such as the sale to curious foreigners, but as this
market was not discerning the craftsman accordingly
only provided a travesty of the original object, in the
shortest possible time.
The European colonisers arriving in overwhelming
numbers soon established their own culture as the
dominant force.
The new arrivals were predominantly English who
left their homeland with the Industrial Revolution in
full cry. Generations of their people had grown up in
the believe that the machine made all things better
than man, and the memory of hand crafted objects
was all but gone. Also, these immigrants were mainly
from working-class families so that they would bring
with them to this land no scholarly knowledge of their
traditionel hand crafts, and no examples as a
reference to the past.
So here they were in what to them was an empty
traditionless land, for they were unlikely to recognise
or understand the Maori culture; children of the
industrial revolution with the ability to survive and
progress materially, but devoid of most of the fine
craft skills that had developed in their homelands in
past ages, such as pottery, glass making, basket
work, metal work, weaving, furniture making, and
moreover in the main, unaware that these crafts had
any value or indeed had ever existed.
Such an attitude continued in New Zealand until
nearly the middle of the 20th Century. Odd craftsmen
there were but as yet there was no public
consciousness of the value to mankind of
handcrafted objects. The machine was still regarded
as the ultimate provider of all things and the
teachings of William Morris in 1890 and Suetso
Yanagi in 1920 had not reached their ears.
Where then in this sterile soll could the seeds of
craft be sown, sprout and grow.
The conclusion of World War II saw a great influx
of refugees from the old worid, people who had a
background of the craft revival which had begun in
Europe in the last Century. This coincided with the
growing desire to possess objects and furnishings
that would not be seen ad nauseam in every
household and with the realisation that the forms
produced by the machine, perfectly even, perfectly
round or square, smooth and shiny were not
necessarily and by right, beautiful.
With the ending of World War II a quantity of
Japanese Studio pottery, much of it by Shoji
Hamada, was imported into New Zealand.This had an
immediate impact on the small group of potters; a
few made contact with Bernard Leach and some
worked with him. The stage was now set for a Studio
pottery explosion. A seif reliant and inventive people,
used to making and repairing all things. were set
firmly on the path of stoneware pottery with an
adopted craft background of Japanese Mingei wares.
Potters made their own wheels, built their kilns
which most fired with oil, dug their own clay and
formulated their own glazes from local materials, and
formed themselves into small groups where they
could exchange Information.
In 1945 one could walk the streets of any town in
New Zealand and find not a Studio pot for sale. In
1977 the craft shops selling pottery are as plentifui as
greengrocers. Potters today are numbered in
thousands and many of them are full-time craftsmen.
The style of pottery in New Zealand has been
completely derivative of its first major contacts,
Japanese folk pottery, which looks back to Sung
stoneware for its Inspiration, and then to the
Bernard Leach school which has elements of
English mediaeval and slipware potting combined
with Japanese Mingei.
Another major craft, Studio weaving, began in
earnest a decade or more later than Studio pottery,
and suffered from the same lack of peasant craft
background, New Zealand being a sheep producing
country, it is fitting that wool weaving predominates
and like the potters their strength is in the functional
sphere — rugs, hangings, fabric lengths, and clothing
of all kinds. An integral part of weaving is spinning,
and there are many craft workers engaged in this and
in producing natural dyes for their own material.
There is a restricted demand for sculptural pieces or
major tapestries: larger works are occasionally
commissioned, however, and public buildings such
as the new Parliamentary building, have made use of
the New Zealand weavers' skills.
The Studio weaver treads a difficult path; the
design skills necessary to produce large
three-dimensional works are not common in this