Craft Learning as Perceptual Transformation Getting ‘the Feel’ in the Wooden Boat Workshop

Through an examination of three wooden boat workshops on the East coast of the United States, this volume explores how craftspeople interpret their tools and materials during work, and how such perception fits into a holistic conception of practical skill. The author bases his findings on first-person fieldwork as a boat builder’s apprentice, during which he recorded his changing sensory experience as he learned the basics of the trade. The book reveals how experience in the workshop allows craftspeople to draw new meaning from their senses, constituting meaningful objects through perception that are invisible to the casual observer. Ultimately, the author argues that this kind of perceptual understanding demonstrates a fundamental mode of human cognition, an intelligence frequently overlooked within contemporary education.

1. Getting ‘the Feel’ in the Craft Workshop

2. Enduring Questions in Craft Research

3. The Wooden Boat Circuit

4. Making Sense of Perceptual Experience

5. Perception as Understanding

6. Making it Real

7. Navigating Workshop Communities

9. Conclusion

Tom Martin received his PhD from Oxford University, UK, in 2019. His current research continues to investigate the sensory aspects of practical understanding, while also considering the humanistic potential of craft learning within and beyond the paradigm of liberal education.