a million stairs and a million stares

There’s other instances of people randomly punching slaves that they didn’t even know because they got in their way or something. This was just normal behavior.

And slaves didn’t rebel en masse because if even one slave committed an act of violent rebellion it was common practice to kill every slave and former slave in the household.

People only took notice for posterity when these mass executions got into the hundreds of people. One of the few recorded for the history books is of over 400 people being killed because one guy stabbed his enslaver.

Well. At the risk of provoking the ire of all my fibre mutuals.

I do understand the intent behind the rebrand, but I think it's missing the point. The solution to fibre crafts being seen as silly and unskilled can't be to insist that "it's not a craft, it's art!"

That just enforces that crafting really is dumb and useless and for women, while art is serious and respectable.

And that's just - not true. Insisting on this hierarchy is doing neither concept justice. Art and craft aren't opposed, they're closely related and often overlap. One is not lesser than the other.

Craft is not a dirty word.

Craftsmanship is skill, knowledge, and experience. Making something well-crafted is not easy, and getting good at a craft requires time and dedication. This is true for art as well, of course. However, what is also true: Art, and the quality of art, is subjective, while craftsmanship is not.

Art doesn't need to be beautiful, or functional, or solidly made. Or involve a great deal of skill. But in order for an item to be well-crafted, it needs to be all of these things.

Anyway. All of this to say: I think crafts don't have to be declared art to be valuable. I think there's very little artistic expression in making something from a pattern, but there is a great deal of craftsmanship involved, and to act like this is somehow an insult is a bit silly.

Knitting (quilting, crochet, embroidery, etc) is a craft. It is complex and difficult and requires hundreds of hours of practice to get good at. Just like any craft.

@pajamadragon Thank you for bringing this up! I wanted to mention it too but kind of forgot. A lot of "art" techniques, like sculpting, painting, drawing, etc also involve a great deal of craftsmanship (and all crafts can be the medium for the creation of art). That's my point - the perception of "art" as something more elevated, more valuable than "craft" is wrong! Art is a craft! You're right, my understanding of art is modern, but so is dividing art from craft. A painter used to be a craftsman who learned his trade from a master, just like a carpenter, as you rightly point out. Maybe the divide here is more cultural, as where I live there still is a very formalized system of apprenticeship and non-academic education in the trades.

But there is also no denying that the last 200 years of art history happened and have fundamentally changed the meaning of art. In our modern world, art is subjective. I would go so far as to say, art is defined by subjectivity. A painting or a sculpture can be objectively very well-crafted, because painting and sculpting are crafts. But what does it tell you? Do you have an opinion on it? Does it provoke any strong emotions? That's the art part. In my opinion.

And this is not limited to traditional art forms. Anything can be art. It's all about intent and context.

Ans deutsche Volk, von Ulm bis Kiel: Ihr esst zu oft! Ihr esst zu viel! Ans deutsche Volk, von Thorn bis Trier: Ihr seid zu faul! Zu faul seid ihr!

Und wenn sie euch den Lohn entzögen! Und wenn der Schlaf verboten wär! Und wenn sie euch so sehr belögen, dass sich des Reiches Balken bögen! Seid höflich und sagt Dankesehr.

Die Hände an die Hosennaht! Stellt Kinder her! Die Nacht dem Staat! Euch liegt der Rohrstock tief im Blut. Die Augen rechts! Euch geht’s zu gut.

Ihr sollt nicht denken, wenn ihr sprecht! Gehirn ist nichts für kleine Leute. Den Millionären geht es schlecht. Ein neuer Krieg käm ihnen recht, So macht den Ärmsten doch die Freude!

Ihr seid zu frech und zu begabt! Seid taktvoll, wenn ihr Hunger habt! Rasiert euch besser! Werdet zart! Ihr seid kein Volk von Lebensart.

Und wenn sie euch noch tiefer stießen und würfen Steine hinterher! Und wenn Sie euch verhaften ließen und würden nach euch Scheiben schießen! Sterbt höflich und sagt Dankesehr.

