In an earlier post, "Art and Craft", I suggested that "craft is something like skill, the ability to make real what is in your head to make. And like skill, it is subject to style."
I was thinking about the distinction between craft and skill last night while dodging and weaving my way home from the cram school. I decided that craft and skill differ in level. Skill is the ability to apply technique to the medium, to shape pieces of the whole. Craft is the ability to combine the pieces and their shapes into a larger unit of presentation. In woodcarving terms, it would come out something like this: It takes skill to shape the wood in any given way at any given point, but it takes craft to shape the entire piece in any given way or ways to achieve a particular effect.
Skill lies in the work. Craft lies in the effect. Style is an element of craft and skill manifesting itself as technique in the case of skill and design in the case of craft.
I find your thinking about ‘craft’ and ’skill’ very thought-provoking and creative.
Something like chain(or flow) of images arises for me:
On the one hand, medium…material…parts…skill…conversion(or transformation or metamorphosis)…
On the other hand,
message…form(?)…totality…craft…creation(or effect)
I translates English books into Korean. Currently, I’m working on a book about craftsman. In not a few contexts, such terms as ‘craft’, ’skill’, ’skills’, ‘technique’ are not so easy to find their counterparts in Korean language. So very happy to find this post. Thanks.
Comment by Albert Kim — January 15, 2009 @ 3:25 am