Page 48 - Constructing Craft

spinning and weaving are plentiful, few records exist as evidence of non-

commercial spinning and weaving before the First World War.

Thomas Blick. Photo: Nelson Provincial Museum
Studio Collection.

Early Studio Fibre Craftspeople

Amy Hadfield Hutchinson (nee Large) was born in Napier on 20 May 1874. From

1901 to 1904 Amy was matron of the boarding hostel at her old high school, Napier
Girls' High School, where a friend, Bessie Spencer, was headmistress. On 30

August 1907, at Napier, Amy married Francis (Frank) Hutchinson, a sheep farmer
from Rissington. They moved to a homestead (Omatua) on Frank's farm. In 1911

Bessie Spencer came to live at Omatua. In 1914 she and Amy organised a sewing
group and started the Rissington branch of the Red Cross. Frank Hutchinson died in

1940. During the Second World War Amy and Bessie began spinning and weaving

their own wool. Amy wrote articles on dyeing, which led in 1941 to her being asked
to supply information for people spinning and knitting for New Zealanders serving

overseas. Her booklet, Plant Dyeing, was reprinted until 1981. The Large and

Hutchinson families and Bessie Spenser were involved in the Havelock Work
movement (1909 – 1939), as well as other religious and philosophical groups. Often

Constructing Craft