If put simply, craft can be defined as using technical skill to make functional objects. Crafting, in all its various forms, generally involves following certain techniques, and processes to manipulate a material. As well as being rooted in tradition, it also invites a collaborative, and collective way of making. But what is it about craft that is so pertinent to community and human connection?
Crafts make ideal social activities because their process-orientated nature can be easily taught, and learned in-person. Teaching, learning, and sharing, not just of practices but also of materials and ideas foster a collaborative environment, with craft circles providing a relaxed way of meeting people.
By having the goal of bringing people together, craft, and craft circles can also make the act of creating more accessible. Removing the pressure of producing masterful artworks, and instead making the importance about meeting people, and exercising the mind in a different way can make people more likely to attempt to craft. Craft circles are also accessible because they lack specific requirements and skills, meaning anyone can learn and succeed.
Accessibility, which allows wider engagement with craft, is an important factor because it further designates craft as a collaborative endeavour and demonstrates that creativity can take different forms without any risk. It shows the maker their own ability to connect their minds to what is in front of them, and physically create something that can also be used in daily life. In our world of factory made, and mass-produced objects, the handmade is distinctively imbued with meaning and personality.
The power of creative collaboration and community through craft is evidenced in the award-winning documentary The Quilters directed by Jenifer McShane on Netflix. The film follows a group of men in a maximum-security prison in Missouri who design and create quilts for children in foster care. Their quilt-making not only contributes positively towards the community, but it also provides mindful distance, and distraction from their everyday lives, and their passion and skill is evident in the beauty of the quilts.
Craft emphasises the significance of small tasks which can be taken as a reflection of community, of the pieces that can be put together to form the whole and of the standard processes that can be individualised through the maker’s own creativity.
Illustration by Izzy McBroom for The Student