Craft is often understood as a means - a process which is undertaken in order to achieve something. Creativity or poetry is often viewed as something which has already occurred in the mind of the maker, and the action of craft is viewed as one of production. With the practice of handcraft closely linked to small scale creative practices, the process of crafting is understood as the skilled articulation of something which is already designed.
Craft technique can be examined, experimented with, and used to form the basis of creative exploration, but this development is always subsumed to the developed object - even the innovative use of technique is always understood as moving towards a solid outcome.
This essay reflects on the process of crafting not as a means to an end, but as a meaningful poetic activity in itself, a gestural practice akin to a solitary dance. The gesture of craft is not the execution of an abstract technique, but an expressive and intimate personal performance.
In an age where anything can be produced with greater accuracy via machine, technique is revealed as something beyond scientific precision. The tyrannical accuracy of the machine allows it to apply calculated movements, precise levels of force and tension. The characteristics of the material are abstracted, the median is found, and the machine is programmed in advance to treat each moment as the most likely situation. In this, the organic character of the material is overridden - the gestures of the machine must necessarily coerce. The machine cannot perceive, it cannot empathize - it cannot imagine itself in relation to the material.
Craft requires a fragile gesture, a sensitive hand - the ability to pull back, to listen.
Facilitating this listening are images - images of precision, of expression, of history and of vitality. These images act as tools, sharpening the senses as a needle sharpens the finger, flooding and informing the hand, drawing the crafter to ever greater perceptive nuance. The craft gesture is always half-pretend, always at once both an action and the imagination of an action. Dexterity is dramatised, motion is built up and refined by the stories that are told about it. This imagination of craft transforms it from action to practice, from skill to ritual, from technique to experience.
Sennett (2008) notes how technique 'can seem soulless'. Recognising that the craft gesture could be seen as something quite abstract and cold, he argues for a view of craft practice which links it more closely to experience and expression. Referring to the colorful nature of technical language as evidence of the role of the imagination in craft practice, Sennett states that "expressive directions connect technical craft to the imagination" (p. 193). This idea that gestures are taught through images suggests that gestures are understood through images, not simply in their communication but also in their practice.Sennett proposes craft as a sensitive practice, where tacit knowledge is supplemented by metaphor and image.
The Gesture
Precision is a key notion within in craft practice. Dexterity and sensitivity are necessary when dealing closely with any material, and regularity is important for both formal stability and visual beauty. Precision is based in both accuracy and efficiency - it is a clean, streamlined force. Rather than heavily controlled actions, precision stems from a light hand, from an economical and mobile gesture.
While precision is important, the craft gesture is not mechanical - it is also highly expressive. The arc made by an arm in between stitches, the twisting flick of the needle, the smooth caress of the knowing hand are all highly stylised gestures. Each repeated motion is played with, explored; sometimes drawn out and exaggerated, sometimes sweeping and elegant, sometimes light and quick. These playful flourishes evolve with the material, infusing the hand with a sensitivity and poetic knowledge. In stitching silk one may play at being more delicate, in stitching cotton one may play at being harder, in stitching wool one may play at being deeper. The stylised gesture allows the crafter to toy with their own technique, to smooth their motions, and to find the best way to
communicate with the material.
Rather than operating in conflict, these notions of economical precision and fluid expression work together - each concern informing the other. The gesture of craft must be at once both precise and expressive - the regularity of precision requires the fluidity of expression. The hand is charged with images of precision and dexterity, often performing these images theatrically. In this, accuracy becomes experiential rather than mathematical - precision is something which is seduced, rather than enforced. The lyrical articulation of these images of precision lends a fluidity and smoothness to the gesture. This smoothness contributes to the development of a rhythm, producing a continuous and even result.
The playful sensitivity of the expressive gesture allows the hand to explore, chasing out the idiosyncrasies of the material. This way of engaging enables the crafter to develop a rich understanding of the medium, allowing for a precise and intimate manipulation. The decorative flicks of an expressive hand also lend a necessary lightness to the gesture. Punctuating the directional force of precision, these ornamental moments pull back and soften each motion. The flick at the end of a sure movement acts as a fluid brake, with the gesture perpetually flickering between these two motions of driving forward and drawing away.
