Craft Craft Craft Craft CRAFT!

This photo is mine. Please respect that and credit me.

Yesterday, I was talking to Momma about crocheting and my "crafts".

"Don't say that word," she said.
"What? Crafts?" I asked.

This quasi-disgust at the concept of "crafting" came from her boyfriend, an avid oil painter who has transformed a frigid corner in our dingy basement into a painting nook. He's somehow given her this idea about crafts being these reproducible, unoriginal items. Perhaps too much cold air or huffing turpentine all day has lead him to this concept where only art is truly unique and crafts are vastly inferior, mundane wastes of talent. Now, anyone who identifies their handiwork as a "craft" knows that this is, in fact, bullshit. Many of the crafts existing today are skills passed down through generations of people over endless cultures for a variety of purposes, telling the story of our rich history and our promising future. They have some basic instructions and elements, sure, but the pieces become inevitably infused with the extremely creative ideas and characters of their makers! The ingenuity is incredibly evident, especially in this age of bright minds and designs.

So, crafters, whether you work with yarn, wood, steel, twine/hemp, ribbon, paper, glass, cardboard chunks or even empty fucking ice cream containers with needles, hooks, soldering irons, Exacto knives, ovens, pieces of grass, scissors, or a freaking pocket knife - and, of course, your two hands (one hand...feet...NOSE...) - TAKE PRIDE. Infuse yourself into your work and it will be as UNIQUE as any painting or drawing.

That is all.