Over the course of 5 months I held workshops and talked with my peers about how crafting traditions have influenced our lives.
It’s common to have a family member who does a craft. A resounding 92% of survey participants have a family member who knows how to sew.
says Amelia, a fellow senior in Graphic Design at VCU.
A pillowcase was the first thing I sewed as well. She recalls,
Pillowcases are a first sewing project for many as it teaches the basics of sewing straight lines, turning out corners, and an understanding of right and wrong sides.
Combined, Grandmothers and Mothers lead the charge by 79% on teaching relatives to sew.
My grandmother’s house is filled with crocheted doilies that she and my mom have made throughout their lives. Doilies today can be learned by using a crochet chart but my mom didn’t learn from a chart, my grandma would show my mom what stitches to combine in the manner of ‘do a treble crochet, do a double crochet’.
says Amelia.
While most participants in the survey were taught how to sew by a family member, those who did not learn from a family member mostly learned at school or were self taught.
It’s important to note that among those who know how to sew, a majority (32%) don't actively sew. While conducting my Quilt Block Workshops, I found that the majority of those who attended the workshops hadn’t sewn recently, but as the sessions progressed it came back to them like riding a bike. As the survey and the workshops were conducted in the VCUArts community, many take up other disciplines.
Aside from sewing, the most popular crafts that survey respondents partake in were Paper & Bookarts, Printing & Dyeing, Knitting & Crochet, Woodworking, and Ceramics.
When it comes to crafts in general, school or classes are the #1 teacher.
says Jessica, a VCU Craft and Material Studies Alum who focused in clay and fiber. She took every clay class she could once except for one,
Believe it or not, Jessica gained a love for ceramics after coming to college.
Two things Jessica and I have in common are being younger siblings, and the daughters of hard working immigrants. I often wonder if being the youngest made my parents less worried about me pursuing a career in the arts. They weren’t too surprised though, because my teachers would always show them my art during parent teacher conferences.
Elementary school art classes are often the first introduction of traditional art for kids in America.
It's important to understand that Jessica’s artistic journey is informed by her background,
The reason why I started this project in the first place was because I spend a lot of time sewing with my mom and talking through our family history. As a kid, my mom taught me how to sew and later on she taught my sister and I how to crochet. My mother was taught by my grandmother and so on. Earlier generations of my mom’s side of the family sewed and crocheted as trade. They were tailors and seamstresses that created goods out of their homes in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for a living. Every now and then my mom shows me a technique that one of her family member’s showed her and although I learn a great deal in school and online, I attribute most of my sewing skills to my mother.
Contrastingly, 64.28% of participants identified that they are not influenced by a familial sewing tradition. In conversation on a smaller basis though, it seems as though having a family member who does a craft does add to creativity.
Jessica’s father works in construction which led him to woodworking as a hobby.
One similarity between Amelia, Jessica, and I, is that we all have relatives who do skilled work in their crafts, but don’t adopt the title of artist or craftsperson to themselves.
My grandmother on my dad’s side would make quilts and send them to us over the years. For Black women in the rural south, quilting groups were essential for organising and providing a conversation place in the mid to late 1900’s. Many quilts made in quilting groups in my grandmother’s town ended up in the Arkansas Old State House. But the ones that my grandmother made over the years for my dad, his brothers, and eventually for me, are still around. She doesn’t see them as art, but as a way to stay warm.
Amelia recalls of her Great Grandmother,
They see themselves as our Parents, Grandparents, and Great Grandparents who happen to make things on the side.
There is a schism as old as time between the words ‘craft’ and ‘art’ which typically favors art and cheapens craft. Because crafts are things that are usually made with a utilitarian purpose, the word has been separated from art over time. Which is funny because you can use many traditional crafts like sewing, crochet, woodworking, and ceramics to make art. Since these processes are largely skill based, it’s important that we become more inclusive with the word art and include a larger variety of mediums within the umbrella.
In my eyes, craft is a descriptor for the type of work you're doing in order to achieve an art piece.
Lastly, I want to reiterate how important school is to the development of artists. After initially learning a craft 24.2% of survey respondents continued to learn new skills at school.
For Jessica, access to the studio resources was one of the most important parts of learning while at school,
Coming into VCU, I already knew how to sew, knit, and crochet which felt like enough skills to accomplish my crazy ideas. But I ended up learning so many more techniques with the resources provided to me. My hope is that future generations will be encouraged to participate in art the way that my peers and I were encouraged.
If you’ve read this far, I want to thank you for your interest in the topic!!
"My grandmother on my dads side has always been an incredible embroiderer in the traditional Bulgarian cross stitch style, which always has a ton of culture and symbolism in it displayed in the stitching!"
"tatreez! traditional Palestinian embroidery"
"A lot of the sewing that my family partakes in is for repairs, but alternatively, there is a lot of active sewing in regards to hair for protective styles. I was always interested in the rounded needle, which helps get into braided hair easier."
"i think this is a common tradition — but sharing anyways! some of my favorite quilts are made by the women in my family for momentous (happy or sad) occasions, like the quilt my grandma made for my mom when she went off to college. i also made my sister and her wife a quilt for their wedding. my best friend made me a quilt when my mom died. i think it's one of the most heartfelt gifts you can receive."
"Quilting!! My grandpa made tons of quilts with his huge quilting machine but I never learned how to use it because he recently passed away"
"My maternal side is directly descended from the Appalachian people who lived in the Shenandoah Valley before it was established as a national park! A major part of their culture was hand sewing, out of necessity and also for expression. Women would sew clothing, bedding, toys, etc. There was also a super unique tradition specific to this area of multiple women working together to create quilts for the community. Sewing as a community practice is so inspiring to me :)"
"Many of my aunts sewed and crocheted to make a living and help support their families. I sew for enjoyment and a love for making things through sewing."
"My family did a lot of Korean origami when I was younger. Here is a link to a Korean "origami" simple explanation"