Traditional crafts of the future, what might they be, and how will they be made?

[Terry - Somerset]

Hobbies are an indulgence - they are not essential to life and limb, although they are increasingly an important part of life experience.

For woodworkers I suspect the motives are often complex and diverse:

• intellectual enjoyment of problem solving and the design process
• emotions of control over tools contrasts with a world in which individuals have litte or no control
• satisfaction with a completed project
• stress relief, time to think
• nostalgia, childhood experiences

A hundred years ago hobbies were an indulgence of only the very weathly. The average person may have worked 60-70 hours in a six day week and would have neither the money or energy to enjoy a hobby.

As woodworkers we also tend regard practical crafts as real hobbies, yet most people do not do practical.

Craft hobbies come a long way down the list of hobbies and interests after gardening, food, sport, reading, art appreciation, music, poetry, stamp collecting, knitting etc etc. They may be as passionate as us woodies in their endeavours but they are not "crafts"

I think that the hobbies that will dominate in the future are likely to be those about which people were motivated in their youth. This may include few craft based hobbies as most product manufacture is automated (and likely to become more so), and careers are increasingly detached from the practical.

 

[Awac]

Hobbies are an indulgence - they are not essential to life and limb, although they are increasingly an important part of life experience.

For woodworkers I suspect the motives are often complex and diverse:

• intellectual enjoyment of problem solving and the design process
• emotions of control over tools contrasts with a world in which individuals have litte or no control
• satisfaction with a completed project
• stress relief, time to think
• nostalgia, childhood experiences

A hundred years ago hobbies were an indulgence of only the very weathly. The average person may have worked 60-70 hours in a six day week and would have neither the money or energy to enjoy a hobby.

As woodworkers we also tend regard practical crafts as real hobbies, yet most people do not do practical.

Craft hobbies come a long way down the list of hobbies and interests after gardening, food, sport, reading, art appreciation, music, poetry, stamp collecting, knitting etc etc. They may be as passionate as us woodies in their endeavours but they are not "crafts"

I think that the hobbies that will dominate in the future are likely to be those about which people were motivated in their youth. This may include few craft based hobbies as most product manufacture is automated (and likely to become more so), and careers are increasingly detached from the practical.

Some interesting points, thank you. Personally, I think Hobbies and crafts are not just an indulgence, but essential to human health, and not having them also contributes to ill-health, especially when combined with overwork. If we do not create or appreciate art/craft we are nothing on the day we die. The Scandinavian countries recognise this, and give it a name, "Sloyd".

"The word "sloyd" is derived from the Swedish word Slöjd, which translates as crafts, handicraft, or handiwork. It refers primarily to woodwork but also paper-folding and sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet.
Educational sloyd's purpose was formative in that it was thought that the benefits of handicrafts in general education built the character of the child, encouraging moral behaviour, greater intelligence, and industriousness. Sloyd had a noted impact on the early development of manual training, manual arts, industrial education and technical education. It is still taught as a compulsory subject in Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian schools". -Wikipedia

I think your motives for why woodworkers take it up are spot on btw.

Knitting not a craft! Can you work out how to create an Arran Knit Jumper?

I like the name manual arts....think I might start using that rather than crafts.