A Crafter's Guide to Style

Of all the things I’ve written about on this website, style has been the hardest to define. There are certain defining characteristics of cultures and time periods, of course. But, it is difficult to ascribe a particular style to a definite group, country and/or time period since it may not end at a certain region, border, or timeframe. Then the style of the individual crafter complicates matters even more. The point is, it is hard to limit and define style.

Well, let’s try anyway. We can sometimes look at something and say, “That looks Egyptian.” Does it look modern Egyptian or ancient Egyptian? We all know what ancient Egyptian style looks like, there was a whole fad with the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, but what are the Egyptians doing now? Of course, some of the objects people made outside of Egypt during the King Tut craze were not authentic. That’s a whole other complication: to whom does a particular style belong? (I am so over-thinking this. Can you tell I was an Anthropology major in college?)

Here’s the deal. I will work on a case by case basis, drawing from different cultures and time periods to identify interesting objects. I will also try to pin-down non-specific styles that cross borders and time periods. Maybe someday, we’ll have entire style dictionary on this website, a reference point of cultures and time periods to inspire good crafting.

Culture

History

Time Period

Non-Specific