A craft can be described as a physical manifestation of the internal creative impulses of humans. There are a few types of crafts that can be found across the world. Here, we’ve tried to cover the most popular types:

1. Papercrafts

As it is apparent from the name, paper crafts are created out of paper. Millions of children across the world get introduced to paper crafts during their preschool days. Using paper, they create several items and hand-printed designs. A more grown-up version of this type of craft is linoleum and wood engraving. Paper-making, calligraphy, and papier-mache are some of the other popular papercrafts.

2. Decorative crafts

The most common forms of decorative crafts include basketry, furniture making, stained glass, and metalwork. Decorative crafts also include gilding, stencilling, toy making and a few other arts. Unlike all the fine arts, decorative arts have an element of utility associated with them. Usually, the final product in this category of crafts is a piece of decor. 

A chair provides a space to sit and it can also be a beautiful piece of furniture. One of the popular trends in recent times is combining metalwork and furniture-making. Home decor and arts and crafts magazines often feature contemporary items of furniture. They are constructed using wood but have certain parts with amazing metalwork.

3. Textile crafts

Knitting, weaving, dyeing, quilting, and applique are some of the examples of textile crafts. They include any type of craft that uses yarn or fabric extensively. Many of the textile crafts also fall into the category of fashion or decorative crafts. This is because the finished products are often sold as wall hangings or sweaters. 

Since they all begin with the fabric, they technically fall under textile crafts. Among the other examples of textile, crafts are the Japanese art of ‘boro’. It is a form of decorative repair that combines textiles from various sources. The Japanese decorative stitching is called ‘sashiko’.

4. Fashion crafts

This type of craft covers all elements of dressing, such as garments, jewellery, shoes, hats, bags, belts, and wallets. It naturally involves other types of crafts. For example, jewellery can also be categorized as metalworking and garments can be considered a form of textile craft. A wide range of materials is used in fashion crafts. 

They include soft fabrics like cotton, wool, and linen to stronger materials like nylon, canvas, and leather. When it comes to making a garment, sewing is just one aspect. The designing of that particular garment can be a multi-step process involving careful attention to detail.

5. Functional crafts

The four types of crafts described earlier can also be classified as functional crafts. For instance, decorative pottery involves the creation of utensils that are suitable for daily use. Many of the furniture pieces can be quite decorative and can be functional at the same time. To attract a wider customer base, it is always a good idea to have functionality built into the craft.

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It requires some effort to create these wonderful paintings or designs. Besides, one cannot create such works of art without using all the essential items required for it. Given below are the items used for this purpose:

1. Canvas tote bag

It’s quite obvious that a plain canvas tote bag is essential for creating the desired painting or design. The artist can get the idea of colour and contrast correctly with such bags. There are several artists who prefer painting on coloured tote bags. Their advantage is that they would already have a background colour ready to get started. 

The size of a canvas tote bag to be used would depend on the preference of the artist. Generally, medium-sized bags are used by beginners. The bag must not be crumpled and wrinkly as this would make it difficult for the artist to paint. To get a smooth and stretched surface, it must be ironed lightly.

2. Paint

There are several options in paint to be used for creating art on canvas tote bags. Among them is the acrylic paint, which dries faster and allows the addition of layers or crisp lines. Oil paints take longer to dry, but they can be blended well with the colours. As the oils can degrade fabrics over a period of time, the canvas would need some preparation. 

One of the benefits of oil paints is that they don’t lose their original colours when they dry. Although not so popular, watercolours can also be used for creating paintings and designs on canvas tote bags. They are used especially for creating abstract or dreamy paintings.

3. Brush

Each painting requires some specific brushes for the best results. If the acrylic paint is being used, a longer and sturdier brush would be required. Synthetic brushes are also recommended as they are quite resilient to the chemicals in acrylic paints. Natural brushes would go better with watercolours and oil paints. Beginners usually start with one small and one large round brush with one small and one large flat brush.

4. Palette and palette knife

In order to mix the paints while painting, either a porcelain palette or a professional palette is used. The palette knife would be essential if the artist uses acrylic paints. It helps in mixing and spreading the paint. The palette knife can also be used to apply paint on the canvas. 

Some of the colours can be mixed using brushes. However, when acrylic paints are used, the use of these brushes may result in altered bristles. This is because the acrylic paint is thicker and rougher. 

5. A cup of water

To begin painting on a canvas tote bag, a cup of water would be needed. It is essential that the base of the cup be larger or the same size as its top. This prevents the cup from falling over and ruining the painting. If the artist doesn’t have a special water cup for painting, one of the mugs at home can be used. If the artist uses fluid acrylic paint, it must not be diluted a lot with water.

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These materials ensure that the colours and patterns don’t fade away. Explained below are the materials used to paint the pieces of clay pottery:

1. Slips

A slip refers to a liquefied suspension of the particles of clay in water. It is used for colouring the pieces of clay pottery before they’re fired. Either white slips or coloured slips tinted with oxides are used for painting the pottery. Some of the potters preserve the remaining slips. They are best used on greenware that is wet. 

There are certain benefits of using slips. If the potter commits any mistake with the slip, it can be cleared off easily. This method of painting matches the shrinkage of the clay. So, there’s less worry about the heavier stuff popping off while firing or drying. A good visual impact can be created on the pottery pieces with slips. 

2. Underglazes

Effects that are similar to watercolour paintings done on pottery can be created by using an underglaze. It must be thin enough and contain colourant in the right quantity to minimize fading. The semi-moist underglazes are relatively easier to control than liquid underglazes. Liquid underglazes are used to create effects that are more like the ones created by acrylic colours. 

When using such underglazes, it is best to work in layers. Many of them do not achieve full strength until three layers are used on the surface of the clay. One important thing to note is that dark colours have the tendency to bleed through overlying layers. This happens even when they cannot be seen before firing.

3. Glazes

For many years, potters have been using glazes for painting ceramics. The best example in this regard is the glaze-on-glaze painting used in the majolica traditions. Several areas of the ceramics are painted using glazes of varying colours. 

This particular method has one major problem. There’s always a possibility of the glaze flowing after becoming molten when fired. This can cause the design to become indistinct at the edges or disappear completely into an underlying glaze.

4. Oxide stains

This is an excellent method for adding broad areas of colour and painting flowing lines. There’s always an option of using stains that are commercially prepared. Such stains are chemically stable and safe to handle, as they are made using fritted material. Otherwise, stains can be simply earth oxides mixed in water. They are quite difficult to handle. 

Some of them are fickle and would change colour depending on the other elements present in the glaze. The best example here would be chrome oxide. It is generally a green colourant, but it can go pink if the glaze has tin present in it.

5. Fingernail polish or acrylic paint

The use of fingernail polish or acrylic paint can also produce effective results. They are non-ceramic materials and can be useful especially for this type of painting. Among the two, acrylic paint is used most commonly. Both these materials are not soluble in water once they have dried, unlike the other paints. The only major problem with these materials is that it’s hard to visually integrate them fully with the clay.

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