Kestävä kädenjälki käsityössä

Käsitepari kestävä käsityö on syntynyt käsityön vastaukseksi kestävän kehityksen haasteisiin. Tässä teoreettisessa kirjallisuuskatsauksessa tarkastelemme käsityötä mahdollisuutena kestävään kädenjälkeen. Ensin pohjustamme keskustelua kirjallisuuden avulla, minkä jälkeen syvennymme kestävän käsityön käsitteeseen sekä avaamme näkökulmia kestävään käsityöhön perusopetuksen käsityössä. Kestävän käsityön teoreettisessa mallissa kuvataan käsityötä toimintana, tuotteena ja aineettomana käsityönä. Kestävää käsityötä toimintana kuvataan käsityötietoa syventävänä sekä arvoja ja asenteita muokkaavana taitona. Kestävä käsityötuote puolestaan huomioi materiaalien, elinkaaren, tekniikan, designin, laadun, esteettisyyden, tarpeen ja tuotesuhteen. Aineeton käsityö nivoo kestävyyden ympäristön lisäksi kulttuuriin sekä sosiaaliseen, taloudelliseen, psykologiseen, yhteiskunnalliseen, filosofiseen ja kommunikatiiviseen näkökulmaan. Nämä elementit toimivat lomittain yhdessä muotoillen ympäristöä, konkreettisia tuotteita sekä tekoja kestäväksi ekologiseksi kädenjäljeksi, mikä tulisi olla lähtökohtana myös käsityönopetuksessa kaikilla koulutusasteilla. Ecological handprint in craft Abstract The concept of sustainable craft is crafts’ response to sustainability. This theoretical article views the craft's potential to be an ecological handprint. We first view discussion through literature, followed by opening the concept of sustainable craft and viewpoint to sustainable craft education. The theoretical model concretizes the systemic nature of sustainable craft as practice, product, and immaterial craft. Sustainable craft as practice is described as deepening craft knowledge and as a skill shaping the values and attitudes of craft. Sustainable craft products consider the materials, life cycle, technique, design, quality, aesthetics, need, and product relationship. Immaterial craft combines sustainability to the environment, cultural, social, economic, psychologic, societal, philosophical, and communicational aspects. These elements work together shaping the environment, concrete product, and actions towards sustainability with an ecological handprint that could be utilized in craft education. Keywords: Immaterial craft, sustainable development, craft product, craft skill, ecological handprint

The Tracing the Potter’s Wheel Project (TPW): An Integrated Archaeological Investigation of the Potter’s Wheel in the Bronze Age Aegean

This backstory article discusses the work of the Tracing the Potter’s Wheel Project (TPW), an integrated archaeological research project using the potter’s wheel as a prism through which to investigate the transmission of craft knowledge in the Bronze Age Aegean. The TPW methodology integrates theoretical perspectives on social interactions, technological processes and innovation, with experimental, 3D digital and analytical methods for visualising and interpreting ceramics. Two central goals have emerged: to provide high-quality resources and standardised guidelines for researchers to learn how to technologically assess assemblages in their own research, and to broadly define the nature of the uptake and use of the pottery wheel in the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age.

Sustainable Design through Up-Cycling Crafts in the Mainstream Fashion Industry of India

Fashion is considered to be the most destructive industry, second only to the oil rigging industry, which has a greater impact on the environment. While fashion today, banks upon fast fashion to generate higher turnover of designs and patterns in apparel and relate accessories, crafts push us towards a more slow and thoughtful approach with culturally identifiably unique work and slow community centred production. Despite this strong link between indigenous crafts and sustainability, it has not been extensively researched and explored upon. In the forthcoming years, the fashion industry will have to re-invent itself to move towards a more holistic and sustainable circular model to balance the harm already caused. And closed loops of the circular economy will help the integration of indigenous craft knowledge which is regenerative. Though sustainability and crafts of a region go hand- in- hand, craft still have to find its standing in the mainstream fashion world; craft practices have a strong local congruence and knowledge that has been passed down generation-to-generation through oration or written materials. This paper aims to explore ways a circular economy can be created by amalgamating fashion and craft while creating a sustainable business model and how this is slowly being created today through brands. KEYWORDS: Circular Economy, Fashion, India, Indigenous Crafts, Slow Fashion, Sustainability, Up-cycling

‘A method for safe transmission’: the microscope slides of the American Postal Microscopical Club

In the 1870s, microscopy societies began to proliferate in the United States. Most of these societies attracted microscopists from surrounding cities, but the American Postal Microscopical Club, modelled on the British Postal Microscopical Society, used the postal system to connect microscopists scattered across the country. Club members exchanged microscope slides and notes following a chain-letter system. The main objective of the club was to teach its members how to make permanent slides. Preparation and mounting methods required technical skill, which was, as even club members had to admit, difficult to learn without personal instruction. Yet members developed ways to share craft knowledge through the post. Drawing on the private notes of a member and published reports on the slides circulated, this paper challenges the widespread assumption that the generation of craft knowledge depended on the co-location of artisans. It argues that microscopists’ knowledge of preparation methods was intertwined with their skill in building and navigating information infrastructures, and that by tracing these infrastructures we gain a better understanding of how craft knowledge travelled in the late nineteenth century.

Handmade OK please: key criteria for purchasing craft items by Indian consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the key criteria from the perspective of handmade, authenticity and sustainability for purchasing craft items by Indian consumers.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory qualitative research was conducted on the buying behaviour of Assamese muga mekhela chador (MMC). Data were collected using purposive sampling and video-recorded focus group discussions (FGDs). Output transcripts were content-analysed using the R package RQDI.FindingsIndian consumers largely define crafts as handmade. Results indicate the crucial role of craft design and price. Craft authenticity, craft knowledge and social identity evolved as the key criteria for buying crafts. State intervention in craft certification is demanded. Indian craft consumers lack awareness about sustainable consumption.Originality/valueIndia is home to millions of craftspeople and craft buyers. Most of the earlier craft studies focused on the problems of craft production in India. This study contributes to the consumption literature, from the standpoints of authenticity and sustainability, which are often limited to Western consumers. Understanding its own domestic craft market will help Indian policymakers and organisations to reduce export dependency and to tap potential local craft demand.

‘It's in my hands’

Craft knowledge is built from examples of experience, and when experiences from many people are gathered and compared, new knowledge is developed. This requires either socialization between practitioners or a systematic collection of practice descriptions, such as in a manual. However, there is always a risk that knowledge that is difficult to put into words will never be communicated. The aim of this paper is to show how theoretical perspectives can be used as analytical tools to help us develop methods that support the communication of craft knowledge. Using an approach of research through practice in the field of gardening, and combining a tripartite theory of knowledge with a SECI-model analysis, I will discuss how it is possible to make practitioners’ subjective knowledge more readily available to others.

Ways of Tacit Knowing

A common way to describe craft knowledge is through the figure of speech it's in your hands. With this description, there is no attempt made to explain the complex knowledge which is present in craft. One reason why these explanations are rarely articulated is that they consist of sensory judgments. With this film, Ways of Tacit Knowing, we argue that, with the help of film media, it is possible to decode and articulate some of the knowledge content embodied in craft that is often described as tacit knowledge. We, the producers of this film, are experienced craftspeople, which makes us at once both subjects and objects of the research—a methodology akin to auto-ethnography. In the film, we present examples of situations from practice in our different craft fields: the practice in cultivation and management in gardening and the practice of culinary crafts situated in the kitchen and in the dining room. This film presents a dialogue of knowledge in action with craftspeople who discuss their sensory-based judgments in crafts