Page 165 - Constructing Craft

that had not existed in earlier times. Ironically, the infrastructure was made possible

by the very technology that some craftspeople viewed with suspicion. For many
craftspeople the studio craft movement was a new manifestation of the nineteenth

century defiance of the capitalist class system and therefore provided them with an
opportunity to express their opposition. In this sense, craftspeople modelled their

thinking on artists who had defined themselves through their resistance to
conventional society. The notion of the artist as a rebel was also encouraged by the

art-loving public.

'Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?'.
Craftspeople sometimes felt an affinity with artists when resisting societal
norms. Photo: Stan Hunt.

But, paradoxically, as the craft movement matured it became more integrated into
the capitalist economic, social and cultural system and more reliant on it ‒ as did

the rest of society. These developments convinced craftspeople who had moved to
the countryside that they had chosen the right path. And often the wider community

valued the opportunity to travel into the countryside to visit craftspeople. The public

Constructing Craft