CCI-newsletter-1978-14-May-June

NEWSLETTER

MAY/JUNE 1978

CRAFTS COUNCIL OF IRELAND...

Thomas Prior House. Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Telephone 01 680764

NEWSLETTER With this issue, the Newsletter has now been published every two months since January 1977, a total of nine issues.

Approximately 650 copies are printed each time and are circulated to Crafts Council member organisations, to individual subscribers and to Crafts Councils and other organisations abroad from whence the Council get reciprocal publications. So far, in the nine issues, we have not had any measure of criticism either for or against the Newsletter. This is somewhat disquieting as it indicates apathy either way.

It is, in any case, obvious that in normal progress the Newsletter cannot remain the way it has been indefinitely and it is at present being looked at critically from within the Council.

Changes are not likely to be dramatic — we are not big enough yet to publish a "Crafts" or a "Crafts Horizons" — but will be gradual and certainly will be for the better.

As ever, letters on pertinent matters are welcome — not least to lessen the burden on the Editor to fill those sudden blanks which inevitably occur.

Education Crafts Council of Ireland has been undertaking a research programme into the whole area of education as it applies to crafts. Primary, second and third level education has been examined as well as the area of teacher training and the many facts gathered have now to be assessed.

Ireland Chairs European Meeting

Sur

A meeting of the top executives of European craft organisations took place on May 6/7th in Malmo, Sweden, under the aegis of World Crafts Council. The countries represented included Austria, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Italy, France, Finland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Holland. Among the topics under discussion were those of a system enabling a greater interchange of information among the organisations and the development of a common policy relating to hand crafts to ensure a clear recognition of the special needs of this sector by indidividual governments and by the Council of Europe.

A survey of the crafts sector will be undertaken during the next few months and we would hope that every craftsman would cooperative fully in completing the short questionnaire. Some of the facts being sought are confidential and we would like to stress the fact that any confidential information will remain so and will only be used to make up a total.

We would hope that, in order to ensure absolute confidentiality, this sort of information would be gathered by fhe IDA/County Development Officers who would in any case be privy to individual figures where grants have been involved.

Such a survey is long overdue. It is absolutely necessary to have some baseline of performance and other facts and that any planning for the future of crafts in this country can be based on the information gained in the survey and the results of plans formulated can be guaged against this baseline. It will be appreciated that the whole future of grant aid to the Council and to the benefit of craftsmen will be helped b\ the survey.

The Executive Officer of Crafts Council, as Irish representative cnaired the meetings.

The European Exhibition "The Bowl" opened in Malmo in early May and the choice of meeting place gave delegates an opportunity to see the exhibition.

A report follows.

"The Bowl" exhibition in the Form/ Design Center at Malmo, was well mounted but simple, the bowls from the 19 countries involved being let speak for themselves. The Irish entries were well able to stand with the international company and no apologies needed to be made on their behalf. Not every country interpreted the word "bowl" in the same way and this led to some strange pieces which one suspected were sent for prestige reasons rather than in strict conformity with the theme. It was a pity, however, that the various entries were not "edited" when mounting the exhibition so that only bowls were finally on display. The quality was inevitably a bit mixed, but there were certainly some outstanding pieces —

VeV

one from Sweden is especially remembered which, because of weigh will not be travelling outside Sweden and thus was not an official part of the exhibition. Pottery dominated; med a however, included precious metal, glass, pottery, textile, iron, wood, leather, enamel on silver, marble. Catalogues of the exhibition will be available for the Crafts Council library shortly.

Seminar 1978 Crafts Council is planning a major seminar on crafts and where the Council and the crafts in Ireland hope to go in the next decade. The Seminar will take place in October and major speakers on the various topics will be invited from abroad and from home. All craftsmen attending will have the opportunity of taking part in the discussion sessions and helping to formulate the way ahead.

Details will be announced in theViext issue of the Newsletter.

