Handicraft

Handcraft is a synonym of handicraft.

As nouns, the difference between handcraft and handicraft is that handcraft is a variant of handicraft, while handicraft is a trade requiring skill of hand; manual occupation; handcraft-.

As a verb handcraft is to engage in handcraft or handicraft.

The Arts and Crafts movement originated as late 19th-century design reform and social movement principally in Europe, North America and Australia, and continues today. Its proponents are motivated by the ideals of movement founders such as William Morris and John Ruskin, who proposed that in pre-industrial societies, such as the European Middle Ages, people had achieved fulfillment through the creative process of handicrafts. This was held up in contrast to what was perceived to be the alienating effects of industrial labor.

Works Progress Administration, Crafts Class, 1935

These activities were called crafts because originally many of them were professions under the guild system. Adolescents were apprenticed to a master craftsman and refined their skills over a period of years in exchange for low wages. By the time their training was complete, they were well equipped to set up in trade for themselves, earning their living with the skill that could be traded directly within the community, often for goods and services. The Industrial Revolution and the increasing mechanization of production processes gradually reduced or eliminated many of the roles professional craftspeople played, and today many handicrafts are increasingly seen, especially when no longer the mainstay of a formal vocational trade, as a form of hobby, folk art and sometimes even fine art.

The term handicrafts can also refer to the products themselves of such artisanal efforts, that require specialized knowledge, maybe highly technical in their execution, require specialized equipment and/or facilities to produce, involve manual labor or a blue-collar work ethic, are accessible to the general public, and are constructed from materials with histories that exceed the boundaries of Western "fine art" tradition, such as ceramics, glass, textiles, metal and wood. These products are produced within a specific community of practice, and while they mostly differ from the products produced within the communities of art and design, the boundaries often overlap, resulting in hybrid objects. Additionally, as the interpretation and validation of art is frequently a matter of context, an audience may perceive handcrafted objects as art objects when these objects are viewed within an art context, such as in a museum or in a position of prominence in one's home.

At the Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, children and their guardians partake in "arts and crafts" (i.e. handicrafts)

Draw and color Bat-Trang-Ceramic

Simple "arts and crafts" projects are a common elementary and middle school activity in both mainstream and alternative education systems around the world.

In some of the Scandinavian countries, more advanced handicrafts form part of the formal, compulsory school curriculum, and are collectively referred to as slöjd in Swedish, and käsityö (or veisto) in Finnish. Students learn how to work mainly with metal, textile and wood, not for professional training purposes as in American vocational–technical schools, but with the aim to develop children's and teens' practical skills, such as everyday problem-solving ability, tool use, and understanding of the materials that surround us for economical, cultural and environmental purposes.

Secondary schools and college and university art departments increasingly provide elective options for more handicraft-based arts, in addition to formal "fine arts", a distinction that continues to fade throughout the years, especially with the rise of studio craft, i.e. the use of traditional handicrafts techniques by professional fine artists.

Many community centers and schools run evening or day classes and workshops, for adults and children, offering to teach basic craft skills in a short period of time.

Handcrafted shoes from bamboo made by artists of West Bengal, India, at a fair in Kolkata

A hand made sofa set made from fibers extracted from bamboo at a fair in Kolkata. Made by artists of West Bengal, India.

Making conical hats (nón lá) in Huế countryside, Vietnam

Typical Filipino handmade brooms in a restaurant of Banaue Municipal Town

There are almost as many variations on the theme of handicrafts as there are crafters with time on their hands, but they can be broken down into a number of categories:

Women's dress

Handmade dolls featuring traditional attire in Afghanistan

Handicrafts for sale in Mysore, India.

Handicrafts are often made for home use and decor.[5] If sold, they are sold in direct sales,[6] gift shops,[7] public markets,[8] and online shopping.[9] In developing countries, handicrafts are sold to locals and as souvenirs to tourists.[10] Sellers tend to speak at least a few words of common tourist languages.[11] There are also specialty markets such as:

• Pike Place Public Market of Seattle
• Street Artists Program of San Francisco
• Ann Arbor Art Fairs
• International Art and Craft Fair, Ouagadougou

A craft done by using twilling papers

• Bagh Print
• Maker culture
• Screw pine craft of Kerala
• Sloyd
• Fully feathered basket
• Artisan