Page 27 - Constructing Craft

New Zealand and was generally argued in a more informed – and acrimonious –

manner. The protagonists were divided between those who looked to the Arts and
Craft movement for guidance and those who believed that Modernism was where

the future of craft lay.

Conflicting Influences and Ideas

Most of the people who became involved in making handcraft after the Second

World War were not producing objects that replicated Arts and Crafts designs; nor
were they imitating the minimalist objects that were created in the Modernist art

schools of Europe. New Zealand potters, weavers and other craftspeople looked to
the local environment for materials – often because they could not be imported –

and looked to famous craftspeople such as Bernard Leach for inspiration. Their

work was often rough and imperfect, which, according to the New Zealand writer,
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Peter Cape, was a reaction to the ‘dehumanising process of the machine’. To
some extent then, this was the beginning of a movement that looked back to earlier
ideas about the role of craft in society, but was also looking to how it might develop

in the future – and develop a uniquely New Zealand quality.

New Zealand Craft Traditions

The second strand that influenced the studio craft movement were the skills that

lingered on in industry and in the rural environment from earlier times and the craft
skills used in the homes and hobby workshops of New Zealand. In the late

nineteenth and early twentieth century, craft in New Zealand was understood to be

a part of two distinct social locations – work and leisure. In industry and agriculture
the skills that were most valuable were those that contributed to the productivity of

the particular business. At home skills often were centred on product substitution or
repairs and were not measured in financial terms. Hobbyists usually did not expect

a financial reward for their work. Later craftspeople in their attempts to understand
where they were located in society in relation to the trades and the arts had to

determine from where the studio crafts had emerged.

Craft and Work

Craft in industry and agriculture was associated with a high level of skill or as a form

of demarcation between workers. In this environment craft was an occupation that

Constructing Craft