Hands' Many readers will have seen the TV series "Hands" made by David Shaw-Smith for RTE. While not all the six films had a direct craft relevance, the craftsmanship aspect was nevertheless clear as was the necessity to record on film some of the passing skills. Judging from the interest in the series the public sympathy and identification with these skills is clear and this reflects in the interest in hand crafts on a more practical basis, keeping craftsmen busy supplying the shops.

Readers will be glad to know that David Shaw-Smith will be making a further series and, as with the previous series, the Crafts Council will be cooperating fully.

Craft Pottery Demonstrations in Dun Laoghaire During the Third Annual Summer Festival of Dun Laoghaire, the Craft Potters Society of Ireland will give week足 end demonstrations of the various techniques of pottery making from the clay to the finished pot.

The weekends will be those of June 17/18, June 24/25 and July 112. There will be six to eight exhibition stands manned by members of the Society and finished products will be on sale. The venue will be the Dun Laoghaire Pavilion.

The monthly meeting of the Society will be held on June 24th so that the weekend in particular will have many other members in attendance and plans are advanced towards a social evening after足 wards.

Slide Kits The Crafts Council of Ireland library of slide kits is being added to and new kits on order and due for receipt shortly, will include textiles, ceramics, paper making, wood, jewellery and fibres and come from the USA, Canada, UK and Australia

The meeting of the General Assembly and the Regional Assembly will be held on September 9th and 10th. The conference will open at September 11th, closing on September 15th and will be the largest gathering of craftsmen every organised

by World Crafts Council.

The Crafts Report, a monthly news sheet on marketing, management, money for craft professionals, has been running a series of articles in recent issues on the health hazards connected with many crafi processes and setting out the sort of precautions which should be taken as much in terms of safety and good housekeeping as in terms of health.

The articles have been concentrating on the mouth and nose, eyes and skin as being the common points of entry for hazardous substances and the long term effects of some of these. The aim is one of prevention of long term effects rather than cure, and the cautionary advice given is that of avoiding carelessness in these matters just because one is in a hurry or cannot be bothered.

The use of respirators and masks is recommended in areas of poor ventilation and when using processes which produce dirt, fumes and vapours that you cannot avoid breathing. Likewise the use of gloves or barrier creams to protect the skin, goggles to protect the eyes is recommended.

We wonder how many craftsmen in Ireland are safety and health conscious and would welcome comments.

These slide kits, which have been listed in previous issues of the Newsletter, are being increasingly used and are an interesting and simple method of running an informative lecture for craft societies or meetings.

Details of the new acquisitions will be announced in the next issue.

HAM ADA : 1894 - 1978

WORLD CRAFTS COUNCIL GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT KYOTO

Health and Safety

Shoji Hamada, the Japanese potter and living treasure, died last January. Those who attended the World Crafts Council General Assembly in Dublin in 1970 will remember the unique occasion of the presentation made to him then and the opportunity to see and meet with him and his lifelong friend Bernard Leach, still with us at 91. We could well take to heart one of Hamada's sayings " I t is no use to imitate what has been done in the past; there is no pride, no interest in t h a t . . . "

Scottish Visitor Guide

We note that the Scottish Development Agency has published a Visitor Guide to Scottish craft workshops. It contains over a hundred craft workshops throughout Scotland at which visitors are welcome and at which products can be purchased. It follows the same line as the successful Craft Hunters Guide published by Bord Failte with the cooperation of the Crafts'Council of Ireland. The latter is a more exciting publication with many colourful photo足 graphs of the various craft products made in Ireland and is more likely to be retained as a reference book.

A m n x o n a t o m mM emniL© Craftshop

CRAFT POTTERS SOCIETY OF IRELAND

at Muckross House

After a number of successful and well attended meetings, the Society is finding its feet. Two ambitious under­ takings are planned, one for the Summer and one for the Autumn and details of these are shortly to be released. There are now over 50 paid up members and they have their own newsletter. One of the platforms of the Society is that of standards and in this they will be performing a major duty closely allied to that of the Crafts Council. A constant review of standards is a very necessary thing and in a group such as the Craft Potters Society, where all members are in the same discipline, and where a poor standard of some affects everyone, the maintaining and up grading of standards is an easier matter to attend to than in an association where many crafts are represented and where like cannot necessarily be compared with like — though meticulous workmanship can be attained in any craft and is the mark of the good craftsman.

