See: Definitions  — See also: Terminology & Definitions

1. • The developer's preferred definition for "crafts" is:
     ‘’Practices which employ manual dexterity and skill, and an understanding of traditional materials, designs and techniques to make or repair useful things."  

While no other proffered definition of "crafts" is intended to limit this encyclopedia, the short definition quoted above emphasizes the human dynamics of practice over the static view of the craft as product.  The other key points—which are also attributes of human mediated practice rather than being apparent in the product—are "manual dexterity and skill," the "understanding of traditional materials, designs, and techniques," and the human-oriented purpose of the work, "to make or repair useful things."

Cultural Process Issues

1. • The concept of cultural "levels" (simplistically labeled "folk," "popular," and "elite") addresses the transmission and learning of both crafting practices and the sale or sharing of resulting products/objects.  In general:

     1. "folk" crafts are thought to be learned through direct oral transmission or by example

     2. "popular" crafts ideas and methods are transmitted via mass media

     3. "elite" or "academic" crafts are formally passed on to students by formal instruction, typically at schools of higher education.
        
        

Time/History Issues

1. • 1. The march of time has made great changes in all aspects of crafts, in Kentucky and everywhere else.  Craft practices changed greatly from prehistoric times through the 15th and 16th-century rise of printing technology (as well as later forms of mass communication); the advent of the 19th and 20th-century Industrial Revolution; the harnessing of electricity for both lighting and motors; and the vastly increased acceleration of shared/mediated practices and products enabled by the development of computers and the Internet.  In 2021, Kentucky crafts range from pre-industrial skills and traditional handcrafting techniques, through mass-marketed popular items, to carefully curated exhibitions and sales of "the best" craft products presented at museums or in exclusive sales galleries.

Should this online encyclopedia include crafts-makers from outside the state boundaries of Kentucky?  Does it matter where a craftsperson was born, or lived, or was educated, or when he or she may have come to Kentucky?  

• • • • Some outstanding craftsmen or -women included in this site came to Kentucky from other places, or moved away from Kentucky during later periods of their lives.  For examples: 

        • the exemplary Berea-based wood-turner Rude Osolnik was born in New Mexico and educated in Illinois

        • the founding president of KCHEA, Susan Goldstein, is a raku potter who now lives in New Mexico

        • an outstanding small company that produces handmade "Kentucky Derby Hats" and "fascinators"—HeadCandi Millinery—is actually based just outside the state border—across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky, in New Albany, Indiana 

        • a family company who make the round and oval Shaker-style kitchen boxes sold at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (Mercer Co., KY) actually live and work in southern Indiana, and are members of the Kentucky Guild of Artists & Craftsmen

      • Do any of those issues of "place" matter in a broad consideration of "Kentucky crafts?"  

      • Some craft practices—as with raku pottery—are relatively modern techniques adapted from other cultures or countries.  

      • Even the "products" of crafts practice may bear ambiguous or misleading names.  Gunsmiths residing all over America, as well as in the Bluegrass State, produce exquisite examples of the "Kentucky longrifle" — which is also known widely as the "Pennsylvania longrifle."

Does it make a difference if the tools used by "craft" producers are powered? Or, in the 21st century, if their tools are based on programmable computers, lasers, CNC machines, automated cutters, or other "modern" or automated technology? 
See:  Tools Used in Crafts

How many people work together to create craft products? At what point does craft production become an "industry"?    See: SCALE & SCOPE of CRAFT PRODUCTION