Page 206 - Constructing Craft

Waimea Craft Pottery

Waimea Craft Pottery operated in a way that incorporated specialisation and the

division of labour, but working conditions were managed to ensure that the ‘studio
craft’ character of the business was maintained. The owners, Jack and Peggy Laird,

recognised the need for craftspeople to develop their individuality and skills along
with the efficient operation of a studio craft workshop. The Lairds based their

working methods on Bernard Leach’s suggestions for operating a workshop. Leach
was a firm believer in the apprenticeship system and had a deep mistrust of art-

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school training. He was convinced that understanding craft from its foundations
was the only acceptable approach. ‘I often see electric kilns and power wheels
installed in schools, and clay, pigments and glazes bought ready made. This is
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beginning at the end’. He saw a natural transition from learning at school to
learning in the workshop. Leach’s alternative to working alone was for a craft

workshop owner to employ ‘untrained local labour’. In conjunction with that, and
presumably after his ‘untrained local labour’ had gained a sufficient level of skill, he

instructed potential employers to permit ‘the artists to retain control of the essentials

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which contribute to the beauty of the ultimate pots’. The factory-like approach to
studio pottery at Waimea Craft Pottery, including the division of labour, was

sometimes misunderstood in other parts of New Zealand where individuals, who

may have had other means of financial support, viewed the operation with
suspicion. One apprentice, Royce McGlashen, employed initially as an ‘untrained

local’, later suggested that the approach was so misunderstood by the New Zealand
craft establishment that potters trained at Waimea Craft Pottery may have been

discriminated against when work was submitted for selection at national
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exhibitions.

Constructing Craft