I've realized that subconsciously I tend to think of arts and crafts as two separate things. And I think it comes down to the amount of time spent on the object being made / its intent.

Quilts and sweaters and crochet and embroidery? That's art. My tiny arrows and the various trinkets people make for trading? Those are crafts.

I dunno, it feels almost... Diminishing to call the former category crafts too, because so much time and effort went into them. Or perhaps I think of crafts having a more playful, less structured element to them, whereas there's established technique and rules and patterns for the fiber arts.

But I imagine that there's an element I'm overlooking here where I'm undervaluing crafts as a term.

What is the line between an art and a craft to you, and why? Do you even make a distinction, or are they the same to you?

And while I do think there is plenty of wiggle room on both sides, I'm curious to see what y'all think, too. I'm open and any and all interpretations!

I don't really think there's a "hard" definition of art, I think everything and anything can be art, and the lines between art and craft are blurred anyway. I think a lot of craftsmanship goes into making traditional art; I think painting and sculpting and things like that are as much a craft as anything else.

Where I would make the distinction, I think (carefully and with the caveat that it's a case-by-case kind of thing) is intent. Art, to me, is about communication, about expression, doing unexpected or creative things with a craft. Putting form over function, so to speak. Regardless of the medium. And regardless of the quality of the item (I have seen my fair share of sweaters where "fibre art" was certainly appropriate, because they sure as hell aren't wearable garments).

Idk. I think it's important to me to point out that "art" can be just as snide as "craft". Again, it comes down to intent.

I am ridiculously late with this update (I went to Sweden in June XD), but here are some pretty pictures and very few words because it's been too long!

Starting off in Gothenburg, with the prettiest bus station I've ever been to

Gothenburg is really pretty and also! a rainbow <3

Insanely pretty library with tons of amenities AND open on sundays which saved me when I had some unexpected work to do!

The weather was not perfect but the city is really colorful

Sooo much crispy rye bread!!!

Then I moved to Vänersborg, where I had my Erasmus+ project closing meeting (I am so glad that I was brought into this but also so sad because I loved the people we worked with and who knows if I'll ever see them again). ANYWAY, cool sunset!

On the last night we had a dinner party in a former lighthouse <3 and ate A LOT of crayfish, it was so good I wish I was eating it right now

The assumer will see a social media post about someone's mushroom harvest, which clearly only contains exactly two distinct kinds of mushrooms, which the poster has identified and correctly named in the post itself, and the assumer will feel compelled to warn the forager to be careful out there! Some mushrooms are poisonous and they should be very careful to only pick ones they can identify! The assumer, who has ignored the fact that the poster did identify both of the mushroom species they had picked, and can most likely be trusted to do so in the future as well, has naturally assumed that the person showing off the results of their latest mushroom haul must have been obliviously picking them at random like an unsupervised toddler who is lucky to be alive.

If someone makes a post talking about how they just got a new job as a bus driver, the assumer might swoop in to warn them that driving a bus is extremely dangerous! It's so dangerous that it's literally illegal to do that unless you have a specific special training for doing that! Even a normal driver's license isn't good enough, you need a special license for it! And when the person who just got hired as a bus driver verifies that yes, they know that, they do have the license to drive a bus, and that they wouldn't have even hired someone who doesn't. The first question of the job interview was about making sure that they have a valid license for driving this type of vehicle.

Because in the German edition they call him "Eichelhäher", which is Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) in English and looks like this:

But in English they call him "Blue Jay" (Cyanocitta cristata), which would be Blauhäher in German and looks like this:

Those are different birds!! Granted they're both jays and in the same Family (Corvidae), but they're different species! They don't even share the same Genus. Eurasian Jays are in the Genus Garrulus (Old World Jays) while Blue Jays are Cyanocitta (New World Jays)

Like, I understand why this was done and that nobody else cares about the classifications of these birds, but I still think it's interesting. I mean these birds do look very different and depending on the translation you read, you might get a different idea of what the Blue Jay/Eichelhäher looks like.

Idk what else to put into this drawing so im posting it.

Hes crying:(

Made of

Ethical romantasy