Page 171 - Constructing Craft

in Britain, before their German origins and their pacifist views forced them to move

to Paraguay at the beginning of the Second World War. In a remote part of the
country they set up a self-sufficient pacifist community where they were joined by

the Davises. Both Harry and May used their pottery skills to some extent to support
the community but it was Harry’s ability to construct machines from scrap metal that

the community valued most. Eventually the Davises became disillusioned with the
patriarchal nature of the community and returned to Britain after the Second World

War.

On their return to Britain the Davises established a pottery in rural Cornwall before

emigrating to New Zealand to escape the nuclear conflagration they believed was

imminent. The Davises’ experience of communal living appeared to discourage
them from advocating such communities later but their interest in combining craft,

self-sufficiency and rural life, along with their international reputation as
craftspeople, boosted their ideas about locating craft workshops in the countryside.

As with the experiment at Dartington, their aim was not to create a replica of a pre-
industrial rural pottery but to use sustainable modern methods to produce good

quality pottery that would be used in the home. Harry’s expression of their beliefs

suggests that their ideas were a form of resistance to the prevailing norms of
society – and to the divisions between art and craft.

[F]or a long time it has been our aim to find a modern and
adequately efficient equivalent of the pre-industrial country
pottery, which managed to make sound and fine wares for the
daily needs of its day, without the elements of fine art
preciousness and personality cult which is such a conspicuous
feature of the studio pottery movement. I should add that the
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title studio potter always gives me a very chill feeling.

Constructing Craft