Craft and the Creative Lifecycle: Making in changing times

Abstract

The idea of craft as a process that draws on and develops distinctive knowledge, skills and ways of working, has become established in the craft literature. Discussion around the nature and value of craft is no longer concerned solely with the object, but also with craft as a form of materials consciousness and quality of workmanship, engaged through a process of reflection-in-action (Dorser 1998, McCullough 1996, Johson 1998).

As a consequence, the discourse around the social and economic contribution made by craft has broadened. The applicability of craft knowledge and skills to a range of creative and non-creative careers was first identified in the literature by Crafts Council research published in 1998 (Press and Cusworth 1998). Twelve years on, the idea of craft thinking as a model for professional practice and personal satisfaction has gained wider prominence, with research from an anthropological perspective gaining public and critical acclaim (Sennett 2009, Crawford 2009).
Research undertaken by myself and Mary Schwarz on behalf of the Crafts Councili in 2010 builds on this literature by exploring the specific contributions made by craft knowledge and craft thinking to a range of industry, community and education settings. This latest research finds individual makers developing portfolios of craft-related work, applying craft knowledge and processes to the development of consultancy and education services and intellectual property, as well as to that of objects. It also reveals strong personal values around environmental sustainability and social equity as being central to the work of many (Schwarz and Yair 2010).

This observation presents a new opportunity: to investigate the contribution made by craft, as knowledge and process, to the production of sustainable products and services. The products and services produced by makers are too diverse to be analysed within a standard, quantitative environmental impact framework such as ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ (McDonough and Braungart 2002). However, qualitative analysis can be used to propose areas where craft is contributing to broad principles of sustainable development.

The concept of a ‘value chain’, that maps the chain of activities undertaken within a specific company or sector, is useful in framing our analysis. The idea of a ‘green value chain’ is familiar from the design and management literatures as a means of pinpointing different possible areas of the supply chain where environmentally friendly practices can be introduced (Handfield et al 1997). In this paper, the contribution made by makers to the sustainability agenda is investigated through analysis against a value chain model encompassing distribution, consumption and interpretation as well as creative production.