A paragraph on "Arts and Crafts"
Answers
Arts and crafts describes a wide variety of activities involving making things with one's own hands. Arts and crafts is usually a hobby. Some crafts (art skills) have been practised for centuries, others are more recent inventions. John Ruskin and others promoted an "arts and crafts" movement in the late 19th century, which popularized the phrase.
Both children and adults enjoy arts and crafts. Children in schools may learn skills such as woodworking, wood carving, sewing, or making things with all sorts of material. Many community centres and schools have evening or day classes and workshops where one can learn arts and craft skills.
Although "crafts" today are usually hobbies enjoyed by amateurs, the word was used many centuries ago byprofessional people who had a guild system. Young people were taught by a master-craftsman (i.e. they were "apprenticed"), and they often took many years to learn their skills to perfection.