Paper Short Abstract:

This paper is an attempt to show how Palestinian liberation is thought of and practised in artistic and heritage-based crafts as a futuristic project with elements that challenge the nation-state linear world-making project. Through studying the experiences of young craftspeople, the paper tracks and analyses counter-imaginaries shaping the contemporary craftculture in settler colonial contexts like Palestine.

Paper Abstract:

This paper investigates how slow activism, Sumud, and visual resistance function in settler colonial contexts by focusing on actors in the contemporary handcrafts scene in Palestine who locate independence and decolonization as futuristic endeavours in their world-making projects.

The research is based on interviews with seven craftspeople from Ramallah and Jerusalem who practice artistic forms of reproducing and rethinking heritage. The paper focuses on their treatment of space, materials, and time, as well as the narratives they share through their craftworks.

In their daily practices, young artisans are challenging the colonial time-space conditionality and management. They rework the heritage by preserving the generational knowledge of making and living in Palestine through centralizing values of slow heavy being, and rootedness in their land. The political activism materialized in crafts turns crafts into powerful objects capable of voicing and resisting the Zionist colonial narrative and the silencing of Palestinians.

They approach time and space in an anti-colonial way with Sumud embedded in their daily lives and practices. The fluid term informs the formation of networks of actors they cooperate with, the raw material they use, their openness to sharing knowledge and spaces, and their ethnographic methodologies for collecting stories and archiving the Palestinian circular time in which the past moment is heavily informing the present and the imagination of the future of liberation.

Paper Short Abstract:

The case study of alder wood used for cladding purposes highlighted the relevance of intuitive knowledge of materials, which typically emerges in craft practices. The results indicate that this knowledge can be conveyed through words and thus serve as a source of information in materials science.

Paper Abstract:

The craft of cladding façades with wood was explored through the case study of alder. Source pluralism was employed to understand the use of this wood species, with its controversial durability, as a weather-exposed and protective layer. The literature review revealed that, in the 18th century, alder wood was believed to have the capacity to absorb minerals, which created a hard, stone-like skin on the wood's surface after immersion in water, thus protecting the timber from rotting (Fleischer, 1779). The results from recent interviews and discussions with archaeologists and craftspeople across Europe include descriptions such as: “blades used for cutting samples from excavated alder get worn out because the wood seems incrusted with minerals” and “weathering forms a kind of hard rind on alder cladding, protecting it from rotting.” These descriptions rely on sensory experience and intuitive knowledge and can appear inaccurate. However, the similarities in the oral and written reports from various places and different centuries suggest that alder wood undergoes transformation when exposed to minerals and/or water in a process comparable to petrification. Experiments will help to characterise this transformation process and make it predictable and reproducible, ensuring alder cladding durability. At a more general level, this case study highlights how knowledge of materials based on intuitive ontic validities emerges individually through craft practice but might also be conveyed through words and, therefore, can be a valuable source of information for materials science.

Fleischer, E. (1779). Forsøg til en underviisning i det danske og norske skov-vaesen.

Paper Short Abstract:

The paper explores how craft learning, particularly in plant propagation, involves building a repertoire of experiential examples over time. It addresses the challenge of teaching students who lack prior experience and proposes a practice-based classification system to help them effectively navigate and learn craft knowledge.

Paper Abstract:

Learning a craft involves building a repertoire of experiential examples (Schön 1995). In certain craft specialisations, developing a personal repertoire requires that practice and the evaluation of results are interspersed over an extended period. Often, this process must also be in line with the practices established within a professional discipline. When crafts are taught in educational settings, teachers face the challenge of finding pedagogical tools to support students' learning of materials and methods, even before they have had the opportunity to build their own repertoire of experiential examples. In horticulture, plant propagation exemplifies a craft where the knowledge repertoire is constructed through comparisons of practice cases involving various plants and their stages of development. The outcomes of actions may only become apparent after weeks, months, or even years. This craft also demands expertise in managing highly varied materials. Literature on plant propagation is often both concise and generalised, making it difficult to convey the breadth of knowledge required to propagate plants effectively. An experienced plant propagator builds a repertoire that facilitates comparisons and informed decision-making across diverse materials, a repertoire that can never be fully captured in a book. Drawing from my own experience teaching plant propagation, I discuss a practice-based classification system designed to aid students in their learning process. This theory of practice helps students organise their personal experiences and navigate the wealth of information they encounter.

Schön, D.A. (2003[1995]). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. (Repr.[= New ed.]). Aldershot: Arena.

Paper Short Abstract:

The bride's wreath from Romania - in Oaș, still preserves an archaic symbolic substratum in the way it was made, original both through the chromatic, the materials and techniques of realization, everything is ordered as in the universe, in a harmony of the terrestrial nature with the celestial one.

