What is Lost Art?

Hi! Please consider if you or others you know are engaged in lost arts without realizing it! I look forward to your thoughts and maybe even the realization that you are participating in a lost art! Send your comments to: myretreat2@aol.com

I recently came upon a category of art called ‘lost arts’. I was fascinated with what I found in my research. I hope you will be fascinated as well when you read the information below. Who knows! Maybe you are practicing one of the lost arts without realizing it?

Lost arts” usually refer to skills, crafts, or ways of doing things that were once widespread and important but have largely disappeared (or survive only among a few specialists). Many were displaced by industrialization, mass production, or new technologies, while others faded because modern life no longer required them.

Here are some examples across different domains: (sorry for any repetitions)

Textiles & Clothing:
Hand-spinning and hand-loom weaving – once everyday household work, now mostly preserved by artisans.
Lacemaking and tatting – intricate handwork that took months, replaced by machine-made lace.
Natural dyeing with plants, minerals, or insects (like cochineal red or indigo).

Metalwork & Tools:
Damascus steel forging – an ancient technique for strong, patterned blades; modern recreations exist, but the original process was lost.
Blacksmithing for everyday items – from horseshoes to hinges, most now mass-produced.
Tinsmithing – making household utensils by hand from tinplate.

Pottery & Household Arts:
Slipware and traditional glazes – regional techniques with unique chemical recipes, often closely guarded.
Kintsugi (Japan) – repairing ceramics with gold, now revived but once obscure.
Hand-carved wooden utensils – replaced by factory kitchenware.

Knowledge & Everyday Skills:
Herbal medicine – much replaced by pharmaceuticals, though some traditions remain.
Letter writing in calligraphy – replaced by typewriters, then computers.
Fire-making without matches – flint-knapping, bow drills, or steel strikers.

Performance & Cultural Practices:
Oral storytelling traditions – before literacy, whole epics were passed down by memory.
Court dances and rituals – specific to historical periods and vanished with changing politics.
Whistled languages (still survive in a few places, like La Gomera in the Canary Islands).

NOTE: Remember that often, what we call “lost” isn’t completely gone — it survives in museums, among master artisans, or through revivals by hobbyists and cultural preservationists. Also, some of these lost arts are being revived today as hobbies or heritage skills (blacksmithing, weaving, herbal medicine), but they’re no longer widespread everyday knowledge.)

Everyday skills:
Handwriting in calligraphy or script (fountain pens, quills).
Mental arithmetic (done without calculators).
Letter writing (long-form personal correspondence).
Storytelling and oral traditions (before mass media).

Domestic Arts:
Hand-weaving and spinning yarn on looms and spindles.
Making soap at home from lye and fat.
Home butter churning.
Preserving food in root cellars or by fermentation.
Hand-stitched quilting (as opposed to machine quilting).

Craftsmanship:
Blacksmithing and forge work (horseshoes, tools, weapons).
Stonemasonry for cathedrals and castles.
Glassblowing by hand (less common outside art studios).
Hand-carved wooden shipbuilding.
Illuminated manuscript painting (gold leaf, pigments).

Medicinal & Survival Arts:
Herbal medicine preparation (tinctures, poultices).
Tracking and reading natural signs in the wild.
Fire-making without matches (flint, bow-drill).
Traditional midwifery practices.

Social / Cultural Practices:
Apprenticeship guild training (master–apprentice system).
Courtly etiquette & lettered dueling codes.
Traditional folk dances and songs that were passed orally.