Page 34 - Constructing Craft

Picking and Choosing

A date when the studio craft movement that is the subject of this book started

cannot be stated with absolute certainty, but the three strands discussed in this
chapter established a platform for the explosion of interest in craft that had its

beginnings in the late 1940s and the 1950s. However, they did not influence the
studio craft movement in New Zealand equally. Most craftspeople at this time, and

earlier, were not dependent on their craft to provide an income. Craftspeople,

individually and collectively, selected aspects of each strand that appeared to
support their ideas about what craft was in the post-war world. In the New Zealand

environment where imported, high-quality, factory-produced ware was in short

supply and functional crafts did not have to compete to the same extent as they
would later, there was little conflict between those who made craft that could be

used in the home and those who made items to be admired for their ‘artistic’
attributes. All could make objects that called on earlier craft traditions whilst still

acknowledging the growing influence of the Modernist movement that set standards
for art. Most were self-taught and had gained their knowledge of craft through

books; they usually associated apprenticeships with the ‘trades’ and did not feel the

same sense of loss at the demise of traditional craft apprenticeship training. Their
jobs were not threatened by industrial development and they were in a position that

allowed for risk-taking without dire economic consequences. As a result, they
developed the skills of individual conception, they fashioned their craft by hand and,

because of the shortage of equipment specifically designed for the studio
craftsperson, they developed the capacity to create their own tools – although many

still remained suspicious of machinery. During the formative stages no-one would

have been surprised if they were told that their interest in craft was a continuation of
pre-war craft conditions that had categorised crafts as a leisure-time hobby.

In the early 1960s John Wood, writing the Introduction in a catalogue for a New
Zealand Society of Potters exhibition in Christchurch, located craft in three distinct

zones: the past when crafts were the only form of production; the present when
crafts represented good design and complemented the industrial product; and the

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future when some craft might be considered art. Wood’s premonitions about the
path the newest craft movement might take hinted at a type of plurality but he

Constructing Craft