Craftsman

Cameroonian artisan.

A artisan is a person who makes handicrafts or handicrafts. The artisans carry out their work by hand or with different handicraft instruments, so it is necessary to have a certain skill and ability to carry out their work. They can work alone or with other people who can serve as assistants or apprentices.

The objects produced usually have an aesthetic and/or utilitarian value. The artisan can sell, personally or to third parties, his creations, which he produces in the "workshop", at street level, in a craft stall or in the workshop of a master craftsman, when he works as an employee.

The artisans and their work are usually part of the folklore of their place of origin, they use typical materials from their area to make their products or they are inspired by traditional local motifs. Everyone usually has their preferred materials, which in many cases give their creations a special style; the materials they use include: spondylus seashells, algae, rice grains, quartz, specific woods, stones, bones, even fossils or other elements that the artisan himself collects and chooses on beaches or fields, etc.

Etymological origin

The word "artisan" comes from the Italian artigiano (meaning 'exercising a mechanical art'), and this term comes from the Latin ars, artis. Latin gave us art in Castilian, which comes from the Indo-European root ar (meaning 'to move, adjust, make act'). It is only from the late 15th century During the Italian Renaissance, when the distinction between the artisan and the artist was made for the first time, this difference gave rise to the figure of the artist.

Image gallery

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  Craftsmen working on the elaboration of a mosaic table.

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  Craft fair in front of the Plaza Santamarina, in the Party of Esteban Echeverría, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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  Wooden artisan in Cantabria, Spain.

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  Banastero craftsman in full production of chestnut cestry in Montemayor del Río, Córdoba, Argentina (1985).

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  Seller of handicrafts on the streets of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro