The history of arts and crafts dates back to ancient times, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds. Long before the appearance of the first civilizations, people learned to create a variety of everyday objects, combining utilitarian and aesthetic functions. Ancient craftsmen used various ornaments and symbols to decorate dishes, utensils, clothes and equipment, and the accumulated knowledge was passed on from teacher to student for thousands of years.
Decorative and applied art has always closely interacted with various spheres of human economic activity, in which manual labor is used, including pottery and carpentry, clothing and footwear, metal and leather processing. In different corners of the Earth, peculiar folk crafts based on unique techniques of processing available materials were gradually formed and perfected over many years. The development of crafts was greatly influenced by cultural, religious, social and climatic peculiarities of each region.
Throughout the history of mankind, arts and crafts have developed autonomously in different regions of our planet. Moreover, each nation strove to keep the secrets of its masters secret. The Chinese carefully guarded from foreigners the technology of porcelain production, the Arabs – the art of metal stamping, Venetian masters – the secrets of Murano glass production.
Only in the era of the industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century did the situation change dramatically. New materials appeared, books describing cultural values and knowledge of different peoples became available to the masses, industrial production, including arts and crafts, reached a huge scale. A significant part of the secrets of ancient masters became publicly available, which provided a huge number of creative people wide opportunities for self-realization.
Nowadays arts and crafts are experiencing a true heyday. In the era of the Internet, anyone can easily master the ancient technique of intarsia, chasing or art painting, using the resources of specialized forums and visual video tutorials masters. This situation undoubtedly contributes to further popularization, development and preservation of most types of arts and crafts for posterity.
