Monday, March 22, 2010

Is it craft, is it art?

One of the conversations I hear debated at the shop is the difference between craft and art, Craft and Art, or just plain crafty art!  To distill it down to basics it seems to be to be less a matter of craftsmanship sometimes and more a matter of price points and marketing!  I have started to write 4 different "next sentances" to this paragraph and I am laughing because anything I can think to say is sure to offend SOMEone! About their own art or craft.   
Take sewing for example- right now I have hanging in the store custom made and sewn vintage ladies dresses from the 50's and baby clothes and christening gowns that are even older than mid century.  The craftsmanship and care that have gone into the pieces scream "work of art" to me but they are simply regarded as apparel to most people.  I will confess most of my sewing is more of the crafty variety- here are two items I recently finished for clients.  The first is a wedding gift for a couple that was combining households (including kids!).  Instead of doing the traditional wedding invitation application I used a family candid from the wedding.
Charlotte's family has a big family farm way out in the country.  This wool blanket is a family treasure that normally hangs out at the end of her bed but it was getting REALLY threadbare. Charlotte has seem my photo transfer work so she came up with the clever concept of using old photgraphs of the farm and her family to restore, mend, and patch the aforementioned fuzzy blanket!  I loved the idea but I especially loved the bottom-most shot of  Young Charlotte with her goat.  Priceless!
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