Handcrafted items always seem to fill space with meaning and essence. They seem to capture our imagination and have value beyond the material and effort to shape them. In contrast to mass manufactured goods, these crafts seem to have a soul.

What makes handcrafted goods different? and furthermore, when does a handcrafted product become an artisanal craft?

Over the last 3 years, our team members have interviewed dozens of artisans in Puerto Rico. Using their knowledge, we’ve defined six characteristics of artisanal crafts:

1. Aesthetics: Products are built with beauty in mind, as defined by the maker themselves. Our belief aligns with Christopher Alexander’s fifteen fundamental properties.

2. Depth: Products are imbued with spiritual and/or anima components due to the complexity of the work and the human effort invested in their production.

3. Sweatiness: Products are handcrafted and made through the transformation of raw natural materials (e.g. wood, stone, fiber, leathers) with a time and labor-intensive effort (from days to years of effort per unit).

4. Uniqueness: Products are 1/1s or limited editions. They are uncommon or rare and cannot be mass produced.

5. Utility: Products are usually (but not always) based on items that have specific usage in day-to-day life and/or the sciences.

6. Cultural Heritage: Products communicate the history of the people of Puerto Rico. This may include stories, oral traditions, and/or maker techniques.

In summary, while indie makers craft physical goods, artisans seem to imbue objects with something more: cultural history.

Artisanal crafts compress culture into an object and successfully preserve historical context and oral history. They are objects of memory.