Bachelard (1971) speaks of the crafting experience as 'an interweaving of dream and dexterity' (p.80), while Sennett argues that 'technique (is) intimately linked to expression' (p.149). Sennett notes that the craft gesture can be compromised by excessive concentration, that it is much more important for the crafter to feel what they are doing than to conceptualise it. Regimented gesture makes for a stiff and stilted hand, and 'an aggressive, adversarial address to...materials is counterproductive' (p. 168). Speaking of the necessity of the 'tranquil spirit' (p. 168) in the cultivation of accuracy, Sennett asserts that 'self control pairs with ease' (p.169).
The craft gesture is not simply a series of staggered actions; it is a web of repeated motions, a fluid and continuous process. This repetition translates action into ritual, absorbing and transforming the crafter.
Heavily associated with craft practice is the image of tradition, the idea that the crafter participates physically in a historical dialogue. Craft techniques are rituals that have sometimes been performed for centuries, explored by countless different hands, and contain the residue of thought processes from different times. Although the craft gesture may be innovated and extended, it is still deeply connected to tradition, and the very mention of craft immediately evokes this image of history. Tradition lends weight to a ritual, transforming it from a personal practice into a collective one, an engagement with a community that stretches out through time.
Just as the image of precision does, the image of tradition infuses and enlivens the crafting hand. The gesture stems at once from the hand of the crafter and the hand of another; the hand of the teacher, the hand of all those who have performed the gesture. Within the motion is the echo of the thousand hands that have gone before it, of the countless interpretations of that gesture that the crafter has already performed. This historical resonance lends a richness and weight to the gesture, transforming the individual action into the archetypal. The body inhabits the image of the solitary crafter; serene, absorbed, even illuminated.
Absorption is by turns an image to be played with, and a state that the crafter is lost within. The aesthetic of absorption is one of peace, of silence and emptiness. However, the experience of absorption is quite divorced from this, characterised by intense focus and a lack of self consciousness. Flickering between immersion and stylised selfawareness, the crafter shifts between an enhanced experience of the gesture that they are performing, and no awareness of the gesture at all.
Ritual and repetition are often used as meditative tools, focusing and transforming the consciousness of the user. In the context of meditation these processes are almost purely symbolic - an observation which adds a deeper dimension to the discussion of craft practice as immersive and meaningful in itself. Bachelard discusses the 'cogito of kneading' (p.82), where the consciousness of the worker is transferred to the motion. The crafter becomes the gesture, is absorbed and transformed by the rhythmic process of construction. This rhythmic process could be seen as akin to a dance, where the beat is determined by the gauge of the tool and the scale of the motion.
If this process of crafting can be spoken of as a dance, the dancing partner is most certainly the material which is being formed. The hand shifts alongside the material; conceding at times, yet forceful at others. The gesture of craft does not dictate, but instead suggests, coaxes, seduces the material. It is a gesture which is both yielding and demanding - the material is both understood and overridden.
A key image in the relationship of the gesture to the material is that of vitality. The hand of the crafter recognises the material as alive, as an entity consisting of its own set of tensions and internal forces. This image of aliveness teaches the hand to respond to the individual kinetic properties of the material. The material ceases to be something passive, a neutral body which any idea can be applied to, and becomes something which must be persuaded, worked with, beguiled. In viewing the material as something charged with its own source of energy, the crafter is able to understand its disposition through empathy and intuition.
Each material has its properties and its inclinations. Again, the way in which a material is conceptualised plays an important role in teaching the hand how to respond to it. A material may be soft, or wet, or rough, but it may also be breezy, or raspy, or fresh. The specificity of evocative and metaphorical language engages the imagination, informing and heightening this experience of dance, of give-and-take. Metaphor is a form of expressive language which is further abstracted, aligning a material with the properties of another. The craft gesture rides the waves of an 'oceanic' material, while skimming the surface of a 'glassy' cloth.
