What this document is
Anyone can claim to be careful. This page sets out what careful means at Art of the Craft in enough detail that you can check whether we keep to it.
Standards
The route every article on aotc.info takes from idea to publication, and what we refuse to publish.
Anyone can claim to be careful. This page sets out what careful means at Art of the Craft in enough detail that you can check whether we keep to it.
The writer starts by getting everything down, then goes back and marks anything they could not defend if pushed. Those marks are resolved one by one, against a source or from experience, and whatever cannot be resolved is deleted rather than softened. A second reader then goes looking only for false certainty.
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.
You can always see who wrote a page and what else they have put their name to. That traceability is deliberate, and it is why nothing here goes out unsigned.
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.
Published means published. We do not bump dates to look active, and an edit only changes the modified date when it changes what the article actually tells you to do.
We earn from some outbound links. That pays for hosting and research time, and it does not decide the verdict of any page.
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.