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A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated related tools like scissors, carving implements, or hooks.
It is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers and clay.
One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used.
In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 5000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village.
Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items, whether for personal use or as products, that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.
Collective terms for handicrafts include artisanry, crafting, and handcrafting.
The term arts and crafts is also applied, especially in the United States and mostly to hobbyists' and children's output rather than items crafted for daily use, but this distinction is not formal, and the term is easily confused with the Arts and Crafts design movement, which is in fact as practical as it is aesthetic.
More information: Handmade Barcelona
Handicraft has its roots in the rural crafts -the material-goods necessities- of ancient civilizations, and many specific crafts have been practiced for centuries, while others are modern inventions or popularizations of crafts which were originally practiced in a limited geographic area.
Many handcrafters use natural, even entirely indigenous, materials while others may prefer modern, non-traditional materials, and even upcycle industrial materials. The individual artisanship of a handcrafted item is the paramount criterion; those made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods.
Seen as developing the skills and creative interests of students, generally and sometimes towards a particular craft or trade, handicrafts are often integrated into educational systems, both informally and formally. Most crafts require the development of skill and the application of patience but can be learned by virtually anyone.
Like folk art, handicraft output often has cultural and/or religious significance, and increasingly may have a political message as well, as in craftivism. Many crafts become very popular for brief periods of time, a few months, or a few years, spreading rapidly among the crafting population as everyone emulates the first examples, then their popularity wanes until a later resurgence.
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.
More information: Nandini Handicrafts
that only a small part of the population can afford them.
And yet making things with hands is such
an essential part of being human.
Jessica Stockholder
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