Some of the best things in life are handmade.

Handmade is a celebration of our contemporary life and vibrant culture – not a mass, uniform consumer culture where everything looks the same and is packaged simply. Every handmade product is about people, not machines. It’s about the time and effort put into each job. It involves the craftsmanship of each maker, the technical ingenuity of the maker, the magic of personal imagination, and is a treasure on the ruins of the mechanism!

What a fun read, and how true. I make, buy and love crafts. When I receive a gift, I prefer it to be handmade. More time and thought goes into handmade items than ready made items. In my opinion, the advantage of mass production is that it can reach more people than individual artists. It’s important that artists work together to compete with mass producers so our voices can be as loud as they are. It is also crucial for artists to pass on their skills to younger generations so that the skills or understanding to create unique works of art are not lost. The Internet’s ability to bring artists together is the way out to compete with mass producers.

The art of crafting can be fun, rewarding, and therapeutic.

Crafting in any form, is an excellent way to achieve mindfulness. Your focus is fully concentrated on the activity, you relax and unwind while developing awareness of your surroundings. Crafts such as knitting, crochet, weaving, ceramics, needlework, and woodwork focus on repetitive actions and skills that are eminently improvable, in fact your desire to improve and hone your skills is one of the factors that will keep you coming back to the craft, perpetuating the positive outcomes.

Painting, drawing, and sculpting are thought to be particularly useful in terms of creative and expressive therapy. Non-verbal expression, however, is not limited to art and craft; other activities such as poetry, dance and music can be equally effective.

How crafts help people dress

Crafts can help people get dressed more quickly and efficiently.

Fashion designers recognize the importance of handmade emotion and craftsmanship, and the potential to slow fast fashion’s uncontrollable pace over the past year as the world grapples with isolation, bakes banana bread and tries DIY crafts. We pull out our knitting needles, embroidery hoops, Aida cross-stitch fabric, beads, and tie-dye, and hey, in no time at all we have a dizzying new subculture of artisanal fashion called Craft Core

By the end of the century, members of the Arts and Crafts movement were helping society move toward less restrictive fashion by wearing silhouettes that referenced historical fashion. These “simple” romantic styles fall off the shoulders, taking the load off the waist and allowing the body to move more naturally (as do skeletal “combo” underwear). London store Liberty helped accelerate women’s acceptance of looser fashion. In 1884, a new clothing department began stocking less formal styles. These range from dresses with some whimsical “country” overalls to edgier garments that borrow the fluid silhouettes of arts and crafts fashion. The increase in commercial availability had a major impact: by the outbreak of war in 1914, most fashionable women’s clothing had more utilitarian styles.