WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

How is it possible that it is December already?  The weather feels like spring, but all around me things are beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I am still working to fill orders for customers - once again this year Mug Rugs are the most popular item I make.  I have pretty much sold every one I had made for my sale in November, and now I am slowly working through the next batch.

But something is really bothering me.  Something I heard a few times as people passed my table at the sale, and I've heard it in general conversation a few times since.

It's about the word/s "Craft/ Crafts/ Crafter" and how it is used, and maybe more than that, it's about people who craft, and how they are looked upon by others.

If a person with talent paints a nostalgic picture of a vintage camper sitting under tree, they are considered an artist.  I agree - they certainly are.

If a person with talent creates that same picture using fabric as their medium, layering various colours and prints, tiny pieces of fabric, until they have a vintage camper sitting under a tree -  then they are a crafter.

Why is that?  They might have taken the same amount of time to achieve the same results - and realistically the fabric camper most likely took longer.  They both used a medium to achieve their results, they both used their talents to achieve their results - so why is only one an artist?

Taking it a bit further - if you asked the painter to create the fabric version, and the sewer to create the painted version - how do you think that would turn out?

Have you seen a Baltimore quilt?  Craft or art?

Have you watched someone make a picture appear on the back of a sweater they were knitting - craft, or art?

If you ask the talented people performing their crafts (whatever the medium) I know they will all consider themselves to be artists.

So what's the difference?

 Craft - is a skill, especially of the hand ( Winston Dictionary)

Art - a skill acquired by study or practice: natural aptitude: knack: as the art of sewing (Winston Dictionary)

Artist - a person who practises an art, such as painting, sculpture, music, literature, or the like.  In any field, a person who shows creative power in his work: as, your cook is an artist. (Winston Dictionary)

And according to the Winston Dictionary - if you are "Crafty" you are deceitful and wily.

I know what I have always believed about talented people who create with their hands in any medium,  I am so glad that the Winston Dictionary agrees with me.