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When crafty, its art narrows (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

strait

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'narrows' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'when crafty its art' is the wordplay.
'its art' anagrams to 'STRAIT'.
However, I'm unsure how the anagram is indicated.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for strait that I've seen before include "Difficult state for artist" , "Inlet" , "Narrow sorts of traits" , "Narrow or difficult" , "Narrow waterway" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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