Vocational Careers in Art and Crafts | Visual Arts and Crafts | Arts Career Guide | Fine Art & Craft Degrees | Dressmaker

Vocational Careers in Art and Crafts I. Carpenter and Woodworker (Cabinet and Furniture Maker): Overview: Despite the abundance of plastics and other materials, wood products continue to be useful and popular. Woodworkers help to meet the demand for wood products by creating finished products from lumber. Many of these products are mass produced, such as many types of furniture, kitchen cabinets, and musical instruments. Other products are crafted in small shops that make architectural woodwork, handmade furniture, and other specialty items. Although the term woodworker often evokes images of a craftsman who builds furniture using hand tools, the modern wood industry is highly technical. Some woodworkers still build by hand, but more often, hand tools have been replaced by power tools, and much of the work has been automated. Work is usually done on an assembly line, meaning that most individuals learn to perform a single part of a complex process. Different types of woodworkers are employed in every stage of the building process, from sawmill to finished product. Their activities vary greatly. Production woodworkers set up, operate, and tend all types of woodworking machines. In sawmills, sawing machine operators and tenders set up, operate, or tend wood-sawing machines that cut logs into planks, timbers, or boards. In manufacturing plants, woodworkers first determine the best method of shaping and assembling parts, working from blueprints, supervisors’ instructions, or shop drawings that woodworkers themselves produce. Before cutting, they often must measure and mark the materials. They verify dimensions and may trim parts using hand tools such as planes, chisels, wood files, or sanders to ensure a tight fit. Woodworking machine operators set up, operate, or tend specific woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood-nailing machines. Precision or custom woodworkers, such as cabinetmakers and bench carpenters, modelmakers and patternmakers, and furniture finishers, often build one-of-a-kind items. These highly skilled precision woodworkers usually perform a complete cycle of tasks—cutting, shaping, and preparing surfaces and assembling complex wood components into a finished wood product. Precision workers normally need substantial training and an ability to work from detailed instructions and specifications. In addition, they often are required to exercise independent judgment when undertaking an assignment. They may still use heavy machinery and power tools in their everyday work. Job Prospects: Woodworkers are usually self-employed. They can also work in the establishments manufacturing household and office furniture and fixtures. Wood product manufacturers producing a variety of raw, intermediate, and finished woodstock employ woodworkers. II. Tailor and Dress Maker: Overview: Tailor perform specialised hand sewing, and sewing machine operations included in the making of a garment. They work as Cutters (cloth, coats, dresses, pants, etc.), Shop Tailors, and Alteration Tailors. Fabric and apparel patternmakers convert a clothing designer’s original model of a garment into a pattern of separate parts that can be laid out on a length of fabric. After discussing the item with the designer, these skilled workers usually use a computer to outline the parts and draw in details to indicate the positions of pleats, buttonholes, and other features. Patternmakers then alter the size of the pieces in the pattern to produce garments of various sizes, and they may mark the fabric to show the best layout of pattern pieces to minimize waste of material. Once an item’s pattern has been made and marked, mass production of the garment begins. Cutters and trimmers take the patterns and cut out material, paying close attention to their work because mistakes are costly. Following the outline of the pattern, they place multiple layers of material on the cutting table and use an electric knife or other tools to cut out the various pieces of the garment; delicate materials may be cut by hand. In some companies, computer-controlled machines do the cutting. Sewing machine operators join the parts of a garment together and attach buttons, hooks, zippers, and accessories to produce clothing. After the product is sewn, other workers remove lint and loose threads and inspect and package the garments. Tailors or dress makers can even be self-employed specializing in stitching particular types of garments such as womenswear, menswear, bed sheets and curtains etc Job Prospects: Tailor or dress maker are usually self-employed. They can also work with apparel manufacturer, garment factories, and fabric and apparel pattern maker.

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