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AS AN ARTISAN 10/26/2011
 
ar·ti·san
noun
  1. a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson.
  2. a person or company that makes a high-quality, distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand and using traditional methods
adjective
  1. pertaining to or noting high-quality, distinctive products made in small quantities
Nor did urban artisans draw a sharp division between work and leisure... Artisans often took unscheduled time off to attend boxing matches, horseraces, and exhibitions by traveling musicians and acrobats.

By the 1850s… the older paternalistic view was replaced by a new conception of labor as a commodity, like cotton, that could be acquired or disposed of according to the laws of supply and demand.

The Disruption of the Artisan System of Labor; Digital History, University of Houston
Artisans were broken into two specific categories: the masters and the apprentices.  Artisans were held of social esteem, if not like a nobleman, then at least as people who had value by transfering that value into what they made. A common misconception is that artisans were as what we consider workers today; in fact, it was quite a different time, only displaced with the advent of the industrial revolution.
 


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