Craft Consumer

Craft consumer refers to a person who obtains objects made by skilled artisans. Until the nineteenth century, crafts were ordinarily made for practical or ceremonial use by part-time or full-time specialists. Although some crafts were traded or sold in markets, most were either exchanged through kin networks or appropriated by the state. In the past two centuries, crafts have increasingly been made explicitly for sale. Many commercial crafts are more or less identical to those produced for use in daily life. Most, however, have been altered substantially to attract potential buyers. Some “tourist crafts” created solely for market purposes may be only tangentially related to local cultural traditions. Nonetheless, the search for “authenticity” that motivates many purchases of crafts is an important aspect of consumer culture.

The distinction between “crafts” and “arts” is not entirely straightforward. Artists are sometimes said to emphasize concepts, while craft workers place more importance on physical materials and the skill and execution through which a vision is made concrete. Because the potential financial rewards for objects considered to be art are much higher than for those considered to be crafts, classification in one category or the other by tastemakers has significant material consequences. Naive observers may not be able to easily distinguish between craft and art objects. The difference may only become evident by noting the venues in which particular objects are exhibited and sold. Objects labeled as crafts at one time can later be regarded as art; the reverse also happens. Despite these definitional issues, certain types of objects are typically thought of as art (e.g., paintings, sculpture), while other types are usually regarded as crafts (e.g., jewelry, furniture).

The Industrial Revolution of the 1800s led to the development of a significant market for crafts. Prior to that time, almost all objects used in daily life were made slowly by skilled artisans. The Industrial Revolution allowed the rapid mass production of identical, machine-made objects. Social elites in Europe and the United States came to value individually fashioned, technically proficient objects that were the product of many hours of work. Because of the time and skill required to make such crafts, these objects were usually more expensive than comparable machine-made pieces. Furthermore, craft objects could often be readily identified as the work of particular famous artisans. Members of the upper class could demonstrate their wealth and sophistication by purchasing finely made crafts esteemed by tastemakers who were their social peers.

The market for crafts in recent years has increasingly included objects made in places far from the homes of buyers. The artisans making such crafts may be quite different culturally from the crafts' eventual owners. Consumers in industrial countries buying “ethnic” crafts from distant places are usually motivated in part by their admiration for the skill and aesthetic sensibility of their makers. Many also have a romantic desire to connect emotionally with artisans who work with their hands and seem close to nature. By buying an ethnic craft, consumers can show a certain amount of alienation from the machine-made objects of the Industrial Age. The display of ethnic crafts in a consumer's house suggests (perhaps incorrectly) that trips abroad have been taken, with the implied socioeconomic status associated with international travel. Such displays of crafts also indicate their owners' sophisticated taste for exotic objects.

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