SED 03: Not All Crafts Are The Same

[kerravonsen]

I used to think that all crafts were basically easy to do... until I tried tatting. After multiple attempts using both shuttle and needle tatting I have managed to make ONE item. I'm not sure if I'll try again or not. But it showed me one thing; some crafts are simply more difficult to master than others. Some are easy enough for kids to do, others take years to master, and not everyone can do it. Note that the "easy" crafts fall into two classes; the ones that are inherently kitsch (no matter what you do, they look cheap and nasty), and the ones that aren't inherently kitsch. (It is possible to make anything look kitsch with the application of sufficient bad taste). I don't intend to include the inherently-kitsch crafts in the following lists. These lists are not exhaustive, because I don't know every craft under the sun.

Easy

Physical skills: working hands that don't shake and drop things
Mental skills: ability to follow directions
Character: persistence
Talent: an eye for colour

Rainbow bands
Perler/Hama/Melty beads
Loom-knitting
Kumihimo spiral braid
Bead-stringing
Cord-twisting (1)

With the easy crafts, having an eye for colour can be the difference between ugly and beautiful; it is particularly important with easy crafts because often the only thing one gets to choose is the colours, often from a limited palette.

Intermediate

Physical skills: one level of skill that needs practice to master
Mental skills: ability to follow directions, ability to count & keep track of where you are, ability to back-track to find mistakes
Character: persistence, willingness to undo things that didn't work
Talent: an eye for colour, an eye for texture

Crochet
Knitting
Macramé
Kumihimo advanced braiding
Loom-knitting (advanced)
Bead-weaving
Embroidery
Chainmaille
Polymer clay

I put Kumihimo advanced braiding here, because one has to keep track of more things than when one is doing a simple spiral braid. Likewise with advanced loom-knitting; with more complicated patterns, one has to keep track of more things.

Advanced

Physical skills: two or more levels of skill at the same time
Mental skills: ability to improvise, ability to make things without following a pattern
Character: persistence, willingness to throw away things that didn't work
Talent: an eye for colour, an eye for texture, an eye for line, an understanding of negative space

Tatting
Wire-wrapping
Lapidary
Potting (traditional clay-on-wheel)

With things like potting, you have to feel with your hands the way the clay is going, you can't just do it by eye. There are no guides. With wire-wrapping, if one is not using a jig, there are no guides either. Wire-wrapping and working with clay both have a limited working-time, because even though the material is malleable, with clay, it dries up, and with wire, it hardens (and can snap if it is over-worked). And all of these crafts reach a point where mistakes can't be undone, you have to throw away the work and start over. You make a mistake in cutting a stone, you might salvage it, but you can't un-cut it. Tatting is very hard to undo. And with potting, you can pull the pot too thin or over-wet it, and it falls apart (sometimes rather spectacularly).

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(1) Cord-twisting is a pretty elementary craft which takes very little equipment, yet with pretty yarn/thread, one can end up with a lovely result.
One can buy specialized devices for cord-twisting, but I just use an S-hook and an electric mixer.

Step 1: cut a length of yarn (satin-style yarn looks the nicest) which is no more than twice the length of your outstretched arms
Step 2: fold the yarn in half
Step 3: loop the folded end over the S-hook which you hook over something stable (or you might tie it to a drawer handle or something like that)
Step 4: tie the other end to one beater of your electric mixer
Step 5: stand back so that the yarn isn't lying on the floor
Step 6: put the beater into its slot on the mixer
Step 7: turn the mixer on; this should twist the yarn. Hold the yarn taut but not too taut; allow the twisted yarn to shorten as it gets more twisted
Step 8: turn off the mixer and check the yarn periodically to see if it is twisted enough. You will know it is twisted enough when it starts to twist on itself when you relieve the tension. If it isn't twisted enough, turn the mixer back on and twist some more.
Step 9: When the yarn is twisted enough, carefully eject the beater from the mixer while maintaining the tension on the cord. This is important, or you will get a tangled mess.
Step 10: Holding the beater in one hand, still maintaining the tension, put your other hand at the half-way point of the cord and grasp the cord. (This is why there is a limit on the length, since you have to be able to reach the middle of the cord. If there are two people working on this, then you don't have that limit)
Step 11: While still maintaining the tension, move the beater-end to the other end where the hook is.
Step 12: With the other hand, still maintaining the tension, twist the doubled cord in the direction it wants to twist into. This helps even out the twisting.
Step 13: Let go the cord and watch it twist on itself. If it twists itself into little twiglets or tangles, carefully un-twist them and guide them to twisting with the main cord. Move your hand up and down along the twisted cord to even out the twists.
Step 14: When the cord is twisted to your satisfaction, tie an overhand knot in the cord at the end with the hook-and-beater. Untie the cord-ends from the hook and the beater (if you can't untie it, then cut it).
Step 15: Dab the knot with glue, or wrap it with wire, or wrap it with tape and glue it into a cord-end; whatever finishing technique you desire. Cut off the scraggly ends.

There. You have your nice twisted cord.

