In trying to understand craft better, I have been reading a range of books and articles. In one of these, David Pye* talks about workmanship instead of craft or craftmanship.
Some elements from this book have a resonance for me, and I trust others:
"Designers have only been able to exist by exploiting what workmen have evolved or invented." p.17
"Material in the raw is nothing much. Only worked material has quality and pieces of worked material are made to show their quality by men [and women], or put together so that together they show a quality which singly they had not" p.18
He talks about the quality of workmanship being judged by the soundeness and aesthetics ("comeliness") of the result. p30
"workmanship is the application of technique to making, by the exercise of care, judgement and dexterity." p.51
*The Nature and Art of Workmanship, by David Pye, 1968, rev. ed. 1995
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