Page 84 - Constructing Craft

encouraged by their parents. Rather than being trained in technical schools and

undertaking traditional crafts such as upholstering and picture framing that their
parents might have trained for they became involved in making jewellery, printed

fabrics, ceramics or hand-woven clothes ‒ all crafts that had the potential to be

employed as a means of ‘artistic’ expression. In addition, the children of intellectuals
and artists were also interested in these crafts. The new craftspeople produced

work the children of the wealthy young bourgeoisie understood and desired. In New

Zealand, in a less stratified environment, the social distinctions were less obvious
but nevertheless, taste was determined by similar alignments of capital and

education and was the catalyst for the changes that took place. One could be poor
in economic terms but education and upbringing could provide opportunities to grow

cultural and symbolic capital – and sometimes economic capital. This created an
environment where a wide section of middle class society became interested in craft

as practitioners, supporters and consumers.

Pierre Bourdieu. Photo: Social Theory Rewired

Constructing Craft