Page 11 - CountryFineHandicrafts

Value Innovation of the Country Fine Handicrafts Program
The purpose of the "Country Fine Handicrafts" program can be divided into two perspectives. First, in terms of the concrete and visible performance, it is to increase the rural women's professional skills and assist them in developing their second or third technical skills. Through such professional skills, they will be able to develop the value-added products with the local characteristics. Second, in terms of the invisible core value promotion, the rural women, through the "Country Fine Handicrafts" program, will have the access to the professional learning in technology. Through the interaction with the members of the home economics clubs, they will be granted a stage to exert and fulfill themselves and provide each other with mutual mental support. In other words, when rural women change their roles in the traditional agricultural society from the supporting roles of farming production to the leadings roles of rural village development, their growth in professional skills will bring them spiritual recognition, confidence, and achievement. In the recent years, there has been some reality our society and government have to face in the rural villages of Taiwan. For example, the farming population is ageing and emigrating as the foreign couples are immigrating, or the family structure is changing as the single-parent families are increasing and many children are taken care of by their grandparents. The implementation of the "Country Fine Handicrafts" program by Council of Agriculture concretely offers the most direct policy to assist the rural women, including: 1. Help rural women cultivate professional skills. 2. Turn over the working position of the traditional rural women by upgrading the traditional handmade skills to the abilities of industry development. 3. Inherit and extend the traditional arts and crafts so as to preserve the forefathers' skills and wisdom. 4. Endow the local materials with the new functions, innovate the design styles and improve the life quality. 5. Find the local masters to help develop the professional skills and local talents. It is also hoped that the characteristic products developed in the program of "Country Fine Handicrafts" will be introduced some aesthetic beauty in terms of commerce, market, and life and further create the local brands to rural village arts and crafts. In this way, the local materials and cultural contents will sustain the local life quality!
Value Innovation of the Country Fine Handicrafts Program
1. The coordination between rural materials and local talents: (production consideration)
Many materials readily available at rural villages are actually great elements for creation. From tree seeds, branches, leaves, fruit, to fertilizers, they are all the elements ready for us to use. The selection of these elements should correspond to the skills the rural women are equipped with. With the assistance of the local talents (professional masters and teachers), application of the local materials, and introduction of the appropriate techniques and skills, the rural women's specialties can create the value-added industry with the local characteristics!
2.The combination between rural materials and value-added techniques: (development consideration)
Start with the overall consideration about the existing rural materials, production techniques, and professional teachers. Look for the proper rural materials and develop products according to the professional masters' techniques, skills, and aesthetics. At the same time, in response to the production consideration of making difference from the similar products on market, develop the "value
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