Page 279 - Constructing Craft

If numbers gave authority then an alternative method of boosting its right to claim to

represent ‘all’ craftspeople was to assert the CCNZ was ‘supported’ by the national
craft organisations or clusters of regional organisations with their large membership.

The three largest crafts organisation: the New Zealand Society of Potters (NZSP)
with approximately 2,000 members, the NZSWWS with 22,400 members and the

Association of New Zealand Embroiders Guild (NZEG) with over 11,000, represented
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over 88% of all craftspeople who belonged to a craft-specific national organisation.
They were well-established and appeared to offer their members all the services they

required – there appeared to be no reason for their members to belong to the CCNZ
as well, or even to be affiliated with the CCNZ in some form of group membership.

Furthermore, many of the craftspeople who belonged to these organisations did not

want their membership fees increased to pay for some form of affiliation with a
distant and amorphous organisation.

The NZSWWS in particular, could not see any benefits in either their members

belonging to the CCNZ as individuals or for the organisation even to be affiliated. The
President of the NZSWWS, Jenny Poore, in May 1978 wrote to all members of the

NZSWWS: ‘We feel strongly that weavers should speak for weavers, spinners for
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spinners, ... etc.’ Regional weaving and spinning clubs soon started resigning from
the CCNZ. The fear for organisations like the weaving and spinning groups was that

craftspeople – or even non-craftspeople, from other disciplines would be making
decisions about a craft they had little knowledge of. While Dorothy Pascoe, the

President of the CCNZ at the time, denied that would occur, the probable rejection of
work by NZSWWS members at the Christchurch Arts Festival exhibition in 1978

show that was what, in fact, happened.

The CCNZ’s response was to declare that it covered a wider range of crafts and for

the many members who worked individually it was the only national source of

information. The CCNZ could not attempt to take over the work of the three largest
craft organisations but could not ignore them either. It therefore made provision on its

executive for representation from the three groups. Although the NZSP and the
NZEG were represented the NZSWWS decided not to participate and the position

was taken by a ‘floor’ member. This structure did not encourage a growth in
membership.

Constructing Craft