Page 241 - Constructing Craft

Shasta Daisy. This was the type of ‘attractive middle-of-the-road
patterns’ that was popular with the New Zealand public. They were
also the type of decoration that Carpay had resisted. Photo: Studio
La Gonda. Photographers, Haruhiko Sameshima and Mark Adams.

Strategies to Cope with Change

By the 1970s Crown Lynn needed to update their range of pottery because New

Zealanders were becoming more interested in the ‘rustic’ pottery studio potters were
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producing. This had been successfully achieved by New Zealand Insulators Ltd in
1972 by commissioning Jack Laird to design a range of tableware and then building

a separate tableware production unit (later called Temuka Homeware) in 1977.
Crown Lynn began to produce lines called ‘Chateau Craftware’ that was ‘as close to

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a hand-potted look as the factory could achieve.’ This was followed by the
Stoneware series – Rusticana, Sahara, Radiance, Focus and Tosca – all designed

to reflect the ‘earthy, homely’ styles that were fashionable. In 1977 Bellamy’s

restaurant at parliament was serving food on pottery by Crown Lynn that featured a
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Māori fish hook motif. Crown Lynn also established a shop in New Lynn to ‘pass
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on to studio potters the results of research into local materials’. As well as an
opportunity to expand its business by supplying studio potters with materials it could

also be seen that Crown Lynn was being cooperative with craftspeople.

Constructing Craft