A.........rt vs. Craft

Ever since I began crafting, I've been aware of the debate about whether we are artists or craftsmen. When the suggestion for this topic in the Etsy Bloggers blog carnival came up, I first consulted the dictionary where it seems the two definitions are almost synonyms or at the least, overlap. Both emphazise imagination and skill. Perhaps as with beauty, whichever you choose is in the eye of the beholder. All I could do is look at my own work and tell you what I feel is art and what is craft.

I find that art as well as craft can take all mediums and come in all sizes. Sometimes, within the same medium, I feel some pieces are art and some are craft. For example, the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls took ages to make, and I did change some of the pattern, but I consider them a craft, and although I followed a pattern for the little girl's cropped cardi, the change I made to give the illusion of fireflies on it make it art. I am equally pleased with them both.

I consider both of the greeting cards you see here to be art. True, they both make use of rubber stamps, but the designs and paper choices are certainly my own.

Finally, I consider the pine needle baskets I make ( an urn shaped vase is shown here) to be art almost all the time. My style is vastly different from other pine needle artists; each piece is unique and each is my own design. If folks ask me to make another just like one they see, I simply cannot do it. I can come close, but each piece has a way of working out the way it wants to!

Those of you reading this post may agree or disagree with any of my thoughts, but that is more than OK. It is our vision, our minds and our hearts that determine the art and craft in our lives.