Thread art includes many different kinds of hand crafts, one of the most widespread and popular being embroidery. But it’s the “art” that has come into question in recent years, as people in the crafting community try to decide whether real creativity and artistry can only be created by hand, or can include products that are the result of machines. The question swirls most vigorously around embroidery sewing machines, which seem to take the creative work out of the actual hands of the creators.
Those who believe that true artistry and creativity lies in the crafting process itself think embroidery sewing machines have removed most of those qualities. The value of the piece of work produced lies partly in the skill that has gone into creating each stitch and blending them all together into a whole. It’s the hand stitching itself that is the art, say these people. If you can simply program a machine to do that work, mindlessly and by rote, then there is little artistry or genuine creativity left.
Those who boost that embroidery work done on a sewing machine is a genuine craft focus more on the finished product than the creative process. Decorative machine stitching produces designs and products far more elaborate than anything created before. The machines also allow large volumes of embroidery work to be done. This, of course, does not impress the naysayers, who tend to argue that large-volume rote production is manufacturing rather than the actual craft of embroidery.
There is also a conciliatory tone in some arguments about embroidery sewing machines, however. Those who prefer the hand work may concede that machines do have some place in the creative process, and produce beautiful end results. Others who prefer the machines may concede on their part that to sew a “free motion” machine pattern, which gives the sewer more control of the actual process, may be somewhat more authentic than just pressing a button and watching the machine do all the work. Most labor-saving machines don’t endure this sort of debate about authenticity, but when it comes to the creative arts, it’s another matter entirely.
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