For many of us involved in the practice of crafts the craft movement proper started in the 1950s and 1960s. It was almost as if we had newly discovered a philosophy of life: working with the dignity of the handmade and with the joy
of designing and making a work of one’s own individual
expression. These precepts held out a promise of a satisfying and interesting life.1
In the opening paragraph of an essay on the history of craft in Australia and New Zealand, Janet Mansfield, an Australian potter and writer, was
expressing the sense of ‘newness’ that many Australian and New Zealand
post-Second World War studio potters felt about ‘their craft movement’. She continued by explaining the links between craft and the needs of everyday life in colonial Australia and New Zealand and how new migrants
transformed the objects they made into ‘personal expressions of functional
art’.2The title of her essay, ‘Plurality and Necessity’, spoke about a variety of
influences. In the case of New Zealand, these included Māori arts and crafts and the perceived ‘number eight wire’ adaptability ‒ the term used by Peter Gibbs in a New Zealand Listener article3‒ that many New Zealanders believed was a defining national characteristic. Mansfield, by projecting mid- twentieth century notions about craft as a vehicle for personal expression onto earlier craft traditions, was attempting to link these traditions with the contemporary studio craft movement she was part of. Her use of the word
‘proper’ appeared to be suggesting that ‘her movement’ was unique or earlier
developments in craft were merely precursors to the real movement that emerged after the Second World War. However, the rise and fall of interest in craft has been a recurring feature of craft history from the mid-nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century and each renewal of interest has built on earlier traditions.4 Grace Cochrane, in her explanation of
1
Janet Mansfield, 'Plurality and Necessity: An Antipodean Case Study,' in The Persistence of Craft. The Applied Arts Today, Paul Greenhalgh, ed., London, 2002, p.149.
2 ibid. 3
Peter Gibbs, 'Craft Art Crossroads', New Zealand Listener, 13 August 1994, p.42 . 4Tradition here is defined as, ‘a set of practises, a constellation of beliefs, or a mode of
why this happened, postulated that: ‘We seem to have to experience things
ourselves in order to believe in them; we will not accept the discoveries of our parents and grandparents.’5
In this chapter I examine the traditions that influenced the growth of interest in craft after the Second World War that evolved into what Mansfield believed
was ‘the craft movement proper’ and which I have described as the ‘studio craft movement’. The chapter presents an overview of three strands that fed into the movement in New Zealand and, in essence, established the
traditions from which it grew. The first strand, and by far the dominant one,
relates to British and European craft ‒ which extends from pre-industrial craft
traditions through to the twentieth century ‒ and links this history to the movement in New Zealand. The second is New Zealand’s own trade-based and domestic-based craft practices as well as attempts by the pioneers to pursue their interest in an environment that had a different understanding of the place of craft in society.6 Finally, the chapter presents an overview of
Māori arts and crafts (mahi toi).7
The traditional arts and crafts of the original inhabitants (Tangata Whenua)8 of New Zealand formed an integral part of their everyday life for hundreds of years and had their foundation in
spirituality and functionality. The underlying theme of this chapter is the attempt by those within the studio craft movement to understand the significance of the developments that had taken place earlier, both in New Zealand and overseas, and relate them to the new craft environment. By the early 1990s a clearly defined separation had emerged within the movement in New Zealand. The movement became divided between those who looked to earlier traditions and the skills that had been passed down and those who believed that the development of conceptual skills should have primacy. Another group, predominantly amateurs, had little interest in this distinction.
Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique of Modernity, Critical Perspectives on Modern Culture, Amherst, 1992, p.8.
5
Grace Cochrane, ‘Said and Done? Writing a history of the crafts movement’, in Peter Timms, et al., The Nature of the Beast: Writings on Craft, Fitzroy, Vic., 1993, p.8. 6The word ‘pioneer’ is used in this chapter to refer to the craftspeople of the inter
-war period and the immediate post-war period.
7The term ‘mahi toi’ is discussed in more detail later in this chapter. 8‘People of the Land’ refers to New Zealand’s first human inhabitants.
Pottery again forms a large part of this chapter because, as previously explained, it dominated the movement in terms of the number of people able to earn their living from their work and also because of my involvement in the movement as a studio potter/ceramic artist.