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Crafts: from unique pieces to series!
Crafts can be utilitarian, decorative or artistic objects. They can either be unique pieces or part of a series. Fabrication techniques must follow the guidelines established by professionals in each field (quality of execution, quality of fabrication, workshop fabrication by the artisan or under his/her supervision, signed by the artisan or the workshop). The object is an original creation. If it is a reproduction, it must be authenticated by professionals of that particular trade.
Glass
It has inspired poets and philosophers, who compared its fragility to that of glory, its transparency to honesty, the sound of it breaking to bursting laughter.
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Glass
It has inspired poets and philosophers, who compared its fragility to that of glory, its transparency to honesty, the sound of it breaking to bursting laughter. For over four thousand years, artisans have melted silica, lime and soda to make glass. When hot it can be colored, blown, molded, fashioned, laminated and pinched. When cold it can be cut, grinded, polished, engraved and pierced. It can also be assembled with other pieces to make windows or stained-glass objects.
The creation of a glass object knows no boundaries but that of the imagination, as shown by Alponse Allais, who dreamt of “an aquarium for shy fish made of brushed glass”. |
Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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Metal
The use of iron and bronze as names for eras in human history shows the long road traveled to discover the secrets of metal.
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Jewelling
75,000 year-old pierced seashells were recently discovered in South Africa: the first jewelry could thus have dated back to the Paleolithic period.
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Jewelling
75,000 year-old pierced seashells were recently discovered in South Africa: the first jewelry could thus have dated back to the Paleolithic period. The jewelling family, which also includes silversmithing and goldsmithing, has a long-standing tradition. The height of technical mastery and aesthetics, a jewel can be made from a large variety of materials: usually cut or polished precious or semi-precious stones, metals formed delicately to hold them, enamels, bone, but also wood, glass or plastic. The severity of classical authors on the vanity of gems is contradicted by Pliny the Elder, who was moved by the beauty of opals: “Some by their splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flames of burning sulphur or of the fire quickened by oil.”
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Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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Wood
Wooden objects have a particular allure hinting at the warm intimacy between the artisan and the material.
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Wood
Wooden objects have a particular allure hinting at the warm intimacy between the artisan and the material. Transformed into a toy, a frame, a musical instrument or a piece of furniture, sawed, sculpted, turned, assembled, lacquered, gilded or perforated wood maintains its lively, warm and organic quality. Working in single pieces or series, creating durable objects, the rapport between woodworkers and their raw material is a far cry from the abusive productions of the forest industry. |
Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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Textiles
Textiles have been made from plant material such as cotton and linen, and from animal sources such as wool and silk since the dawn of time.
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Textiles
Textiles have been made from plant material such as cotton and linen, and from animal sources such as wool and silk since the dawn of time. On rare occasions, delicate gold or silver threads are also woven. The last century has seen the apparition of a large number of synthetic fibers, derived from petrol, that artisans have also taken advantage of. Born of the fundamental weaving, knitting or lacing techniques, to which were added new printing processes, textiles can be used as such or assembled into practical or decorative objects used in fashion or interior decorating. The united threads of textiles have inspired metaphysical traditions in many cultures. Seattle, chief of the Duwamish people said: “Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. What he does to the web, he does to himself.” |
Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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Ceramic
Ceramic includes anything made of clay (from the greek keramos) that has been transformed by fire.
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Ceramic
Ceramic includes anything made of clay (from the greek keramos) that has been transformed by fire. In crafts, clay can be worked using handbuilding techniques such as pinching, hard and soft slab, coil construction, it can be spun on a potter’s wheel and liquid clay can be cast in a mould, which is called slipcasting. China, earthenware, stoneware or porcelain clays cook at different temperatures and the different cooking methods and coating materials (glazes, engobes) must be adapted to the clay and the objects function. Here, in-depth knowledge is essential: it insures the quality and durability of the product. Jules Renard quoted this universal law of ceramics: “Broken porcelain lasts longer than whole porcelain.” |
Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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Other materials
Voltaire said: “There is no beauty without variety.” The group of other materials would have been to his liking: here are as many productions methods and techniques as there are raw materials.
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Other materials
Voltaire said: “There is no beauty without variety.” The group of other materials would have been to his liking: here are as many productions methods and techniques as there are raw materials. Bee’s wax, latex, Plexiglas, resin and fish bones are but a few. This group also includes decorative painters, alabaster sculptors and all the other artisans that transform new raw materials outside the traditional categories of wood, leather and skins, metal, pottery, paper, textiles and glass.
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Excerpt from 50 ans de création en métiers d’art au Québec, Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec et Éditions Fides, 2005
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