Arts of Ritual and Daily Life: Crafts CLAY,GLASS,METAL,WOOD, FIBER,JADE &LACQUER

. Crafts refers to “expert work done by hand”. Craft is an object made by hand, not by machine Crafts have roots in the traditional trades of the European Middle Ages—potter, glassblower, blacksmith, woodworker, and weaving

ART, CRAFT, DESIGN Decorative arts were segregated from the fine arts (painting and sculpture) and for many years were termed as “crafts”. The Arts and Crafts movement flourished during the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. It heightened the public awareness of handmade objects and traditional skills. © 2013, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

The Arts and Crafts movement in America The aesthetic of simple, unadorned furniture designs of Gustav Stickley ( ) and his workshop, promoted through the periodical The Craftsman ( ). Simplicity, utility and 'honest' construction were the key concepts behind the designs.

The traditional materials of crafts are clay, glass, metal, wood, and fiber. CLAY The craft of ceramics involves making objects from clay. When dry, clay has a powdery consistency; when mixed with water it becomes plastic—moldable and cohesive. After the clay is molded into a form and dried it can be fired in a kiln to remain permanent. A requirement for most ceramic objects is that they be hollow, that they have thin walls around a hollow core. There are two reasons for this: most ceramics wares are meant to contain things-food or liquid. Secondly a solid clay piece is hard to fire and may explode in the kiln.

Ceramist developed a technique called slab construction. The ceramist rolls out the clay onto a sheet and allows the sheet dry slightly. The sheet or slab can then manipulated in many ways. Betty Woodman. Aztec Vase No Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint; height 37”

Ceramist developed a technique called slab construction. The ceramist rolls out the clay onto a sheet and allows the sheet dry slightly. The sheet or slab can then manipulated in many ways. Ken Price. Untitled (Cup in Two Parts).

Coiling is another technique for making a thin, hollow form. The ceramists’ rolls out ropelike strands of clay, then coils them upon one another and joins them together.

Maria Martinez

Magdalene Odundo. Vessel Burnished terra cotta, height 19 5/8”

The fastest method of creating a hollow, rounded form is by means of the potter’s wheel.

Porcelain is often called chinaware, because it comes from China. Porcelain is made of a mixture of fine white clay called kaolin and feldspar quartz called petuntse. Porcelain has to be fired at very high temperatures of 1350 to 1500 degrees centigrade.

Flask. China, c Porcelain with blue underglaze decoration, height 18”

Stoneware clays fire at medium temperature is brown or grayish.

Earthenware clays, generally are, red or brown, fire at a lower temperature. Fired earthenware is called by its Italian name terra cotta.

To make terra cotta waterproof you have to apply a glaze. A glaze is a glasslike material applied to the surface of a already fired ceramic piece. The piece is then fired a second time to fuse the glaze with the clay body

GLASS The formula for glass is usually silica or sand. Other materials can affect color, melting point, strength, etc. A glass piece is the most fragile of all the craft ware. Stained glass is a technique used for windows, lampshades, and similar structures that allow light to pas through. Stain glass is made by cutting sheets of glass in various colors into small pieces, then fitting the pieces together to form a pattern. Often strips of lead join the segments; hence the term lead stained glass. Glass is commonly shaped by blowing through a long pipe.

Stained Glass

Tree of Jesse, west façade, Cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres, France

Glassblowing

Dale Chihuly, Persian Chandelier, " x 118" x 112”. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom, May 28, January 15, 2006

Dale Chihuly

METAL Heating it to a liquid state and pouring it into a mold, a process known as casting can shape metal. Another technique is forging – the art of the blacksmith. Forging involves heating a piece of metal over a fire until it is red hot, then beating and shaping it with hammers. Some metals, such as gold and silver, are soft enough to be worked cold –cut and hammered into shape without heating.

Forging Filippo and Francesco Negroli, Burgonet of Charles V, Steel and gold. Chasing-adding detail and outline from the front with special chisels and punches

Demascened- inlaid with elaborate design in gold.

Repousse

The 10th century Byzantine silver covering was hammered in a thin sheet over a wooden core –a technique known as repousse—then set with stones and enameled gold panels. Enamel is a mixture of pigment and powdered glass, melted and fused to a metal surface at high temperature. Cloisonne is technique in which color areas are first outlined with thin metal bands (cloisons) and the enamels are poured into the compartments.

The 10th century Byzantine Reliquary silver covering Lid of Limburg Staurotheca. Byzantine, c. e. Hammered gilt metal, enamels, gem s, on a wooden core; 19 x 13 ¾”

Wood Wood is popular as a craft material for two reasons: fairly easy work and wood is so widely available. Wood also has drawbacks such as not very durable, cold / heat distorts it, water rots it, and insects eat it. Wood varies in hue from black through off white. The renaissance craftsman developed a technique called intarsia, in which woods were cut and inlaid to form mosaic images. Furniture is the most common product of a woodworker’s art.

Chair of Hetepheres, Eygpt, Dynasty 4, reign of Sneferu, b.c.e. Wood and Gold leaf.

Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Workshop. Library Table Oak, leather, and brass x x 49. Example of “Simplicity, utility and 'honest' construction were the key concepts behind the designs.”

Fibers By fiber we mean a narrow strand of vegetable or animal material (cotton, linen, wool, silk) or today’s synthetics. Art of Basketry Weaving is the most common. Tapestry is a special type of weaving in which weft yarns are manipulated to form a pattern or design on the front of the fabric. Quilting is a popular textile art in United States. Appliqué using pieces of colored fabric are cut and sewn to a fabric ground to create a design.

Art of Daily Life Feathered basket. Pomo Indians, c Willow, bulrush, fern, feather, shell, glass beads; height 5 ½” Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tapestry The Unicorn in Captivity from The Hunt of the Unicore, Southern Netherlandish, Wool, Silk, and metallic threads; 12’ x 8’3”

Ardabil Carpet. Persia wool pile on undyed silk warps

Applique by Harriet Powers Bible Quilt. C. 1898

Maria Nepomuceno. Ini Nylon rope and beaded necklaces, “177 x 39 x 59”

Jade and Lacquer Jade and lacquer have long histories as craft media, although not in the West. Jade is a common name for two minerals, nephrite and jadeite. Jade comes in a wide range of colors. In China, jade of all colors has been prized and carved for 6,000 years. In early Chinese belief, the stone was credited with magical properties. One of the oldest of Chinese jade forms is the bi, a flat round disk with a hole in the center.

Bi disk with dragons. China, c Jade, height7 ¾”

BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES: ARTISTS AND CRAFTS Artists have often reached out to apply their talents for visual expression and organization to crafts. In the 1970s, artists began merge the materials and techniques of crafts into art. The feminism movement was instrumental in blurring the boundaries because galleries and museums favored male artists and by a standard account of art history in which women artists played hardly any role. Early feminist artists sought to create art that was specifically female, art rooted in the biological, psychological, social, and historical experience of women.

Judy Chicago work “ The Dinner Party “ It is a homage to women's history in the form of a large triangular table with symbolic ceramic plates representing 39 famous feminist guests-of-honor. “Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle.”

Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” Mixed media, each side 48’

Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed and pieced fabric, 6’2” x 5’9 ”.

Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed and pieced fabric, 6’2” x 5’9”.

El Anatsui, Sasa, Aluminum and copper wire, 21' x 27' 6

Oliver Herring. Castle, from A Flower for Ethyl Eichelberger Knitted transparent Mylar, 9 x 47 x 65”

Oliver Herring. Man in a Chair, Knitted transparent Mylar