مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

In a consumer society driven by purchasing and using mass-produced goods, craft falls into the domain of either producing handmade products mainly associating with ethnic identity (e.g., local specialties and souvenirs on a small scale) or hobby that focuses on enjoying the process. Industrialization generally has replaced production by crafting in developed countries. Rising labor costs make handmade products uncompetitive. Crafting also does not mass produce easily due to quality control issues. Since the 1970s, Korea industrialization has impacted the craft business negatively. Consumers began to view craft products as inferior to machine-made products. Craftspeople were associated with the low social status that accompanies physical labor, low income, and a lack of social recognition of one’s work.

In recent years, interesting changes in the craft culture are occurring. The number of craft workshops is increasing, and leather crafting is now an emerging hobby among fashion-forward Korean consumers. This trend parallels the expansion of leisure activities and the luxury goods market resulting from Korea’s solid economic growth (Lee & Choi, 2014). One unique behavior relating to this new trend is that people join leather crafting workshops specifically to replicate high-end designer handbags, the so-called luxury brand bags. These leather craft workshops generally provide tutorials on copying luxury bags’ designs and sources of quality materials. A participant’s craft work potentially can equal in quality and design to the luxury bags. Leather crafting thus typically includes making a leather bag along with certain accessories, such as leather bracelets and cell phone cases.

Generally, in a modern society, work and play are considered separate domains. People work for their living (Marx, Engels, & Lothrop, 1902) and they engage in play through leisure activities. A leisure activity is done for its own sake and entails perceived freedom, choice, and pleasure. Consumption, contrary to production, falls under the domain of play rather than work, though consumption involves a wide range of goods from daily necessities to collectibles. Consumption particularly of fashion goods itself is an amusement which enables them to express their freedom and to release their stress from the wage labor (Ciulla, 2011). The leather crafting as a hobby is interesting; not only do people obtain such amusement that consumption provides but also the hobby entails the same labor in which vocational craftspeople engage.