Artisan is defined as “a skilled craft worker who makes or creates things by hand that may be functional or strictly decorative.”
In generations past, like the 1990s or the mid 2000s, products that were considered artisanal were typically limited to goods like furniture, decorative arts, sculptures, fine clothing, or jewelry. However, these days the definition of what can be considered artisan has become more inclusive.
Artisans, Artisans Everywhere!
Being an artisan is no longer an elitist pastime reserved for those who’ve spent long, boring hours learning to craft traditional Belgian furniture from hops or to weave rare hats from fronds. Thankfully, these days anyone who works hard at what they do can be an artisan, or at least call themselves one and charge more for what they do.
What Makes Something Artisan?
The line between what’s artisan and what’s not is of course, a fine one. For example, while a barista who pays extra special attention to detail while making your gluten-free, almond milk latte’ may be a good barista, in order to be considered an artisan, they must learn to draw the image of a flower or a leaf into the foam that tops your drink. That’s the difference between an artisan and a non-artisan! It’s also the difference between a $4 coffee and a $6 one.
Other characteristics of typical artisanal goods include:
- Having been made by someone with a beard or a neck tattoo (very artisanal!)
- Costing twice as much as a similar, inferior, non-artisanal product
- Having been manufactured in Portland or the Arts District of Downtown L.A.
- Anything and everything made from hemp
- Food served in smaller portions that costs more
- Clothes that are itchy and smell like damp livestock
- Any beer you find difficult to drink at first and then gradually like because it has
- 8.5% alcohol content
- Anything made with a forg
More Than Just Tattoos and Neck Beards
But being an artisan isn’t just about having a beard or a neck tattoo — although that is important. These days, being an artisan is really about learning to do something reasonably well and then developing an overblown sense of self-importance for having not quite mastered something that most people could do given a couple days of training and a few hours of practice.
Goods not Products
Another thing that’s important to note when it comes to ‘gettin’ all artisanal’l is that when something is made by an artisan, it’s considered a ‘good’ rather than a ‘product.’ Not only does this further subliminally reinforce the idea that artisan equals good, it also conjures up images of bearded craftsman laboring away in a hay-floored bar at something, rather than the reality of a scruffy, lactose-intolerant hipster who periodically interrupts their work to check Pinterest.
The good news is that nowadays, depending on how long your beard is, and how prominent your neck tattoo is, you can extend the definition of being an artisan to almost anything.
