The Artist Relations Team was recently challenged to partner up with our fellow Gallery Directors to learn about different galleries from our own. When I found out that I was to learn about Artisan Crafts (AC) from the talented ^Myana, I was elated. If you aren’t familiar with Jenny, she is an incredible woodworker. Here is just a small sampling of what she is capable of:



Since January is Artisan Crafts Month, there are lots of exciting things going on in the Artisan Crafts gallery. `lazybutt put out a series of articles on the subcategories within AC:

AC Month Spotlight On: Textiles!
AC Month Spotlight On: Sculpture and Glass!
AC Month Spotlight On: Folding and Papercraft!
AC Month Spotlight On: Architectural Design!
AC Month Spotlight On: Culinary Arts!
AC Month Spotlight On: Custom Dolls!
AC Month Spotlight On: Jewelry!
AC Month Spotlight On: Metal Work!

Besides photography, making jewelry is one of my favorite hobbies, so I was excited when Jenny gave me my first assignment: to search through the Jewelry gallery, pick five deviations that I liked, and to tell her and the deviant why I liked them. Here are the five that I chose:




After getting me comfortable with the gallery, ^Myana started to get into specifics and miscategorizations. First, she taught me that biggest problem in AC right now is the Costume gallery in Textiles; specifically, there are many deviations of cosplaying (which is about portraying a character—not about the costume). For a deviation to be appropriately placed in the Costumes subgallery, the costume must be made by the deviant. Here is a good example of what belongs in Costumes:



The second most prevalent problem is when deviations of assembled costumes—ones that are not all handmade by the deviant—are placed in the Costumes gallery. Other miscats found in the Costumes gallery are wigs, wings, gloves, and so on, which should go in Textiles > Accessories.

My third lesson in AC miscategorizations was regarding the placement of Plushies in the Custom Dolls gallery. Custom dolls are created from bases or by hand and are usually of porcelain, vinyl, or hard plastic. Custom dolls are not stuffed. Plushies, on the other hand, are dolls and stuffed animals made by sewing a textile body and then stuffing to create a 3D shape.

Plushie


Custom Doll


Finally, my last lesson in the AC gallery was on Folding and Papercraft. This gallery was renamed during Project Streamline from Origami to open it up more for hand-bound books, paper cutting, and so on. The most common miscategorizations are guides/how to’s, which are moved to Resources > Tutorials > Artisan Crafts. After doing a bit of searching through that gallery, I stumbled upon such beauties as this:



I hope you all take some time to look through some of the amazing talent in the Artisan Crafts gallery, and hop on over to ^Myana’s page to tell her what a great job she’s doing!