Craft Inspiration and Tradition

Much of craft has to do with inspiration and tradition. In the Barbara Kingsolver book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; A Year of Food Life,” she found inspiration for growing her own food for her family. She wanted her family to be healthy and eat healthy, fresh food. Also, inspired by the horrible conditions of food production, she did not find it overwhelming to deal with all the manual labor and upkeep that came with her craft. The inspiration of a crafter shows a lot about the final product. If the crafter is not inspired at all the final product will not have been made with the time and care it otherwise would have been made with. This is why during assembly line crafting of a product, people do not care if they make a mistake or two. Money driven food corporations do not care what kinds of chemicals they add as long as the food can be preserved for longer. My inspirations for making my craft are the people I have been giving my products to as gifts. I want them to really enjoy my gift, so I take my time on it and make sure I make it is made the best it can be.

Craft is also very much about tradition. Many aspects on the process of making the craft are traditional to Native American crafters. Morel mushroom hunting is also a lot about family tradition. Hemp jewelry has also been a tradition for many, many years. This week I have been inspired by the morel mushroom presentation and I have been making traditional mushroom hemp beads. These types of beads are very popular and are usually made out of glass. Hemp jewelry is a very earthy kind of jewelry which is why many of the bead designs have been inspired my other things in nature. Next week, I will be making some necklaces and bracelets for my sister because it’s her birthday next weekend.

I will include pictures of all my final crafts on my next blog post.