Page 193 - Constructing Craft

John and Kathleen Ing. Their physical appearance and their desire to make
‘everyday’ pottery suggested a hippie connection. Photo: New Zealand Potter.

Helen Mason

Not all those seeking alternative ways of living and working were young, but older

craftspeople were less likely to be labelled ‘hippies’. Helen Mason, as we saw in
Chapter Eight, in the 1950s and early 1960s, followed a similar path to young

people in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She believed that her decisions were

made as a reaction to ‘the abnormal but exciting times of World War II. We wanted
more out of life than the suburban round offered, some went the affluent way, and

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some began to develop the self.’ Like many other craftspeople – particularly
potters – Mason created a craft guru in the form of Bernard Leach. Leach, for these
people, was not merely a renowned potter and author, he was a spiritual guide.

Mason explained. ‘Bernard Leach, Ba’hai that he is, with a foot in both eastern and
western philosophy, started something that meshes in with what the thinking young

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are on to today.’ Leaches philosophy was largely unknown to many of the young
people who moved to communes or made trinkets for music festival sales and, in

fact, knowledge of Leach and his ideas on craft was more likely to distinguish a

serious craftsperson from someone who was merely trying to earn some money to
sustain a ‘hippie’ lifestyle. Nevertheless, Mason, years later, recognised that there

Constructing Craft