The standard we hold ourselves to
This page describes how Art of the Craft is made. It is here so that you can decide how much weight to give anything else on the site.
Standards
The route every article on aotc.info takes from idea to publication, and what we refuse to publish.
This page describes how Art of the Craft is made. It is here so that you can decide how much weight to give anything else on the site.
A draft goes through four hands worth of work. The writer separates what they know from what they assume. The assumptions are either checked against something nameable or deleted. What is left gets written up. Then a second person reads it looking only for overconfidence, which is the failure this subject invites most.
A subject earns a page when somebody has asked about it twice, or when we went looking for the answer ourselves and came back empty handed.
Bylines are real people with real archives attached. If you disagree with a piece, you can see what else the same person has written and judge accordingly.
Otis Bramwell, Woodworking and tools writer. Otis builds furniture in a one car garage workshop and teaches a weekend joinery class on the side. He writes about wood the way he teaches it, slower than most guides and honest about the cuts that go wrong first.
Junie Castellan, Sewing and mixed media writer. Junie runs a small alterations business out of her spare room and keeps a junk journal she has never once finished on schedule. She writes about fabric and paper with the same practical impatience she brings to a broken zipper.
Arlo Pemberton, Upcycling and craft business writer. Arlo sells salvaged furniture and scrap wood pieces at a Saturday market and has priced enough handmade work to know most makers undercharge. He writes about upcycling and craft business with a ledger open beside him.
The date on an article is the date it was published. When a change alters the advice, we update the modified date and say what changed. Cosmetic edits do not reset the date, because pretending a page is fresher than it is helps nobody.
Some links on this site are commercial. They never buy a rewrite of the surrounding paragraph.
If a partner asks us to remove a criticism, the answer is no, and the request itself may end up mentioned in a future article.
Send the page and the problem to info@aotc.info. Typos are fixed silently. Facts are fixed quickly. Conclusions that turn out to be wrong are corrected in the open, with a note saying what we previously said.