This article explores the making process and inheritance of a mysterious and unique Chinese folk craft tradition, the art of weaving and dyeing among the Yi people of Meigu Liangshan. From field research in Meigu Liangshan whose textile weaving and dyeing is relatively well preserved, we explore the national cultural significance and scientific connotation contained in this tradition by focusing on the making process of two representative woven and dyed wool products, pizhan and caerwa. We also reveal the relationship between the developments of this craft tradition and society. We find that the weaving and dyeing of the Yi people is a combination of art and science, which contains a large number of textile, dyeing and finishing knowledge and skills, which are gradually declining with the development and change of Chinese society as a whole. Based on this situation, we analyse the reasons why weaving and dyeing amongst the Yi of Meigu Liangshan is endangered and give some suggestions for the future preservation of this craft.
{"title":"Weaving and dyeing: The traditional crafts of the Yi people of Meigu Liangshan, China","authors":"Wei Li, Yiping Liu","doi":"10.1386/crre_00054_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00054_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the making process and inheritance of a mysterious and unique Chinese folk craft tradition, the art of weaving and dyeing among the Yi people of Meigu Liangshan. From field research in Meigu Liangshan whose textile weaving and dyeing is relatively well preserved,\u0000 we explore the national cultural significance and scientific connotation contained in this tradition by focusing on the making process of two representative woven and dyed wool products, pizhan and caerwa. We also reveal the relationship between the developments of this craft tradition and\u0000 society. We find that the weaving and dyeing of the Yi people is a combination of art and science, which contains a large number of textile, dyeing and finishing knowledge and skills, which are gradually declining with the development and change of Chinese society as a whole. Based on this\u0000 situation, we analyse the reasons why weaving and dyeing amongst the Yi of Meigu Liangshan is endangered and give some suggestions for the future preservation of this craft.","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45229258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The innovative output of Wuthigrai Siriphon draws on his Thai heritage and extensive knowledge and practical experience of regional textile craft techniques. But whilst his work often references historical forms and colour palettes, his studio textiles are far from staid, exhibiting a modernist sensibility frequently verging on the spectacular. Securely pigeonholing such a creative practitioner is always problematic, but any attempt at categorization is made even more difficult so once the viewer acknowledges the layered nature of South East Asian textile practice. This is a region where traditional understandings of fabric and colour still compete with modernist perspectives on design, material selection and colour application and rural craft weavers continue to make a living alongside industrial factories. Wuthigrai and his ouvre is a product of this complex and vibrant material culture, highlighting tradition whilst retaining its contemporary relevance.
{"title":"Wuthigrai Siriphon: Highlighting tradition","authors":"P. Oakley","doi":"10.1386/crre_00056_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00056_1","url":null,"abstract":"The innovative output of Wuthigrai Siriphon draws on his Thai heritage and extensive knowledge and practical experience of regional textile craft techniques. But whilst his work often references historical forms and colour palettes, his studio textiles are far from staid, exhibiting\u0000 a modernist sensibility frequently verging on the spectacular. Securely pigeonholing such a creative practitioner is always problematic, but any attempt at categorization is made even more difficult so once the viewer acknowledges the layered nature of South East Asian textile practice. This\u0000 is a region where traditional understandings of fabric and colour still compete with modernist perspectives on design, material selection and colour application and rural craft weavers continue to make a living alongside industrial factories. Wuthigrai and his ouvre is a product of this complex\u0000 and vibrant material culture, highlighting tradition whilst retaining its contemporary relevance.","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41656015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bags: Inside Out, curated by Lucia Savi : Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 12 December 2020‐16 January 2022","authors":"K. Chandler","doi":"10.1386/crre_00057_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00057_5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45114843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research explores craft practices in India to understand how they could be used as cultural resources for studying plants. Existing scholarship on a range of craft practices across India reveals an extensive use of real plants, plant representations and plant references. Real plants are used as the primary base raw material, as part of making and production processes and as supporting resources within the wider ecology where craft traditions are practised. Plant representations are seen in three-dimensional ornaments and structures, as well as in two-dimensional decoration and surface patterns. Plants are also referenced through various metaphors and analogies in textual descriptions and verbal accounts of craft practices. This wide botanical presence in Indian craft practices highlights the significant role played by plants in Indian cultural traditions and can be attributed to the centrality of agriculture and religion to the lives of India’s craft practitioners. India’s craft traditions are a rich pedagogical resource as they draw attention to a range of historical, botanical, ethnobotanical and economic aspects of plant use and can serve as a platform to raise critical discussions about the importance of plants to human life and the planet.
