Artists? Artisans? Craftswomen?

Nowadays,  words in all their glory (and the creative use of them) have so much more impact for the average Jane ... what with SEO, Blogs, Online Shops, etc. We find ourselves in the roles of copywriter and advertising exec, striving to find the "right" words. And I LOVE WORDS, their spellings and the intracasies of their meanings. I'm a Thesaurus Nerd and proud of it.

I do the same thing with the French language, asking native speakers questions about certain words or phrases that take them by surprise and sometimes they have no answer except 'parce que' (just because). I suppose this all stems from my 1st career as a graphic designer, my second one in France as a teacher of English as a second language. Not to mention that my parents said that I carried a dictionary around when I was a toddler (I do not remember that).

Anyhow, as Peg and I are revving up our Etsy online shops after a lengthy hiatus, my job is writing the copy for mostly everything except her listings and Bio (Peg takes care of hers and me, mine). Pondering these three words started me on yet another investigation into the whys, hows and whens.

First, a couple of clarifications ... I'm definitely a Women's Libber, having come of age in the mid-70s, though not the bra-burning, absolute-equality sort. I need my bra (trust me on this) and was a stay-at-home Mom in France 'til the kids were in their late teens. But any opportunity is good to use a gender neutral term or female-oriented one in either language. It's the rebel in me 👿.

From Merriam-Webster's online dictionary:
Craftswoman  = noun  
1:  a woman who is an artisan
2:  a woman who is skilled in a craft

Artisan = noun
1:  a worker who practices a trade or handicraft :  craftsperson a skilled artisan
2:  a person or company that produces something (such as cheese or wine) in limited quantities often using traditional methods —often used as in: artisan breads

Thesaurus:   a person whose occupation requires skill with the hands we visited a re-created 19th-century New England village that features an array of artisans—a cooper, a carpenter, a blacksmith, a potter, a glassblower

Artisanal = adjective

Artist = Noun
1: a. obsolete :  one skilled or versed in learned arts
    b. archaic :  physician
    c. archaic :  artisan
2: a.  one who professes and practices an imaginative art
     b.  a person skilled in one of the fine arts
3:  a skilled performer; especially :  artiste
4:  one who is adept at something con artist strikeout artist

Thesaurus:   a person with a high level of knowledge or skill (ex: a pitcher who is a strikeout artist)

You'll see which of these I decided  to use, just hop on over to our Etsy site.
But in the meantime, how about letting us know which you use to describe yourself. Or a completely different one. I'm going on the assumption that all or mostly all our followers are creative souls.
Al