Crafts

Crafts

CLASS LECTURE: (March 7, 2017)

Crafts

• Expert work, done by "Hand"...
• Craftwork is generally not mass produced, especially after the industrial revolution.
• In times like the Civil War, there was no mass production, so things had to be done by individuals.
• Traditional arts
• From clans, pedigrees, and countries.
• Whether or not we make them beautiful or useful depends on our skill, education, etc.
• Can range from a popsicle stick sculpture or making a violin.
• Tremendously wide definition; it's basically known as the functional arts.
• Form follows function
• When you make something, think of what it will do.
• In order for a craft to be valuable, it needs a function.
• Heirloom
• Heir = One who inherits something.
• Loom = A way of weaving fabric.
• Passed down through generations. 
• Has a lot of sentimental value and meaningful history. 
• Popular Craft
• Moderate skills required
• Done for enjoyment
• Example:
• Scrapbooking.
• Serious Crafting
• Done by professional crafters
• High level of skill
• Example:
• Violins

Traditional Media

• Clay
• Glass
• Metal
• Wood
• Fiber

Clay

• Ceramics / Keramos
• Qualities:
• Plastic
• Able to be formed, can use it to make things.
• It's basically dirt.
• Vitreous
• Having a glass-like quality
• Terra-cotta, when you fire it, it can take on some of the attributes of glass.
• Refers to the fact that it turns hard.

Types (Clay)

1. Earthenware
• Terra cotta
• Reddish clay, fired at lower temperatures (approximately 1800 degrees F.)
• It can become vitreous, but also not vitreous
• Water could potentially not go through it, or can go through it.
2. Stoneware
• Clays that are brown-grayish, fired at approximately 2300degrees F.
3. Porcelain
• Most refined clay
• Porcelain are white, fine clays fired at approximately 2700 degrees F.

Forming Methods (Clay)

1. Pinching
• Very common for people to do (we've all done it before)
• Holding the clay, then sticking your thumbs in it and it creates a bowl.
• Can create very nice pieces.
2. Coiling
• Make snakes and wind them up and smooth them over
• You normally start with a wooden bowl on bottom to make it symmetrical.
• Maria Martinez (1881-1980)
• Made these kind of pots and sold them on the roads to tourists.
• Could make using sheep dung
• Her pots could now be sold for half a million dollars.
3. Slabbing
• Making things that are geometric
• Slip
• Liquified clay
• Has a lot of water with it
• Acts as a glue to put on edges of slabs, then when the two slabs are pressed together, it keeps them together.
4. Throwing
• What you do when you put clay on a potters wheel and spin it around.
• You have to take it off the potters wheel and dry it slowly
• If you dry it too fast, it cracks.
• This is called Greenware
• unfired pottery
• First firing called Bisque
• Becomes Bisqueware
• Glaze 
• A glaze looks nothing like what it will look like after the glaze firing.
• Glaze firing is the second firing
• Glaze and glass are the same word.
• Temperature has to be controlled in the cooling process after the glaze firing.

Glass

• A supercooled liquid
• SiO2
• Silica - Sand
• Basically melted sand

Forming Methods (Glass)

• Moulding
• Sculpting
• Blowing
• Venice, Italy

-End of Class Discussion-

___________________________________________________________

"You don't always need fancy equipment to make beautiful stuff."

CLASS LECTURE: (March 9, 2017)

Throwing

• Process
• Wedge the clay
• Cut to manageable pieces, then pushed and pressed so all air bubbles will leave.
• Centering the clay on the wheel
• Opening a cylinder
• Forming
• Trimming
• Left with Greenware
• Clay that has been formed but not fired; can return to clay status.
• Bisque firing
• Has to be done slowly, example was 24 hours, so all moisture will leave
• Left with Bisqueware
• Clay that has been permanently altered
• Applying the Glaze
• Glazes are coatings consisting of different minerals, etc., that react to firing.
• Glazes react to the kiln and creates different colors based on temperatures.
• Glaze Firing
• Final Step in firing ceramics.

Glass

• Attach glass to the end of the Blowpipe
• Blowing and sculpting the glass
• Glass as a craft...
• Glass as art...

Metal

• Forming Processes
1. Forging
• Repoussé / annealing
• Blacksmiths
• You start placing it in hot fire called a "Forge", hot enough to melt metal.
• Hammering the metal on an anvil.
• Shaping the metal
• Left with the finished product
2. Casting
• Cire Perdue
3. Fabricating
• Welding/Soldering/Rivetting

Wood

• Carving
• Turning - Lathe
• When you spin the wood around, then take a chisel and place it on the wood to carve it.
• Assembling
• Decorating
• Inlay - Marquetry
• Fabrication
• Other uses...
• Making barrels
• Inlaid Wood Marquetry

Fiber

• Types of Fibers
1. Animal
• Wool / Silk
2. Plant
• Cotton / Linen
3. Synthetic
• Nylon / Polyester
• Fabric Forming Processes
• Weaving
• Loom, Warp & Weft
• A basic, simple idea, but by performing that simple idea, you can create complicated and beautiful pieces.
• Warp are the vertical fibers
• Weft are the horizontal fibers.
• Knotting
• Knit, Crochet, Tat, Macramé
• Tatting takes Macrame to a finer degree.
• Made out of knotted thread. 

Fiber Fabric Decorating Processes

• Embroidery
• Needlepoint
• Applique
• Sewing material together
• Material sewn on other material.
• Tapestry
• Painting a picture with thread.
• Dying
• Quilting

Book Arts

• Paper / Papyrus
• Leather, Vellum / Parchment

-End of Class Discussion-

___________________________________________________________