There is a long history of the evolution of the modern skilled trades and crafts, which is well presented in a variety of sources (e.g., “Skilled Trades, History of “ in Encyclopedia Britannica). Therefore, the present chapter centers not on this history but on those trades and crafts that meet the six criteria of occupational devotion listed in Chapter 1 and how they do this. We also look here at the hobbyist beginnings that inspire this career.

Skilled trades workers engage in activities at which they improve with experience, on-the-job training, apprenticeship and, more and more, with formal vocational training. These leisure/work participants often work manually with things, substances, liquids and the like to produce a product or a service. Formal training in a one-or two-year program commonly leads to certification in the trade, and sometimes a craft, and may be followed by apprenticeship. Some trades and crafts allow for on-the-job training.

How are trades and crafts distinguished? A common description of the latter is that they require “knowledge and skill which produces useful objects and activities [and] implies an aesthetic, standards on which judgments of particular items of work can be based” (Becker 1982, 274). In some crafts that aesthetic is innovation, finding an imaginative way to solve a practical problem (e.g., electrical, plumbing).

We will examine a reasonably representative sample consisting of 12 trades/crafts, wherein hobbyists/workers can experience occupational devotion anchored later in their careers in a small business, either their own or that of an employer. Each of the 12 will be described and assessed according to the criteria for devotee work set out earlier. We start with masonry workers.

Masonry Workers

These devotees work in brick, concrete block, stone or terrazzo. They experience the creative side of their occupation while building such structures as walls, fireplaces, floors and patios. Terrazzo workers create decorative finishes by blending fine marble chips into the epoxy, resin or cement, which is often colored. They construct decorative walkways, floors, patios and panels. There is considerable variety in masonry, evident especially in the shapes of and materials used for fireplaces and patios.

Building and masonry contractors impose time frames on the masonry workers they hire to construct fireplaces, patios and the like. The latter, however, typically work alone on these projects.