Craft Traditions
Boats built without plans
Traditional boatbuilders work by eye and by proportion, producing hulls of considerable subtlety, and the knowledge is held in the shape of the shed rather than on paper.
Topic
craft
Every Kohopoho article tagged craft — 7 pieces across 1 section.
Craft Traditions
Glass: sand, ash and a temperature nobody could measure
Glassmaking required sustained heat well beyond what most crafts needed, and the techniques for shaping it were guarded closely enough to be a matter of state policy.
Craft Traditions
Tanning: the trade nobody wanted next door
Turning skin into leather is a chemical process that takes weeks, smells appalling, and was essential enough that every settlement had someone doing it downwind.
Craft Traditions
The blacksmith’s standing in the village
Smiths occupy an unusual social position in a striking number of societies — essential, powerful, and frequently set apart in ways that are not entirely respectful.
Craft Traditions
Paper: a Chinese invention that took a thousand years to reach Europe
Handmade paper is a deceptively simple process — fibre, water, a screen — and the traditions built on it differ enormously depending on which plant was available.
Craft Traditions
Basketry is the oldest container technology and nobody notices it
Baskets predate pottery, survive badly in the archaeological record, and are still made by hand in more places than almost any other craft.
Craft Traditions
The wheel and the coil: two entirely different ways to make a pot
Throwing on a wheel is the image everyone has of pottery. Most of the world’s ceramic traditions were built without one, and the difference goes beyond technique.