Page 194 - Constructing Craft

were parallels between the rebellious youth of the counter-culture movement and

craftspeople in the 1950s. Writing about an English potter, Michael Gill, who visited
New Zealand in 1955, she described him as ‘the first bearded sandalled potter we
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ever saw from England.’ It was a label that endured in the mind of the public.

The examples examined here and in Chapter Eight ‒ the Davises, the Lairds,
Centrepoint community, Helen Mason, Nicholas Brandon and the Ings ‒ represent

the range of ways of living and working that craftspeople employed in rural areas

and how they were perceived by the wider community. Many chose to settle in a
rural location for the way of life it afforded them and because of the lower cost of

housing and land in some regions, but also because their craft, if it involved noisy

machinery or smoky kilns, was not permitted in suburban New Zealand. A common
ingredient for all was the wish to enjoy the rural environment and, to a greater or
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lesser extent, to engage with the world around them. Many believed that craft had
a traditional affinity with the rural environment. The rural setting for many

craftspeople was a physical manifestation of their ideals. The association between
craftspeople and hippies was for most a distraction.

Constructing Craft