1.

Textile Crafts
These include any type of craft where you work with fabric, yarn or surface design. Some
examples are knitting, quilting, appliqu, weaving and dyeing. Many of these could
obviously also fall into the decorative or fashion crafts categories, since the finished good
is sold as a sweater or wall hanging. owever, they are technically textile crafts since it
all starts with the fabric.
!n my career as a crafter, !"ve done #ust about all textile crafts. My favorite$ %yeing. !
find silk fabric dyeing very appealing to the creative mind as the dye can either flow
freely across the fabric or you can use resist to make the dye form different shapes.
2. Paper Crafts
&s the name implies, paper crafts have to do with well ' paper( My son got his first
introduction to paper crafts in pre)school when he used carved potatoes to hand print
designs on a card for Mother"s %ay. The grown up version of this is wood engraving.
*ther paper crafts include papier)mache, calligraphy, and papermaking.
!n the past, !"ve carved linoleum instead of wood to block print. Many people also hand
cut their own stencils from plastic to create the same effect on paper.
3. Decorative Crafts
+urniture making, metalwork, stenciling, stained glass, gilding, spongeware, surface
design of walls such as trompe l,oeil, basketry and dried flowers fall into the category of
decorative crafts. This category also includes toy making.
-ately, !"ve seen a trend in combining furniture making with metalwork. &rts and crafts
and home dcor maga.ines are showcasing a lot of furniture constructed from wood but
with metalwork legs or trim. The metalwork tends to be very industrial looking but there
is a good amount of ornate metalwork added in as well.
4. Fashion Crafts
This type of crafts encompasses all the elements of dressing the human body/ #ewelry,
hats, leatherwork 0shoes, belts, handbags1 and garments. This craft type will naturally
intersect other craft types since #ewelry can be made through metalworking and garments
are fabricated by sewing ' which can be classified as a textile craft.
!f you"re looking to have your craft work showcased in maga.ines such as In Style
maga.ine, this is your area of craft discipline. 2ursuing a fashion maga.ine with relevant
press releases or kits is a great way to get free attention that should turn into a si.able
increase in sales.
5. Functional Crafts
Many of the four other types of crafts can also be classfied as functional. +or example,
decorative pottery is made with components that are okay for your customers to eat from
such as serving platters or utensils. Many furniture crafts are primarily functional but can
also be quite decorative.
*bviously, to attract the widest possible customer base, it,s good to have functionality
built into your art or craft. Many times customers who won,t shell out the big bucks for
an original creation #ust because of it,s good looks will #ustify the cost because it can also
be used in day)to)day life.
The crafts of !ndia have been valued throughout time3 their existence today proves the
efforts put into their preservation. 4ontemporary designers such as 5itu 6umar and 5itu
7irani are constantly embedding traditional crafts into their designs. The 8ational
!nstitute of +ashion Technology 08!+T1 includes education of traditional crafts in their
course curriculum to maintain this culture. %espite these efforts, the roots of these crafts,
which are the rural craftsmen, are in decline. This argued by the !ndia +oundation for the
&rts organisation.
9:;<
5ising costs of materials and supplies have placed many of these
craft communities in financial struggle. & recent article in the Times of !ndia predicts the
price of steel to rise between 5s =>> and :>>> per tonne.
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*n the other hand, statistics
from the &ll !ndia andicrafts @oard show that craft export has risen from AB crores to
over C>>> crores since the past D> years.
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Eith rising economic and political issues in
!ndia, the craft sector is struggling to uphold. &lthough an interest to retain the culture of
crafts is seen in designers and institutions.