Customer Reviews

The Work of Craft: An Inquiry into the Nature of Crafts and Craftsmanship

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Whatever your creative interests, this book is a must. A sustained exploration of what is involved in bringing a work into existence. Wonderful writing, wonderful thoughts.

This is just a wonderful book. More than just about the work of an artist, its reflections on how we approach our life's work of any kind are deeply spiritually relevant for everyone.

Carla Needelman has brought back to the light of day a long lost art. Have you ever wondered how the ancient craftsman learned and plyed their trade? Before there were how-to books and detailed instructions, how did man gain his knowing about an art? If you had to construct something and had no plans, is there a way you could tap into your own knowing, and using that successfully complete the task? Read Carla Needelman with care...she speaks from a depth the casual perusal of her book will obscure. Above all, read it and try to apply what she says if you wish to experience yourself in a new way. Kudos to the second Needelman to write brilliantly. Cheers, Ron Loving, University of Oklahoma

I enjoy a good book reflecting on the process &/ philosophy of making art, so I was intrigued enough to buy this book. I was especially interested in reading "The Work of Craft" as there is a chapter on weaving which is my medium of choice.

Unfortunately, Needleman does not have insights, but rather esoteric ramblings occasionally dipping into the silly or just plain ridiculous.

The chapter on weaving, for instance, centers around reflections of 'Oriental rugs' which Needleman claims are knotted, not woven. Really? Even if I had not seen Persian and Middle Eastern rugs being woven, which I have, I can tell you as a weaver that her claim is impossible. If the rugs were only knotted, You would simply have a series of long strings with knots attached to them. (Look on the back of a Persian or Middle Eastern rug and you will see a woven web along with with the back of the knots that make the pile on the front.)

This might seem like simply an error of craft in her book, but the esoteric reflections for the rest of the chapter are based on this error.

An example of one of her ideas explored in the book, "The Crafts we work here in America are not really traditional crafts since it is not traditional that we work at them." Really? And what of Appalachian Mountain traditions? Living Native American arts and crafts? Can we say Persian rugs are traditional when they are weaving designs given to them by factory orders? (I am not trying to belittle the significant heritage of Iranian rugs, only pointing out that 'traditional' is not that simplistic.)

To conclude, "The Work of Craft" did not have anything I found useful or interesting to contemplate. I much more enjoyed reading Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by Bayles and Orland, The Art Spirit Robert Henri, and The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko.