing are crafts?
Crafts as a whole can be described as all of the following:
- One of the arts – as an art form, crafts are an outlet of human expression, usually influenced by culture and which in turn help to change culture. Crafts are a physical manifestation of the internal human creative impulse and typically involves the use of hands to create the artform.
- One of the visual arts – visual arts is a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature.
Types of crafts
Ceramics and glass crafts
Ceramics and ceramic arts include:
Fibre and textile crafts
See also Needlework below
Flower crafts
Leatherwork
- Boiled leather making
- Leather carving
- Leather crafting (including dyeing, painting, and stamping)
Houseware
- Basket weaving (also called basketry, basket making)
- Cooper
Fashion
Needlework
- Applique
- Crochet
- Embroidery
- Knitting
- Nålebinding
- Needlelace
- Patchwork
- Quilting
- Sewing
- Spool knitting
Paper crafts
Paper crafts include:
- Bookbinding
- Calligraphy
- Cast paper
- Decoupage
- Iris folding
- Origami
- Paper embossing
- Paper marbling
- Paper model
- Papercutting
- Papermaking
- Papier-mâche
- Parchment craft
- Quilling
- Scrapbooking
- Paper burning art
Wood and furniture crafts
- Cabinet making
- Carpentry
- Intarsia
- Lacquer art
- Marquetry
- Spoon carving
- Timber framing
- Upholstery
- Wood burning
- Wood carving
- Woodturning
- Woodworking
Stone crafts
Metal crafts
- Blacksmithing
- Casting
- Clockmaking
- Cloisonné
- Coppersmith
- Enamelling
- Farrier
- Jewellery
- Knife making
- Locksmithing
- Metalworking - metalsmith
- Whitesmith
- metal wire art
- Silversmith
- Tinware - tinsmith
- Watchmaking
- Weaponsmith - sword making, armorer, gunsmith, fletching
Printing
General crafts concepts
- American craft
- Artisan
- Arts and Crafts
- Handicraft
- Master craftsman
- Sloyd
- Studio craft
- Studio pottery
See also
References
- ^ "craft Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". Archived from the original on 1 September 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ "CRAFT definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".