Sennett refers to the anthropomorphisation of materials, but only explores how an empathetic engagement with inanimate objects affects the experience of the finished thing. He does not delve into the role of empathy and metaphor in the crafting process, and does not explore the way the crafter uses anthropomorphic images to develop a deeper, more intuitive understanding of a material.
Anthropomorphic language extends upon the conception of a material as alive. The infusion of human characteristics animates the material, informing the expressive gesture and inspiring an empathetic response in the crafter. The hand must coax a 'stubborn' material, patiently laying and reinforcing groundwork, while a 'flighty' material requires a softer, less decisive touch. This personification again places the crafter in a dance with the material, where the gesture must listen and command in equal parts.
The dance between the hand and the material, as already noted, it a process of both resisting and yielding. A material is at its most relaxed often when at its most raw - the moment a piece of cloth is even folded, a myriad of invisible tensions are activated. These tensions must be understood and worked with - the hand must know when to persuade the material, but also when to concede.
The Tool
There are many tools used in craft practice, but the ones of particular interest here are those which are intimately linked to the craft gesture. These tools extend from and refine the raw hand - honing, amplifying, streamlining and orientating. These tools do not simply transform the function of the hand, but also inform the experience of the gesture.
The most obvious way a tool can work to transform the craft gesture is by building out from the body, in direct contact with the hand. This sort of tool is an extension of the gesture, a refinement of the body for a particular purpose, an intermediate and interchangeable hand. These tools amplify the body, aligning the proportions of the hand with those of the material. The experience of the gesture is refined to the shape of the tool, it becomes as sharp or as blunt as the chalk that it is holding. In altering the hand, the tool also alters the scale of the crafters perception - the eye shifts to match the gauge of the tool.
These tools are almost a gesture in themselves - they are shaped as a gesture, as a ready-made caress. The shiny, streamlined dash of the needle, the thicker stalk of the pin (complete with a beaded indication of its role as a stopper) and the scooped grooves of the hard thimble all reflect and dramatise the action to be performed. They offer an indication, a dream, an impression of the motion that they are intended for. There are also tools which work outside the body, on the perimeters of the material. Although these tools do not extend directly from the body, they nonetheless have an important impact on the craft gesture. These tools set up the material, tensioning it and creating boundaries, streamlining the gesture and compressing it to a single dimension. The pin anchors cloth at certain points, and only between these points is the material allowed to shift. The pottery wheel tensions clay by applying an even, continuous rotating motion. These tools increase the power and scope of the gesture, heightening the experienced drama of the hand motion. They amplify the gesture at the same time as reducing it - the parts of the material which the hand is able to alter are reduced, but the actions produced by the hand are more powerful.
Just as the consciousness of the maker floods into the action, it also floods into the tool. One moment, the tool is an image, a frozen story about the gesture to be performed. The next, the tool is the gesture - tool, hand, eye and material all dissolve within fluid repetition. The fingers become streamlined and honed, the eye picks up the sharpness of the point of the needle, and the material and the hand shift against each other in a rhythmic dance.
This essay reflects on the notion of crafting as a poetic practice in itself, outside of any concerns for form or utility. This practice of gestural imagining is highly intuitive and utterly ephemeral, yet meaningful and creative nonetheless. Although the writer is clearly someone who works with cloth, it is hoped that the reader may be able to see through the sewing examples and into their own discipline.
Sources
Bachelard, G 1971, On Poetic Imagination and Reverie, 4th edn, Spring Publications, Connecticut.
Sennett, R 2008, The Craftsman, 1st edn, Yale University Press, USA.
Crystal Dunn is a dreamer, an idea-maker, a girl obsessed with the ways that we make and use images. She recently graduated with Honours from a BA in Fashion at RMIT University, and is passionately suspended between several disciplines.
She currently works at Melbourne fashion label MATERIALBYPRODUCT as a crafter by day and a muse by night.