You can do a double-twist by twisting it again, just make sure that you put the beater into the other slot in the mixer, so that the cord is twisted in the opposite direction. I didn't do that the first time, and it ended up un-twisting my original twist.

Comments

[watervole]

I bet the mixers -makers never anticipated that use!

I can see how it would work, though.

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

With tatting I found the secret skill was to be able to capsize the knot without thinking about it.

Bobbin lace making is either high end intermediate or advanced. One of the main drawbacks is the amount of equipment you need to possess before you can discover if it's a craft for you.

[kerravonsen]

With tatting I found the secret skill was to be able to capsize the knot without thinking about it.

I found needle-tatting easier to do, it seemed more straightforward to me. But I found that not only did I have to do all the knots right - that wasn't that hard, it was similar to macrame - but I had to get the tension exactly the same for every ring and chain in the pattern when closing them, and that I wasn't so good at.

One of the main drawbacks is the amount of equipment you need to possess before you can discover if it's a craft for you.

Yeah, a drawback with many crafts. One reason I'm not likely to get into lapidary or precious metal clay or lampwork: too much expensive equipment needed to start with.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Interesting set of skills and choice of where you site the various crafts.

Knitting and crocheting are on my impossible list as I cannot seem to master the knack of the tension - I tend to strangle my work.

I would have put polymer clay work down as easy myself but mainly because I picked up the techniques almost intuitively. It almost as if my body knew how to do it even before I tried.

I suppose everyone's list of easy, hard, Advanced and Impossible will be different, depending on their skills and abilities.

[dreamflower]

My impossible list includes spinning with a drop spindle! Even with a teacher I could not master it.

I would have put polymer clay work down as easy myself but mainly because I picked up the techniques almost intuitively. It almost as if my body knew how to do it even before I tried.

*nods* It was like playing with modeling clay in Kindergarten! I loved it from the first time I tried it.

[kerravonsen]

My impossible list includes spinning with a drop spindle! Even with a teacher I could not master it.

My sympathies. Spinning with a spinning wheel is hard enough; I think with a drop spindle one would need four hands....

[dreamflower]

Well, at least I found out why it's called a "drop" spindle, as that's what I did the most of, LOL!

Spinning wheels are expensive, which is why I thought it would be fun to learn how to use a drop spindle. *sigh* Fun was the wrong word. Oh well, I can't do everything I try.

[kerravonsen]

Knitting and crocheting are on my impossible list as I cannot seem to master the knack of the tension - I tend to strangle my work.

Yeah, you're right, tension isn't one of those things that one can learn out of a book or by watching a video.

[dreamflower]

I'd say that your assessments of "Easy, Intermediate and Advanced" are fairly accurate. I would also say there is another component to "Easy"--something you can teach yourself with the guidance of a good book or video.

But also within any craft categorized as Easy, there are more advanced techniques, for example bead stringing can be as simple as a child stringing pony beads on up to rather elaborate pattern stringing. Basic knitting is fairly easy, but such techniques as Fair Isle and Double Knitting and knitting on multiple needles are intermediate to advanced skills, and sometimes need other skills to move on. (I had little success with Fair Isle until I learned to use both the American style and the Continental style of knitting, after which I could knit with yarn in both hands.)

Some crafts I've taught at both easy and intermediate level are calligraphy, illumination, drawing Celtic knotwork, polymer clay, crochet, knitting, embroidery and sewing.

Tatting is not "Easy". I have a tatting shuttle, thread and a couple of books. Tatting needs a teacher, and I've yet to find one.

[kerravonsen]

I would also say there is another component to "Easy"--something you can teach yourself with the guidance of a good book or video.

Hmmm, but I've taught myself intermediate crafts, too. But, yeah, advanced crafts...
I did potting at school, and I don't think anyone could teach themselves potting, not even with good videos.

But also within any craft categorized as Easy, there are more advanced techniques

True.

[dreamflower]

*nods* I agree. Potting would definitely need a teacher, and I think many kinds of metal work or woodworking would need one too.

But the majority of crafts I do I've taught myself from written materials and directions; I did need to observe some good videos to get the knack of knitting Continental style. Pictures in a book just did not do it. The same went for double knitting.

It's usually fairly simple to learn basics on my own. The farther I go, though, the more likely I am to need a teacher, or at least moving instructions like a video.

[kerravonsen]

All the craft instruction videos are enough to justify YouTube's existence. 8-)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Excellent lists, I think; my unwillingness to throw things away or redo them has more to do with me not being crafty than lack of physical skill or eye for color, etc.

And your description of cord-twisting sounds interesting. My inner experiment-loving child gets a kick out of the idea of using a mixer to craft!

[kerravonsen]

I think; my unwillingness to throw things away or redo them has more to do with me not being crafty than lack of physical skill or eye for color, etc.

Yeah, there is a certain amount of persistence and stubbornness required to keep going...

My inner experiment-loving child gets a kick out of the idea of using a mixer to craft!

(grin)

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Oh, you all magicans here, I bow to you!!!!