{"title":"Plant imagery in Indian craft practice: A pedagogical resource","authors":"G. Sachdev","doi":"10.1386/crre_00052_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00052_1","url":null,"abstract":"This research explores craft practices in India to understand how they could be used as cultural resources for studying plants. Existing scholarship on a range of craft practices across India reveals an extensive use of real plants, plant representations and plant references. Real plants\u0000 are used as the primary base raw material, as part of making and production processes and as supporting resources within the wider ecology where craft traditions are practised. Plant representations are seen in three-dimensional ornaments and structures, as well as in two-dimensional decoration\u0000 and surface patterns. Plants are also referenced through various metaphors and analogies in textual descriptions and verbal accounts of craft practices. This wide botanical presence in Indian craft practices highlights the significant role played by plants in Indian cultural traditions and\u0000 can be attributed to the centrality of agriculture and religion to the lives of India’s craft practitioners. India’s craft traditions are a rich pedagogical resource as they draw attention to a range of historical, botanical, ethnobotanical and economic aspects of plant use and\u0000 can serve as a platform to raise critical discussions about the importance of plants to human life and the planet.","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47314932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Artisan entrepreneurship has been increasing in developed economies in the past decade. In order for artisan enterprises to thrive, these businesses would benefit from using technology to access global marketplaces, add value to their consumers and market beyond their local area. Unless operating as a collective, most artisan entrepreneurs manage microbusinesses with ten or fewer employees. Microbusiness owners face challenges to adopting technology including limited financial resources, lack of technological expertise and owner’s attitudes about technology. Extant research has not examined why and how artisan entrepreneurs introduce technology into their businesses. Crochet is an artisanal craft that can only be produced by hand without requiring any contemporary technological solutions. This collective case study explored how five women crochet artisan microentrepreneurs navigated the process of introducing new technologies into their businesses. Findings indicate that crochet artisan microentrepreneurs have diverse income sources, which are enabled by technology adoption. The communitarian nature of the artisan entrepreneur ‘ecosystem’ provides a supportive environment that facilitates the process of identifying, selecting and learning new technologies. Cost and perceived lack of self-efficacy are significant obstacles to technology adoption for crochet artisan microentrepreneurs. This study adds to the existing research on artisan entrepreneurship by exploring technology adoption in this context and sharing the perceived benefits and challenges experienced with other artisan microentrepreneurs.
{"title":"Crochet microentrepreneurs and technology: A collective case study","authors":"Marie Segares","doi":"10.1386/crre_00053_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00053_1","url":null,"abstract":"Artisan entrepreneurship has been increasing in developed economies in the past decade. In order for artisan enterprises to thrive, these businesses would benefit from using technology to access global marketplaces, add value to their consumers and market beyond their local area. Unless\u0000 operating as a collective, most artisan entrepreneurs manage microbusinesses with ten or fewer employees. Microbusiness owners face challenges to adopting technology including limited financial resources, lack of technological expertise and owner’s attitudes about technology. Extant\u0000 research has not examined why and how artisan entrepreneurs introduce technology into their businesses. Crochet is an artisanal craft that can only be produced by hand without requiring any contemporary technological solutions. This collective case study explored how five women crochet artisan\u0000 microentrepreneurs navigated the process of introducing new technologies into their businesses. Findings indicate that crochet artisan microentrepreneurs have diverse income sources, which are enabled by technology adoption. The communitarian nature of the artisan entrepreneur ‘ecosystem’\u0000 provides a supportive environment that facilitates the process of identifying, selecting and learning new technologies. Cost and perceived lack of self-efficacy are significant obstacles to technology adoption for crochet artisan microentrepreneurs. This study adds to the existing research\u0000 on artisan entrepreneurship by exploring technology adoption in this context and sharing the perceived benefits and challenges experienced with other artisan microentrepreneurs.","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44678979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Craft between tradition and adaptation","authors":"K. Niedderer, K. Townsend","doi":"10.1386/crre_00048_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00048_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48806674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: The Material Culture of Basketry: Practice, Skill and Embodied Knowledge, Stephanie Bunn and Victoria Mitchell (eds) (2021)London and New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 286 pp.,ISBN 978-1-35009-403-1, h/bk, £85.00
{"title":"The Material Culture of Basketry: Practice, Skill and Embodied Knowledge, Stephanie Bunn and Victoria Mitchell (eds) (2021)","authors":"G. Bertram","doi":"10.1386/crre_00060_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00060_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: The Material Culture of Basketry: Practice, Skill and Embodied Knowledge, Stephanie Bunn and Victoria Mitchell (eds) (2021)London and New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 286 pp.,ISBN 978-1-35009-403-1, h/bk, £85.00","PeriodicalId":42324,"journal":{"name":"Craft Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47923047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}