On May 1st the Kerry Craftworkers Association opened a craft shop at Muckross House, Killarney. This venture was set up with the cooperation and encouragement of the Muckross House management and will be on a trial basis, giving the craftworkers experience in supplying and managing such an outlet.

The success of a similar type of experiment in craftworkers participating in an outlet of their own by Cork Craftsmen's Guild augers well for the future of this new shop.

The philosophy of the Kerry Craft­ workers Association is not only to sell the work of their own members but also to set a standard of quality in craftwork.

The shop will carry crafts of the Association membership.

Among the crafts being offered for sale will be pottery, leatherwork, weaving, handspun yarn, dried flowers, sculpture, musical instruments, wooden toys, candles, silver jewellery, macrame, crochet, prints and copper plaques.

At some future date the Association hopes to have a premises of their own and in the meantime the Crafts Council and craftsmen in general will wish them a successful season and will follow their experiment with interest.

LIMERICK CRAFTWORKERS ASSOCIATION FORMED At an inaugeral general meeting on 22nd March 1978 a constitution was adopted by a group of Limerick craft­ workers and the organisation was formed under the title of Limerick Craftworkers Association. The following officers were elected: Chairman Vice-Cheirman Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer

Mr Brendan McElduff Mr Richard Ferris Mr Thomas Hayes Ms Rosemary Quinn

The Association has applied for member­ ship of Crafts Council of Ireland.

MEATH Craftworkers in County Meath met again on 25th April, in Navan and unanimously voted to set up a Meath Craftworkers Association, adopting a constitution based on that which the very successful and active Clare Craftworkers adhere to.

COUNTRY MARKETS The Annual General Meeting of Country Markets was held on 11 th May. The Annual Report shows once again continued progress and there are now 64 markets in the country serving the aims of Country Markets which are to encourage and develop through cooperative education and organisation the production and local cooperative marketing of good quality farm garden and home produce and home crafts based on native material and local tradition.

In her summary for the catalogue of the Bowl exhibition, of the situation of crafts in Sweden, Kirsten Wickman of Foreningen Svensk Form, makes an interesting comment on the interest in taking up traditional handcrafts by many people who queue up to attend classes and the comment is a cautionary one: "Although it is indeed admirable that an understanding of these crafts is spreading and interest in them grows, there is the attendant drawback that many techniques which are still really at the command of only a few craftsmen with local ties in a cultural tradition, are being borrowed and corrupted . . . patterns and processes are being modified . . . the difference is difficult to detect unless one has learnt to appreciate the genuine original article."

The elected officer are:

DONEGAL CRAFTWORKERS AGM

Chairman Mr Jan Muyllaert Hon. Secretary Mr Ultan Fitzpatrick Hon. Treasurer Mrs Eileen Brady

At the AGM the Chairman, Mr Guy Stephenson was re-elected and Mr Leonard Roarty was re-elected Hon. Secretary. Other members of the committee were elected en bloc.

CRAFT COURSE HOLIDAY Mrs Pam Parke, Rose Cottage, Rathmullan, Co. Donegal has again joined with the owners of the Fort Royal Hotel in organising weekend courses, which will include lectures and discussions. The course on rushwork, lapidary and jewellery and macrame will be on September 25/29th.

Mr Roarty, in his report, referred to the demand existing for good quality crafts and called for a greater involvement by development associations in the promoting, teaching and marketing of crafts in their area.

A NEW COMMERCIAL DESIGN GROUP seeks design ideas in ceramics, metal and crystal for products for the world giftware market. Box No. MJ 1.

