Craft and the Creative Economy

Expertise and Collaboration: Cultural Workers’ Performance on Social Media

“…He illustrates this with the example of women quilt makers, who make them as family members and neighbours, not as artists. These types of activities can now be monetised through social media and websites such as Etsy, where a particular 'handmade' community has formed which has contributed to the revival of craft work (Luckman, 2015). Some of the participants I observed make and sell their work through Etsy, and it was within this group that I found many examples of retweeting and sharing other artists' work-artists they are also in competition with.…”

“…Within my sample, these acts of mutual aid and support were displayed most frequently among the female participants, and between them and fellow female artists. Susan Luckman (2015) notes the resurgence in the 'craft economy' particularly among middle class women, who choose to work from home and set up craft businesses on Etsy which fit around the demands of parental and domestic responsibilities. While Luckman usefully highlights the isolation and stress these women face, who juggle managing their businesses, their identities (particularly online) and their families, she does not pay much attention to the possibilities offered by running these online businesses, and the potentially positive social connections formed between female makers and artists which can be facilitated through social media and sites such as Etsy.…”

Material Inheritances: How Place, Materiality, and Labor Process Underpin the Path-dependent Evolution of Contemporary Craft Production

“…In popular discourse craft is linked to the rise of "maker" scenes within western cities previously thought to have eviscerated manufacturing legacies (Causey 2014). Within academic research, craft has been analyzed as a new form of (precarious) creative work (Banks 2010;Thomas et al 2013;Luckman 2015), linked to an economy of "authentic" sign value within "cultural capitalism" (Goldman and Miller 2013). However, what sets craft production apart from many present understandings of creative industries, premised on innovation, is that a source of distinction is the use of "old" production techniques and materials, and slowly accrued haptic skills -referring to those "hand" tasks that emphasize touch and feel -of manual workers.…”

“…Craft signals the existence of a cultural field within which such designations as "skill", "handmade", and "bespoke" are synonymic with creativity, assets for marketing the "authenticity" of finished material goods (Luckman 2015). Adding to the sense of "authenticity" are associations with places of manual work -often manufacturing cities that suffered most from previous phases of deindustrialization (Goldman and Miller 2013).…”

Firing up craft capital: the renaissance of craft and craft policy in the United Kingdom

“…As craft regains its position with professional and amateur makers exploring new modes of production and consumption and the fusion of digital and handmade technologies (cf. Jakob 2013, Luckman 2015, the practices of craft are increasingly associated with progressive agendas of emancipation, individualization, environmental sustainability and locally rooted ethical production and consumption (cf. Levine and Heimerl 2008).…”