The Art of Crafting, by Betsy

As a youngster in school or Girl Scout meetings, arts and crafts was always one of my favorite activities. I am very grateful for the time spent making things because I still enjoy making things. So when I started thinking about todays topic, I naturally pondered the question what is the difference between an art and a craft.

I decided that art is a creation of the imagination, a craft is the result of making something by hand which is a copy or an impression or a depiction of something else. Further investigation reveals that the word craft comes from an old English then German word originally meaning strength then later, skill. Skill is the key word here when it comes to the word origin. However, the meaning for me is broader inasmuch as I have crafted many an item without the application of an ounce of skill. At least so it would seem.

In my dotage I have taken up the craft of counted cross stitch. My friend Carlos has shown some beautiful examples of his work. The two main skills required for this craft are patience and good eye sight. Also being systematic about transferring the pattern from a paper to the cloth is essential.

Is this art? Technically, in my opinion it is not. I may be creating a piece based on a painting or an artist’s rendition of an object or a scene. It is imagination that produces the image upon which my craft is based. That’s the work of art. Designing the cross stitch pattern and then stitching it is the craft. Does it matter to me which it is called? No. Call it art, call it a craft, I really don’t care. I enjoy doing it. Another of it’s assets is that it’s a great filler activity very useful when watching sports on TV, when waiting for commercials to end, or when watching something entertaining which doesn’t require a lot of concentration (which is most of television, by the way.) Other times when it is a useful activity are when waiting or when one can’t sleep.

A few years ago in our travels to the National Parks, I noticed in the gift shops, cross-stitch kits of scenes from whatever park we were visiting. So I bought that first kit that I found, and have been buying them and completing them since. So far I have Monument Valley, Zion NP, Rocky Mountain NP, and I am currently working on Arches NP. I think it will be another year or maybe two before I finish Arches as it is quite large; that is, if I work on it regularly.

My last visit to a National Park was about a month ago when we spent a day at Denali NP in Alaska, home of Mt. McKinley now called Mt. Denali. I found no craft kits in their gift shop, but later in Anchorage I came upon a craft shop that had cross-stitch patterns for typical Alaskan flowers and animals. As a result of going into that shop I have now, I think, four or five cross-stitch projects waiting to be started. Considering that some projects can take two, three, or even four years to complete, I realize I better get on with it. So many projects, so little time.

By the way, I also knit baby blankets, so if any of you are expecting to be expecting in the near future, let me know early on (before you are showing) so I can get started on a baby blanket.

Ahh! So many projects, so little time.

© 2014

About the Author

Betsy has been active in the GLBT community including PFLAG, the Denver women’s chorus, OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change). She has been retired from the Human Services field for about 15 years. Since her retirement, her major activities include tennis, camping, traveling, teaching skiing as a volunteer instructor with National Sports Center for the Disabled, and learning. Betsy came out as a lesbian after 25 years of marriage. She has a close relationship with her three children and enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren. Betsy says her greatest and most meaningful enjoyment comes from sharing her life with her partner of 25 years, Gillian Edwards.