Paper Abstract:

The bride's wreath from Oaș still preserves an archaic symbolic substratum in the way it was made, the craftswomen who create the wreaths, being the ones who follow the most faithfully the prototype with authentic values, original both through the red chromatic dominance and through the materials and techniques of realization. Nothing is accidental on the wreath, the colors, the way they are placed, the materials used, everything is arranged, ordered as in the universe, in a harmony of the terrestrial nature with the celestial one: the world-circle appeared from the twisted bubbles of light spirals, and man aspiring to eternity in the green breath of the leaf. The bride's wreath completes a cosmology, weaving meaningful connections between the small infinity and the great infinity, knotted in the fabric of destiny, like the loose knots woven on the bride's temples, in the edging of the beauty of the world. The decorative objects are always fixed on the wreath from top to bottom, its circular shape suggesting the celestial origin and the co-participation in the symbolic restoration of perfection, illustrating the plenary, ideal unity: the Bride-the Great Goddess. The Oaș ornaments of the wreath become immanent to the primary shapes and volumes - the circle, the spiral, the rhombus, the triangle, grafted in a pure, original time, of the mythical figure of the Cosmic Fates weaving the seasons or weaving in invisible threads the destinies of the world. The bride's wreath is a concentrated miniature of the universe.

Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores how crafting daily fibre-based "fairy" sculptures mediates folklore, blending tactile creation with storytelling. By reinterpreting craft as an evolving archive, it examines the sensory, relational, and unspoken knowledge embedded in five years of daily artistic practice.

Paper Abstract:

Over five years, I engaged in a daily practice of creating fibre-based, 3D "fairy" sculptures from natural materials, hand-painting features and photographing them in outdoor settings. This art project reimagined the role of craft as an active archive, embodying storytelling, folklore, and human-land relationships. Each piece was a response to place, season, and personal narrative, inviting dialogue through blog posts and social media engagement that reached a global audience.

This paper examines the "unwritten" aspects of this craft: the sensory knowledge of hands on fibre, the relational ties formed with materials and landscapes, and the evolving stories each creation carried. The project subverted traditional documentation by blending tactile processes with storytelling, leaving behind ephemeral traces—photographs, narratives, and online interactions—that disrupted conventional archival and folkloric frameworks.

Through the lens of this project, I explore how craft, as both process and product, becomes a vessel for tacit and sensory knowledge. How does craft mediate folklore and communal identity when removed from its utilitarian roots? How can daily creative acts challenge power structures and embrace sustainable, relational practices?

Paper Short Abstract:

In my fieldwork on China’s intangible cultural heritage knowledge transmission, I found that Chinese craftsmen transfer different versions of craft knowledge to social members depending on their closeness to the craftsmen's families. I interpret the phenomenon as a negotiation between maintaining social responsibility and knowledge secrecy.

Paper Abstract:

The paper examines how Chinese craftsmen adopt different teaching strategies and principles according to the various contexts. Existing studies on craft knowledge transmission often overlooked the significance of contexts despite the latter’s underlying roles in shaping human behaviours, including craft teaching and learning. With the evidence I collected from being an Intangible Cultural Heritage apprentice in China for 12 months, this paper reveals that Chinese craftsmen would selectively teach craft skills when facing different social groups. On the one hand, Chinese craftsmen share detailed and comprehensive knowledge with their family members (especially males considered the only orthodox inheritors), as it is a family convention. On the other hand, they were heavily encouraged, if not obligated, by the local government to disseminate their craft-making knowledge to the external, non-family social members, such as tourists, etc., to maintain the state’s culture-prosperity policy. Accordingly, many craftsmen took a negotiated pathway in craft teaching, with learners’ closeness to the family as a criterion. For instance, some craftsmen devised different craft-making procedures for tourists and community college students to maintain the secrecy of authentic craft. The paper corresponds to the panel by studying craft teaching and learning with a focus on metaphysical (i.e., social relationships) elements instead of taking the conventional materialised approaches. By offering cases where social relationships actively influenced craft teaching, the paper appeals to pay more attention to the immaterial factors in craft studies.

Paper Short Abstract:

Though it is not a craft school, craft has been essential to the Campbell Folk School since its foundation in 1925. Examining craft at the school highlights the multi-faceted ways in which craft acts as a node of communication, looking beyond the objects to broader social, political, and cultural power.

