Here we are nearing the end of March – how did that happen?! But a conversation with a friend today made me remember that March is National Craft Month, and I didn’t want it to slip by without at least a mention.
I know there’s endless discussion about what constitutes craft and what constitutes art, and a lot of tightly-held opinions. But truthfully that end of the conversation doesn’t really interest me. When I read the following quote attributed to Ralph Reichenbach and Doug Madill, I decided they had expressed exactly what I felt, in a beautifully lucid way:
Art strives to express; craft strives for excellence. Good art has good craft, good craft is artistic. Within every craft there exists artists. Within every artist there is craft.
I like to create things. And while I really do enjoy working in a number of different media, here are some of the things I’ve been up to lately:
Journals. Personally I believe it’s impossible to have too many journals, and I keep more than my fair share of them. I’m definitely not a one-journal-fits-all-purposes kind of woman. Besides writing in them, or keeping visual documentation, I love bookbinding and creating my own journals. Here are a few of my latest:
I also enjoy beading, particularly off-loom techniques. And I like making amulet bags. Besides the joy of creating them, like journals, they serve as a holder of treasures. Maybe I should just own up to it – I like treasures.
Here are few of my bags, two of them in-process:
It makes me smile that the word crafty is defined as “skillful in underhand or evil schemes; cunning; deceitful; sly.” But there is also an obsolete usage that defines it as “skillful, ingenious, dexterous.”
That’s what I’m claiming for myself.
How about you? Are you crafty? What do you like to create? Do tell, I’d love to hear. And then we can celebrate you this before this month ends. Or maybe you’d just like to go on record as one or the other definitions of crafty. That’s something we’d probably all like to know as well.
Your journals and bags are really beautiful!
Thanks Candace!
My middle name should have been “Crafty”!! I’ve celebrated every single day of March…but then I have to make a confession. I craft almost every single day of the year!
We went to Portland today, only an hour away from our town. One of our destinations was a large bookstore and I took up residence in the craft book aisle. I highly recommend my new book, Journal Fodder 365.
Of course, I always stop at the large Craft Warehouse on our way home. My destination? The scrapbook section.
Yep!! I’m home and still celebrating!
Yay Ruth Crafty – I celebrate you. And how fun to have a creative fodder-gathering field trip! What a great sounding book – I’m sure you’ll have fun with it.
I’ve long felt that crafts would be considered arts if we were a matriarchal society. Since we’re not, things women did that often had purpose: making blankets, decorating a pillow and so forth, were not seen as the art they actually are. My two cents.
I am very artsy craftsy, but you would not know it from my blog at the moment! I crochet, watercolour paint, make molded clay characters for stop-motion films, needlepoint, bead- including free-hand weaving!, embroidery, cartoon … probably forgetting something.
I love your beaded bags and your books! I may have to learn bookbinding some day, I really love the finished pieces. It seems fun!
I agree with your perspective Em. And it reminds me of a wonderful poem I haven’t thought about in a while. I’ll have to dig it up and share it because I think it speaks to what women have always done with their heart-hand work.
You’re working with some pretty constraining limitations right now Em, but it’s still so very clear what a brilliant artist you are. Wishing you a whole lot more expansiveness, abundance, peace and joy!
Thank you for this post on my first day of Spring Break. My crafts other than writing will have a chance to come out and be honored. I copied the quote. I love to craft and have for years considered myself an artisan until I became an artist in beading because I was able to make original works not just ones that strictly followed a pattern. It tooks years of work before I considered myself an artist. When I retire, I’m going to add more metalwork to my beading and I have been collecting my tools. I will go back to being an artisan until I learn this offshoot of the craft.
Part of me despairs when I see in my mind what I want and then I look at what I’ve created. The artist then knows more artisan is needed.
It is hard to practice when your time is limited.
Enjoy your crafty months and days.
Happy Spring break Sheila. Hope you get to enjoy all sorts of delights and feel nourished and renewed.
I think real mastery of any craft takes a great deal of time and effort, but the journey really IS the joy. When you love something you always want to push the edges a bit, to explore, to see if you can create what you envision or allow what wishes to be expressed freedom to come through the limitations of what you can currently hold. So there is always growth, always experimentation, always room for expansion.
Happy Spring break Sheila. Hope you get to enjoy all sorts of delights and feel nourished and renewed.
I think real mastery of any craft takes a great deal of time and effort, but the journey really IS the joy. When you love something you always want to push the edges a bit, to explore, to see if you can create what you envision or allow what wishes to be expressed freedom to come through the limitations of what you can currently hold. So there is always growth, always experimentation, always room for expansion.
I love to create! In the past year, my focus has been on sewing, photography, zentangles, painting, and a little cooking. I’m interested in a lot of things and, really, just being able to create anything is where I find the most enjoyment. I don’t have a strong preference for what it is I’m creating 🙂
I love that the call to live a creative life, no matter how it shows up, is being heard and answered by so many people! And it sounds like you’re up to some fun stuff. I’m feeling the call to do some regular zentangling – maybe I’ll incorporate that into a Spring practice.
I am most definitely crafty. I have three sisters and all of us share craftiness as our connector point. It is so much fun. In fact, I came across a video yesterday of these three blogger sisters who are also creative artistic people and they had formed an online video show where they share what they are doing creatively. It was super cute, so I called one of my sisters and suggested that we try a Google Hangout to do a similar thing (just amongst ourselves). I think it is such a wonderful thing. Thanks for sharing this! I had no idea that March came (and went) without my knowing it was National Craft Month. Who knew?
Oh how fun to share that commonality with your sisters Amy! And what a brilliant idea to do a google hangout. I can just imagine how much fun that would be.
Oh I absolutely adore your journals Deborah. I don’t know much about beading, but love what you have created and shared with us.
I love being crafty, but too often spend more time thinking about it than actually doing it. I seem to go through spurts where I do so much then I do nothing for a long time. Lately I feel really drawn towards art journalling. I have done a little but admire the incredible talent that women have about this craft. Lovely post. Thank you.
Art journalling is such fun, and I’m always delighted to see peeks into other people’s pages. I’m guessing Suzanne, this being an inward-focused discovery year for you, that art journalling is a perfect companion for that journey.
We are all creative; it’s just a practice of cultivating it, I guess. I love your creations. 🙂 I didn’t even know March was Natl Craft Month. How cool!
Yes, indeed I agree – we’re all creative. And it’s wonderful when people acknowledge it about themselves and each other – it’s a powerful and beautiful thing.
Great post! I am very crafty and DIY and sometimes forget to sit and let my creative “juices” flow because I am so busy in my day. Your journals are gorgeous and I too believe that you can’t have too many! Thank you for sharing your pictures! 🙂
Here’s to days with enough time in them for everything we wish, including endless creativity! I’m really glad you stopped by Devin.