Terminology for Crafts

Letters The Editor, Crafts Council Newsletter The word 'craft' can in one sense mean cunning but also implies manipulative skills of a high order. In these days it is very often just the initial design mould, or whatever, that is the craft — not the subsequent production which in a lot of cases does not require much skill.

Traditional crafts and designs are being rediscovered and in most cases old .methods are being superseded by semimodern technology enabling the crafts­ man to produce the same thing but in a more economic way. An example of this would be patchwork which is now most acceptable (at least from a selling point of view) made on a sewing machine. Does one ask if it is a powered sewing machine? No, it is the quality of the finish that counts as well as the price and the craft is evident in all these.

Domestic knitting machines can only do one thing and that is to make stitches faster than a hand. If one is to consider textile printing a craft then there is no reason in the world not to consider the products of home knitting machines as craftwork also.

The tool is only as good as the operator and to judge the craft one must look for good design in the first instance followed up by perfect texture and finish. No room here for the bulky, hairy, lumpy look of the traditional Aran that is so much abused these days in the name of craft. For instance Shetland knitting is very much considered to be a craft — rightly so — and yet to be right must have a very neat and delicate finish; it is done to a large extent on machines, the craft being in the designs and colour matching.

The machine does not make it any easier, just faster, since each garment is made up in the exact same way as for handknitting.

A further example of this is in the field of sculpture where an artist who is commissioned to execute a large piece generally produces a model of his own design and conception from which other people, dockyard workers, stone carvers, joiners etc., produce the actual sculpture.

But perhaps this is where the cunning comes into craft!

Beibhin Martin

LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS

We feel sure that this letter will draw comment much as Brien O'Leary's "Weaving is Easy" in the January/ February issue of Crafts brought comment from the professionals on the beneficial properties of modern technology.

Exhibition Catalogues:

Editor.

Designer Bookbinders 1974 The Craftsmans Art 1973 Craftsmen of Quality 1976

Quotes

56.12.2 Dutch Jewellery 1977

Soetsu Fangai (Mingei founder)

Irish Book Design Award 1977

"Handcraftsmanship, if it be alive, justifies itself at any time as an intimate expression of the spirit of man.

Such work is an end in itself and not a means to an end. If, however, it ceases to serve a functional need, it runs the rislof becoming art for arts sake and untrue to its nature, depending upon the sincerity of the craftsman."

Ceramic Forms 1974 Designer Bookbinders Directory Directory of Suppliers to Craftsmen of Musical Instrument Makers PETER COLLINGWOOD The Techniques of Rug Making.

A U.S. planning study on crafts under­ taken with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts has examined classifications and terminology for the crafts and, finding much confusion, has recommended broad categories: Artist Craftsman A craftsman who works to his/her own design concept and makes one-of-a-kind objects.

Designer Craftsman A craftsman who works to his/her own design concept and makes prototypes for small and large industry.

Production Craftsman A craftsman who works to his/her own design concept, or the design concept of another individual, period or group, and who makes multiples of any object.

Artisan A craftsman who works to the design concept of another individual, period or group, and who makes one-of-a-kind prototypes or multiple objects.

The study also suggests that craftsmen can be further classified according to their design style.

Contemporary Crafts Objects made in the mode of the day, innovative in design and/or technique, or such modifications of traditional folk or ethnic forms or patterns that suit contemporary use and materials.

Ethnic/Folk Crafts Objects characteristic of a people or region made in a technique and design concept learned through an unbroken family or group tradition.

Traditional Crafts Objects made in proven patterns and forms from earlier design concepts.

Restoration Crafts Mending or replacing old work other than fine art, such as furniture, ceramics, but not painting, sculpture, prints, etc.

Industry Crafts Special order objects or prototypes made by fine craftsmen in industry or trade.

Coen Mulder

The last date for copy for the July/August issue of the Newsletter is 30 June.

The affinity with the material, the action, gives me new impulses to proceed. Something must get its form as the result of a conscious manipulation or thought.

WEAVERS SHED, Kilmainham Mills, Dublin 8, is now doing carding and spinning and can provide rug yarns in 16 colours.