Communities of Craft

™Communities of Craft

™Communities of practice

™The groups we seperate ourselves into, different disciplines or types of craft.™

™Communities of interest

™What is of interest to you, or where you choose to work.

History shows craft's involvment in all kinds of communities, whether to give the maker/buyer a sense of identity or show an individulas nationalism. Some examples include;

• ™Guilds
• ™Craft communes
• ™Craft associations
• ™Craft groups
• ™Craft advocates
• ™Craft events (quilting bees etc)
• ™Nationalism

™Ireland and Scotland have strong craft communities based on the idea of ™tourism. You can go and have a tour of potters workshops, traditional handicrafts, woodworking etc.

Artists/makers sell more of their work if the general public watch them make it. It gives people the illusion of participation or involvement.

You could make for a community or be a community of making.

Craft council craft clubs

Following a successful first year of activity the Craft Club scheme now has 350 active clubs in primary schools across the UK teaching children craft skills with the help of local volunteers via lunchtime or after-school clubs.

™™A community of ideology, brought together by common beliefs? Like the..

Heritage Crafts Association 

™Key goals

™    change people’s habits of consumption

™    move from passive consumers to active citizens

™    share products and services

™    reduce material and energy consumption

™    reconnect; with community, neighbours, family, friends, earth, nature

™    build safe positive communities

™    true materialism; a positive, sustainable and healthy way of relating to material stuff

™

™And our means to getting there?

™    sharing skills, by sharing skills we also share values

™    encourage individuals to organise skill share events

™    use enabling spaces for events eg village halls

™    use digital media to spread the message

™    finally we got rather idealistic and imagined a "social tax" where in   your 70 years in society you had a duty to give something back.

™

™™Situated communities might be involved with trying to improve local spaces or towns.™

™Pullens Yard London

™A community for selling and making.

™Marketplaces might have their own communities.

You can also have ™digital communities

™

™“There is no doubt that the future belongs to the virtual spaces of craft” – Sandra Alfoldy (2007) in Neocraft:  modernity and the crafts

Examples;

• ™How to…
• ™Craftster.org
• ™craftzine
• ™advice
• ™Getcrafty.com
• ™For sale…
• ™Social media
• ™LinkedIn
• ™Facebook
• ™Blogs             

™Craftmafia - worldwide

™The Glasgow Craft Mafia is a group of crafty businesses dedicated to supporting each other, promoting DIY craftiness in Glasgow and beyond, and generally crafting up a whole heap of trouble here in the wild, wild West of Scotland. We're part of the larger Craft Mafia Familia first started in Austin, Texas.

Why craft and why now?

 Craft practices have great potential to connect people together, whether in person or virtually. Through learning to make, we can share in communities of knowledge, skills and interest. We can communicate through shared memories and values, such as a mutual commitment to activism or sustainable living, a need to establish alternative ways of working, or simply the desire to decorate, repair or improve the quality of our lives.