Output details

Craft as a form of Mindful Inquiry

Craft as a strategy for raising levels of creativity and facilitating change in an enterprise is an uncommon view from which the discipline is discussed. By design and through research, Valentine challenges convention by proffering an alternative position – the strategic perspective - from which to view and value craft as process, product, experience and service. She identifies that a shift in communication is required and as a result, offers a new method for analysing performance and raising the level of innovation within an individual’s craft practice and process.

Most often in the literature and dialogue of craft, practice is discussed in relation to materials and techniques, emphasizing the dexterity and skill required to physically ‘make’ the work. In this study, Valentine temporarily removes or ‘brackets’ the issues of material and technique in order to understand and establish a new way of communicating 1) the value of craft, 2) values in craft and, 3) the intellect underpinning the ‘made’ and the ‘maker’. The study was conducted over 5 years, with observation and critique of more than 100 international craft practitioner’s work, and a qualitative study of 5 UK craft practitioners. A new way of defining craft as a strategic process was achieved, offering craft as a social, political and meditative product, which is a genuine alternative to traditional categorization of craft as, for example, a textile, ceramic, jewellery product.