I missed Jay Kotliar's original post on craft production. Jay, could
you send me a copy? I, too am intrested in craft production and have
done a fair amount of research over the years on textiles, pottery,
pipe-making, etc. I also have done ethno-archaeological research
among weavers and potters in South India. My present focus is on
colonoware and two different kinds/periods of pipe-making in
Virginia. I have also done a lot of weaving and own a variety of
looms, but I find ver little in the historical archaeological
(material) record for textile production here in Virginia, although I
think we sometimes don't recognize fragmentary tatting shuttles, etc.
Mary Beaudry has been doing some fairly intensive digging onto
sewing, lace-making and similar pursuits.
 
One of the more interesting aspects of crafts production in hist.
arch., is it can put us in touch with locally-made, hand-made
artifacts. For those of us who spend most of our time looking at the
by-products of capitalist mass-production, this is a refreshing
change, and one which provides some access to "local knowledge."
 
Dan Mouer
[log in to unmask]