What is DIY craft?
DIY craft is younger makers who are takingtraditional methods and putting a contemporary twist on them. You’ll find allof these methods that have been around for ages and it’s really exciting to seehow people are taking these ideas and making them newmaking them appeal to adifferent audience.
What inspired you to found Art vs. Craft?
I used to have a company where I made handmadeitems, and as I started spending more time online, I found a lot of otherlike-minded people, younger people who were making the things that I wasmaking. I connected through these online communities and I found out aboutRenegade Craft Fair in Chicagoin 2003. I participated in that show as a designer and I had such an amazingexperience at Renegade that I wanted to have a show similar to that in Milwaukee.
Why did you make Handmade Nation?
HandmadeNation came out of my continual involvement within the DIY community. As adesigner and a shop owner and as a gallery curator, the amount of people that Iwas coming in contact with was just growing and growing. I was excited aboutthe work that I was seeing and I felt that it needed to be captured anddocumented before it morphed into something totally different.
Were you surprised by the response?
I knew that there would be interest, however Ididn’t expect the audience to be as international. I didn’t expect the audienceto branch out as much as it has, to the older more established craft scene orwithin the educational system. It has become much more of an educational bookand film than I had originally thought.
Do you think that you have changed whatpeople think of when they think of crafts?
I think what I’ve done is given people somethingtangible to point people to when they’re trying to explain it. The DIY craftcommunity is like the umbrella term that so many people work under withdifferent mediums and different motivations, and Handmade Nation has provided people with a tool to explain it.
Photograph by Michael Goelzer
