Page 282 - Constructing Craft

An unselected register of craftspeople had existed in New Zealand in the form of The
Craft Hunter’s Guide, produced by Fiona Thompson in 1980 with updates in 1981

and 1984. This was a privately run commercial publication funded by the fees paid
by the craftspeople listed. CCNZ membership was not required. The existence of an

‘unofficial’ and ‘commercial’ register alongside an ‘official’ and ‘exclusive’ index soon
became a point of conflict – even within the Executive of the CCNZ. Thompson, a

former member of the NZWCC and an elected member on the CCNZ Executive,

became increasingly troubled that the CCNZ was concerned with a small group of
‘top’ craftspeople and was neglecting the wider craft community. In 1984 she

resigned claiming the CCNZ no longer represented the majority of craftspeople.

The CCNZ was positioning itself to cater for the higher end of the market. It is

possible that an unselected register produced by the CCNZ from its membership and
published alongside the Index would have averted many of Thompson’s fears and

may have encouraged an increase in membership, but any hope of a parallel Index
and Register under the CCNZ banner largely disappeared with the departure of

Thompson.

Dissatisfaction and resignations continued and since some were prominent

craftspeople, such as Barry Brickell and Jack Laird, they carried considerable weight.
Brickell wrote to New Zealand Crafts in 1986 rejecting the more ‘polished’ craft that

the Index appeared to be promoting.

This bowing and scraping after perfection which is now
poisoning the aims of the Crafts Council is not only utterly
misdirected but also humourless. ... As a craftsperson, I want
nothing to do with perfecting my work, so perhaps I should now
be struck off membership of the Crafts Council, let alone
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attempt to be a candidate for entry into its Craft Index.

Jack Laird was also appalled by the way the Index was formed. In May 1987 he
resigned from the CCNZ stating: ‘I find the principles and philosophy which inform my

life as a craftsman are totally opposed to the present policy of the Crafts Council in
its “indexing” of craftspeople, which is elitist, exclusive, and of dubious authority.’ He

added, by way of a parting shot: ‘As is the creation of a status-object, corporate-style,
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headquarters and administration.’ Laird’s decision was, in part, a criticism of the
Constructing Craft