craft skills
Hands-on expertise
Craft skills are the practical abilities developed through hands-on work in a particular trade or art—woodworking, metalwork, sewing, pottery, and the like.
The term emphasizes manual dexterity, specialized knowledge, and the judgment that comes only from experience: Traditional craft skills are disappearing as fewer young people enter the trades.
Distinguished from academic or purely intellectual skills.
- skilled tradesOccupations requiring specialized manual training
- clay modelingShaping soft earth artistically
- basketryArt of weaving containers
- blacksmithingForging iron by hand
- carpentryWood construction trade
pottery · glassblowing · watchmaking · ceramics · leatherworking · wool spinning · painting · lace-making · calligraphy · silversmithing · marquetry · weaving · bookbinding · apprenticeship · hands-on training · learning curve · cooperage · cottage industry
- homemakingcooking, cleaning, laundry, recipes, baking
- vocational trainingapprenticeship, apprenticeships, trade school, trade schools, vocational school
- shop classwoodworking, metalworking, shop teacher, wood shop, metal shop
- intuitive knowledgeinstinct, gut feeling, intuition, tacit knowledge, procedural memory
- woodcraftcarving, whittling, wood carving, joinery, spoon carving
craft skillsbook learning
Knowledge from study
conceptual understanding · pure theory · abstract thinking · classroom learning · philosophy
craft skillsformal education
Systematic study in institutions
natural ability · raw talent · amateurism · inexperience · incompetence
craft skillsautomation
Self-operating system design
industrial manufacturing · mass production · unskilled labor · mechanization