Page 36 - Constructing Craft

Chapter Two: Early Craftspeople

In New Zealand, the association of craft with productive work and hobbies afforded

it a respectability that made it acceptable for people to take up craft – particularly

when interest became more widespread after the Second World War. In part, this
association was founded on the increasingly egalitarian nature of New Zealand

society but it also had its roots in the respect held for the work of pioneers. The first
European craftspeople in New Zealand would not have considered their occupation

as being any different to the work carried out by others who made things with their
hands but the higher the level of skill the more they were respected. Early

craftspeople might be the founders of a business or simply workers who sold their

skills to earn a living. Women pioneers usually did not possess craft skills that were
considered economically valuable, but their crafts provided products for the home

as well as means of filling in idle time – for those whose status allowed them such
luxuries. During these pioneering times craft was predominantly thought of as work

with a very small group occupied in craft as a hobby. Later, in the early part of the

twentieth century, as New Zealanders had more leisure time more people became
involved in craft as a hobby.

Many of the people who practised their craft between the world wars demonstrated

a dedication to their craft that suggested it was more than a casual leisure-time
1
interest. This was ‘serious leisure’. In some cases ‒ possibly because so few made
this level of commitment or because, in the case of women, their role within one

particular craft was unusual ‒ they achieved recognition after the Second World War

as the forerunners of the studio craft movement. Furthermore, because they were
identified in later articles and books as ‘pioneers’, they came to represent the

founding faces of the studio craft movement for later craftspeople who were

searching for a New Zealand craft identity. For instance, a 1981 article about the
potter, Elizabeth Lissaman, who made her first pot in 1920, and during the

Depression became the primary earner for her family, used the title “Grandmother”
2
of potting when referring to her.

Constructing Craft