Traditional Handcrafts, Timeless Values
Sancred Stones and Woods Wholesale / Bulk Queries Myth and Fairytale Home
Sancred Stones and Woods Wholesale / Bulk Queries Myth and Fairytale Home
When you find something beautiful, love pulls you toward it.~James Hillman, City and Soul
You will find all of our currently available offerings in our retail online store at Etsy.
A wider selection of our products designed for the international market are displayed at Namya Artzy.
You may, of course, contact us here through the Contact Page
Art Prints have moved: Art of Fairy Tale.
Written by XineAnn
"Artsy Craftsy" is a term coined by William Morris, Founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, an aesthetic movement, initially in the fine and decorative arts, centered around bringing the medieval values of quality and craftsmanship into the newly industrialized modern world of nineteenth century England. Arts & Crafts has been called "the decorative wing of the Pre-Raphaelite movement" in the fine arts. It remains today, more than 150 years later, a popular style in interior design, architecture, and the decorative arts.
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris
In the oft-quoted line above, Morris highlights the distinction between what is beautiful and what is useful. But the distinction may be an artificial one, and certainly not one that medieval craftsmen would have seen as different from the form and function of the work. In the German language, we can see how this is built right into the meaning of the words -- The modern German word for Craft is Handwerk, while the German word Kraft means Power, or with a wider meaning, Power *through*. When we speak of art for a purpose, as decorative arts, handcrafts and illustration are, the materials and the mastery of the creator are essential to the created thing. I am not convinced at all that we are really talking about anything different than the manifestation of Spirit or Truth or whatever we want to call it, when we say today that sometime is inspired, or "made with love". Or as one of my favorite thinkers would have it:
Many indigenous cultures have no separate word for art -- The concept I brought up above of power realized and made manifest through the hands suggests to me the two-faces of the Ikenga gods in the Ibo tribes of Southern Nigeria. Ikenga literally means Strength of Movement and is the basis of the oldest and most ancient Igbo calendar. Ikenga carries within its meaning the individual's personal god (reminiscent of daimon or Ishta-Deva), the spirit of his ancestors or lineage, his personal power and strength as symbolized by the power of his right hand, and focusing that power through prayer, intention, and ritual. Both the process of creation and the chi embodied in the work itself holds transformative power. In a word, Magic.
By now you are starting to realize this isn't just another pitstop on the insomnia shopping circuit so let me lead you to where one path becomes two, walking side by side.
