Editing Handicraft (section)

== The Arts and Crafts movement in the West ==
{{Main|Arts and Crafts movement}}

The Arts and Crafts movement originated as a late-19th-century design reform and social movement principally in Europe, North America and Australia, and continues today. Its proponents are motivated by the ideals of movement founders, such as [[William Morris]] and [[John Ruskin]], who proposed that in pre-industrial societies, such as the European [[Middle Ages]], people had achieved [[Catharsis|fulfillment]] through the creative process of handicrafts. This was held up in contrast to what was perceived to be the alienating effects of industrial labor.

[[File:Crafts class with Federal Arts Project instruction Works Progress Administration USA 1935.gif|thumb|Works Progress Administration, Crafts Class, US, 1935]]
These activities were called ''[[craft]]s'' because originally many of them were professions under the [[guild]] system. Adolescents were apprenticed to a master craftsman and refined their skills over a period of years in exchange for low wages. By the time their training was complete, they were well equipped to set up in trade for themselves, earning their living with the skill that could be traded directly within the community, often for goods and services. The [[Industrial Revolution]] and the increasing mechanization of production processes gradually reduced or eliminated many of the roles professional craftspeople played, and today many handicrafts are increasingly seen, especially when no longer the mainstay of a [[Tradesman|formal vocational trade]], as a form of [[hobby]], [[folk art]] and sometimes [[fine art]].

The term ''handicrafts'' can also refer to the products themselves of such artisanal efforts, that require specialized knowledge, maybe highly technical in their execution, require specialized equipment and/or facilities to produce, involve [[manual labor]] or a [[blue-collar]] work ethic, are accessible to the general public, and are constructed from materials with histories that exceed the boundaries of Western "fine art" tradition, such as [[ceramic]]s, [[glass]], [[textiles]], [[metal]] and [[wood]]. These products are produced within a specific [[community of practice]], and while they mostly differ from the products produced within the communities of art and design, the boundaries often overlap, resulting in hybrid objects. Additionally, as the interpretation and validation of art is frequently a matter of context, an audience may perceive handcrafted objects as art objects when these objects are viewed within an art context, such as in a museum or in a position of prominence in one's home.