From the canonical texts of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the radical thinking of today's "DIY" movement, from theoretical writings on the position of craft in distinction to Art and Design to how-to texts from renowned practitioners, from feminist histories of textiles to descriptions of the innovation born of necessity in Soviet factories and African auto-repair shops...The Craft Reader presents the first comprehensive anthology of writings on modern craft. Covering the period from the Industrial Revolution to today, the Reader draws on craft practice and theory from America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The world of craft is considered in its full breadth -- from pottery and weaving, to couture and chocolate-making, to contemporary art, architecture and curation. The writings are themed into sections and all extracts are individually introduced, placing each in its historical, cultural and artistic context. Bringing together an astonishing range of both classic and contemporary texts, The Craft Reader will be invaluable to any student or practitioner of Craft and also to readers in Art and Design. AUTHORS INCLUDE: Theodor Adorno, Anni Albers, Amadou Hâmpaté Bâ, Charles Babbage, Roland Barthes, Andrea Branzi, Alison Britton, Rafael Cardoso, Johanna Drucker, Charles Eames, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kenneth Frampton, Alfred Gell, Walter Gropius, Tanya Harrod, Martin Heidegger, Patrick Heron, Bernard Leach, Esther Leslie, W. R. Lethaby, Lucy Lippard, Adolf Loos, Karl Marx, William Morris, Robert Morris, László Moholy-Nagy, Stefan Muthesius, George Nakashima, Octavio Paz, Grayson Perry, M. C. Richards, John Ruskin, Raphael Samuel, Ellen Gates Starr, Debbie Stoller, Alexis de Tocqueville, Lee Ufan, Frank Lloyd Wright

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Note on the Texts Introduction SECTION 1: HOW TO Section Introduction 1. ‘Introductory Remarks’, from The Teacher’s Handbook of Slöjd, Otto Salomon 2. Elements of Handicraft and Design, W. A. S. Benson 3. The Wheelwright's Shop, George Sturt 4. On Weaving, Anni Albers 5. Primitive Pottery, Hal Riegger SECTION 2: CRAFT AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Section Introduction 6. On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures, Charles Babbage 7. Artisans and Machinery, Peter Gaskell 8. ‘How an Aristocracy May Emerge from Industry’, from Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville 9. Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, Samuel Smiles 10. Capital, Karl Marx 11. ‘The Primary Effects of Scientific Management’, from Labor and Monopoly Capitalism, Harry Braverman 12. The Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian Britain, Raphael Samuel 13. Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture, Michael Ettema 14. Artistic America, Siegfried Bing 15. In the Cause of Architecture: The Architect and the Machine, Frank Lloyd Wright 16. Art and the Machine, Hermann Muthesius 17. Building Materials, Adolf Loos 18. Handwerk/Kunsthandwerk, Stefan Muthesius SECTION 3: MODERN CRAFT: IDEALISM AND REFORM Section Introduction 19. ‘The Nature of the Gothic’, from The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin 20. The Revival of Handicraft, William Morris 21. Art and Labor, Ellen Gates Starr 22. Art and Workmanship, W. R. Lethaby 23. ‘Slogans’, ‘The Work Ahead of Us’ and ‘The Problem of the Relationship Between Man and Object’, Vladimir Tatlin 24. ‘The Way of Craftsmanship’, from The Unknown Craftsman: A Japenese Insight into Beauty, Sôetsu Yanagi 25. A Potter's Book, Bernard Leach 26. Initiation and the Crafts, René Guénon 27. Indian Handicrafts, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay 28. ‘The Relation of the Past to the Demands of the Present’, World Crafts Conference proceedings (1964) 29. Centering, M. C. Richards 30. Introduction to Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution, Eudorah Moore 31. The Soul of a Tree, George Nakashima 32. The Long Shadow of William Morris: Paradigmatic Problems of Twentieth-Century American Furniture, Edward S. Cooke, Jr. SECTION 4: THE PRESENCE OF CRAFT IN THE AGE OF MASS PRODUCTION Section introduction 33. The Shoemaker of Dreams, Salvatore Ferragamo 34. Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France, Susan J. Terrio 35. From Peasant to Artisan: Motor Mechanics in a Nigerian Town, Sara Berry 36. Destiny World: Textile Casualties in Southern Nigeria, David T. Doris 37. On a Particular Kind of Love and the Specificity of Soviet Production, Sergei Alasheev 38. Original Copies, Philip Tinari 39. What is Cybernetics?’, from The Human Use of Humans, Norbert Wiener 40. Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand, Malcolm McCullough 41. ‘Digital Artisans Manifesto’, European Digital Artists Network, Richard Barbrook and Pit Schultz 42. Craft Versus Design: Moving Beyond a Tired Dichotomy, Rafael Cardoso SECTION 5: CRAFT IN THEORY: AESTHETICS, ESSENCE, STATUS Section Introduction 43. The Nature and Art of Workmanship, David Pye 44. ‘The Genesis of the Technical Object: The Process of Concretization’, from Du Mode d’Existence des Objets Techniques, Gilbert Simondon 45. ‘Forms in the Realms of Matter’ from The Life of Forms in Art, Henri Focillon 46. Rhythm, Elsie Fogerty 47. The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power and Art in West Africa, Patrick R. McNaughton 48. African Art: Where the Hand Has Ears, Amadou Hâmpaté Bâ 49. Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft, Esther Leslie 50. Functionalism Today, Theodor Adorno 51. The Thing, Martin Heidegger 52. Rappel a l'Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic, Kenneth Frampton 53. ‘Art and Craft’, from The Principles of Art, R. G. Collingwood 54. Art and Work, Harold Rosenberg 55. ‘Comment’ and Responses, John Bentley Mays 56. Curatorial Comment from The Maker's Eye, Alison Britton 57. How Envy Killed the Crafts, Garth Clark SECTION 6: CRAFT IN ACTION: LIFE, ART, DESIGN Section introduction 58. The Enchantment of Technology and the Technology of Enchantment, Alfred Gell 59. Making Something from Nothing (Toward a Definition of Women's 'Hobby Art'), Lucy Lippard 60. ‘The Creation of Femininity’, from The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, Rozsika Parker 61. There's No Place Like Home: Home Dressmaking and Creativity in the Jamaican Community of the 1940s to the 1960s, Carole Tulloch 62. House-Trained Objects: Notes Towards Writing an Alternative History of Modern Art, Tanya Harrod 63. The New Ceramic Presence, Rose Slivka 64. How I Spent My Summer Vacation or, Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco and Utah, Philip Leider 65. Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search for the Motivated, Robert Morris 66. The Art of the Encounter, Lee Ufan 67. Let the Artisans Craft Our Future, Grayson Perry 68. ‘Manifesto of the Bauhaus’ and ‘Education and the Bauhaus’, Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy 69. Shaping America’s Products, Don Wallance 70. Asilomar Conference Proceedings 1957, Marguerite Wildenhain and Charles Eames 71. ‘The New Handicrafts’, from Hot House, Andrea Branzi SECTION 7: CURATORIAL APPROACHES Section Introduction 72. Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture, Johanna Drucker 73. ‘Craftsmen in the Factory of Images’, from BoysCraft, Tami Katz-Frieberg 74. And What is Your Title? Zandra Ahl 75. Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism in Unruly Contexts, Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch 76. The Politics of Craft: A Roundtable, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Liz Collins, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Cat Mazza and Allison Smith Recommended Bibliography List of Illustrations Index