A NEW, FREE ONLINE DICTIONARY OF CRAFT DEBUTS

This reinvented dictionary brings word definitions to life through videos of artists making objects.

About the Craft Video Dictionary

Three years in the making, Craft in America has launched the first ever Craft Video Dictionary (CVD), craftvideodictionary.org. The CVD is a free online resource that gives the public a direct, close-up view of craft processes and techniques. Instead of words and images, CVD definitions are conveyed via video. Clear and concise, these videos are edited to focus strictly on the artists’ movements and the transformation of materials. The project was initiated with support from The Decorative Arts Trust through their inaugural Prize for Excellence and Innovation, which was received in late 2020.

The first rollout of this new reference tool includes an initial batch of 100 video definitions. This initial collection of videos begins to flesh out the ins and outs of art and craft making across a range of materials and media. 200 videos will be posted in total later this year.

The CVD includes technique definitions as demonstrated by artists with expertise in ceramics, metal, wood, fiber, glass and more materials. Each video captures an artist manipulating material with their hands and tools through methods that are traditional, historic, and also very much still alive. “The CVD videos are intended to clearly define a craft technique, rather than demonstrate a how-to process. We hope this project will be useful to educators, museums, and everyone interested in craft,” says CVD Project Producer Denise Kang.

Thus far, 14 artists were filmed across Southern California, many of them are teaching artists at colleges in the region. The CVD includes definitions of terms ranging from sgraffito, which is a ceramics process, to glass blowing, and from cabinet making and joinery, to spindle turning, and blacksmithing.

By providing an intimate lens into the artist’s studio, CVD video definitions provide a sense of how the objects in our world come to be and what craft really entails. On creating the videos, CVD Project Director Emily Zaiden noted, “each artist during filming was able to take a step back from their second nature process and think about what someone unfamiliar with their craft might need to see and understand so as to appreciate their work.”