Paper Abstract:

The John C. Campbell Folk School is not a craft school; however, craft has been an integral part of the school since its foundation in 1925. Craft was an essential aspect of the school’s curriculum and founder Olive Campbell played a significant role in defining craft and characterizing a singular idea of traditional Appalachian craft that persists today, as both celebration and resistance. Looking at the legacies of craft and craft pedagogies established through the school’s ongoing engagements and promotion of craft, I explore how approaches to knowledge and knowledge formation is enacted through making. What do we learn when we learn through our hands? Exploring this question 100 years after the school’s founding, I draw from archival and ethnographic research to consider how craft has been a vehicle for affecting change at the school, and how individuals have engaged with political and social issues, becoming vocal advocates and active catalysts for effecting change. In recent years, individuals at the school have addressed issues of race (and erasure) and gender equity and I consider the role of craft and craft knowledge in reckoning with the school’s exclusionary legacies as individuals continually redefine its future. Examining craft through the folk school highlights the multi-faceted ways in which craft acts as a node of communication, looking beyond the products and aesthetics of the objects to understand the broader social, political, and cultural power in craft.

Paper Short Abstract:

The island of Gotland, with its traditions of sheep farming and wool production, provides a context for exploring the interplay between materiality, sensory practices, and more than human relations in craft. This paper examines how Gotlandic wool crafters engage with wool both as a material and as an active participant in their creative processes. Through sensory and multispecies ethnography, the study analyzes how craft knowledge is shared and transformed beyond spoken or written language, emphasizing tacit and embodied interactions.

Paper Abstract:

The island of Gotland, with its traditions of sheep farming and wool production, provides a context for exploring the interplay between materiality, sensory practices, and more than human relations in craft. This paper examines how Gotlandic wool crafters engage with wool both as a material and as an active participant in their creative processes. Through sensory and multispecies ethnography, the study analyzes how craft knowledge is shared and transformed beyond spoken or written language, emphasizing tacit and embodied interactions.

Wool craft on Gotland is shaped by networks of relations between craftspeople themselves, between people and wool, and between historical practices and contemporary creativity. These connections reveal how wool acts as a bridge, linking tradition with innovation and materiality with human experience. By focusing on sensory experiences such as touch, smell, and movement, this study explores how craftspeople navigate and re-imagine the boundaries between tradition and innovation, product and process, human and non-human actors.

This paper contributes to the panel's inquiry into 'unwriting craft' by demonstrating how craft knowledge emerges from relational and sensory practices. It also touches on wider discussions of engagement, and the relational dynamics of contemporary craft practices.

Paper Short Abstract:

This interactive session will explore connections between embodied practices in craft and theatre training. Theatrical somatic practices can be used by craft researchers to prepare the body for ethnographic encounters and to help students take in information and skills through embodied learning.

Paper Abstract:

Tacit knowledge and bodily practice are emphasized in the study of craft, and ethnographers researching craft may learn by doing, producing written works informed by their bodily experiences, not just the words of their interlocutors. However, craft studies is not the only field that highlights and utilizes embodied ways of teaching and learning – theatre studies also centres them.

The two fields share many ideas and modalities separated by differing vocabularies and techniques used to actualize them. Craftspeople refine physical movements so that they can repeat them with nuance and skill, develop intimate familiarity with tools, and investigate the creative possibilities of materials through manipulating them and observing which processes produce interesting results. In theatre training, the body is approached as the primary tool or medium through which actors practice their craft. Somatic practices, techniques used in actor training and theatre practice, include exercises in breathing, vocal control, and prescribed movements and gestures that promote an understanding of the embodiment of character. By engaging in these practices, actors are able to better utilize tacit knowledge, stay emotionally and physically safe when using the body to represent powerful emotions, and promote deeper understanding of their instrument – the body.

These somatic practices can also help craft researchers prepare the body for ethnographic encounters and help students take in information and skills through embodied learning. In this session, we will explore and demonstrate some of the possibilities they offer, including an opportunity for attendees to engage in embodied learning through somatic practices.

Paper Short Abstract:

This paper will study the human-material relationship of the socio-religious context of the Karbis as the unwritten craft through the visual creativity of a myriad of motifs, designs, and folksongs in reference to the Karbi textile of the karbi ethnic community of Assam, India

Paper Abstract:

In the context of Karbi textile of 'pini marlak' (male bed sheet) 'piniku' (female bed sheet) play a major role in Karbi social religious practices in Karbi culture. The traditional bed sheet of 'pini marlak' and 'piniku' both used in Karbi 'Adam Asar' (marriage) and 'Arleng Kithi' (funeral) but the meaning of the craft that used in various contexts is different. Besides, tangible and intangible meanings of the 'pini marlak' and 'piniku' in Karbi textile in the context of Karbi marriage and funeral rites have a crucial impact on the Karbi society. This paper will study the human-material relationship of the socio-religious context of the Karbis as the unwritten craft through the visual creativity of a myriad of motifs, designs and folksongs in reference to the Karbi textile. This study will be confined to the Karbi Anglong district of Assam, India.