CCEA GCSE Contemporary Crafts materials, techniques and context: craft media, processes and the wider craft world

What this module demands

Contemporary Crafts is about making things from materials, so this module covers the craft knowledge behind the practical work: the range of materials and the processes each suits, working safely, and the context of craft, from investigating craftworkers to connecting your practice to the creative industries. These are the teachable strands that feed your portfolio and your response to a brief. The module ties the dot-point pages together.

The range of materials and processes

CCEA lets you explore and create from a wide range of materials: ceramics, glass, metal, found and recycled materials, resins, textiles and wood. Each behaves differently, and that behaviour decides the techniques it suits. The skill is choosing the right material for the idea and learning the processes it needs.

• Match material to intention. Choose a material whose properties serve what your outcome should do or say, and justify the choice through those properties.
• Match process to material. Select techniques the material suits, for example coiling and firing for clay, or stitching and dyeing for textiles, because material, technique and intention work together.

Working safely

Craft processes use tools, heat, dust and chemicals, so health and safety is part of the subject and of the Making component. Identify the risks of each process and apply sensible controls: the right tool with guards, appropriate protective equipment, ventilation and safe kiln procedures. Recording safe practice in your learning file shows responsible craftsmanship.

Investigating craftworkers

Investigating and analysing craftworkers and craft traditions is the backbone of AO1. Analyse, do not copy: describe how a maker uses materials, techniques, form, surface and colour, add only the context that explains the choices, then develop your own design ideas by transforming something specific for your own theme. An accurate copy shows skill but no ideas; transformation reaches the top band.

Craft and the creative industries

Component 1 asks you to connect your practice to the real world. Craft is part of the creative industries: makers reach buyers through galleries, markets, commissions and online sales, and earn a living through business models such as selling pieces, batches, commissions, teaching or licensing. The subject also builds employability skills, such as making, design, problem-solving, costing and presenting work.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall questions covering the whole module. Attempt them, then check the solutions.

1. Name four materials you can explore in CCEA GCSE Contemporary Crafts. (2 marks)
2. Why should you choose a material by its properties rather than at random? (2 marks)
3. Give one craft process that suits clay and one that suits textiles. (2 marks)
4. Give one hazard and one sensible control for a craft process. (2 marks)
5. What does AO1 reward when you investigate a craftworker? (2 marks)
6. What is the difference between copying and developing from a maker? (2 marks)
7. Name two ways a craftworker might earn a living in the creative industries. (2 marks)
8. Where should maker research and creative-industries understanding be recorded? (1 mark)