Makers & Movers

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Published by the Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts Falkner Road, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7DS

Published January 2008 on the occasion of the exhibition Makers & Movers held at the Crafts Study Centre, 20 November 2007 to 13 December 2008.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. The rights of Simon Olding to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

Book design by David Hyde, david@celsius.eu.com Makers’ images The Crafts Study Centre is grateful to the following individuals for their permission to reproduce photographs of makers in the exhibition: Richard Batterham (photograph by Simon Olding) Professor Dan Bosence (photograph of Susan Bosence) Alison Britton Heather Child (photograph by David Westwood) The Devon Guild of Craftsmen (photograph of Alan Peters) Edmund de Waal John Leach Amelia Uden The photograph of Marianne Straub was originally published in Design; the photograph of Michael Casson is by Murray Fieldhouse; and the photograph of Robert Goodden was published with his obituary in the Guardian.

MAKERS

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MOVERS

C O N T E N T S

P R E F A C E .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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I N T R O D U C T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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R I C H A R D

B AT T E R H A M.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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B O S E N C E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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S U S A N A L I S O N

B R I T T O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

M I C H A E L

C A S S O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

H E AT H E R

C H I L D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

E D M U N D R O B E RT H E N RY

D E

W A A L .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

G O O D D E N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 H A M M O N D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

J O H N

L E A C H .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

A L A N

P E T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

R O B I N A M E L I A

T A N N E R .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 U D E N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

MAKERS

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MOVERS

P R E FA C E

M

akers & Movers presents work in ceramics, textiles, calligraphy and furniture by some of the UK’s most celebrated craft artists. These

are makers who have also influenced the course of craft history by their membership of the Board of Trustees of the Crafts Study Centre (as well as positions of influence in other key craft organisations). The exhibition is held in the Tanner Gallery of the Crafts Study Centre, named in honour of both Robin and Heather Tanner, who were instrumental in the early history of the Crafts Study Centre charitable trust.

Professor Simon Olding Director, Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

I N T R O D U C T I O N

T

he Crafts Study Centre was first established as a charity in 1970 with the objective of ‘the advancement of the education of the public in the

arts and in particular artistic crafts in pottery, wood, metal, woven or printed textiles, embroidery or otherwise and in furtherance of this object...the Trustees may...collect and exhibit the works of artist craftsmen [and] establish and maintain museums libraries and study centres for [this] purpose’.

The Founder Trustees achieved this aim at first in partnership with the Holburne Museum in Bath. Robin Tanner wrote in his autobiography Double Harness that they wanted to develop ‘not a museum of objects untouchable behind glass but a living, expanding Study Centre where work could be held in the hand and enjoyed, and a whole archive consulted’.

These special conditions were met by the development of an exhibition programme for modern and contemporary crafts within the Holburne Museum, by the creation of a library and archive of the crafts and by a lively publication programme.

Researchers and students were able to work with the expanding collections to support the growing knowledge base of craft processes and production, as well as reflections on craft histories.

MAKERS

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MOVERS

The Crafts Study Centre collections moved to Farnham in 2000 and the University College for the Creative Arts strongly supported the research, display, curatorial and publication activities of the charity through the building of the purpose-built museum and study centre at the front of the campus. Today, the Crafts Study Centre delivers a year round exhibition programme, emphasising its remarkable permanent collections in a year-long exhibition in the Tanner Gallery, enhancing research, study and enjoyment of modern and contemporary crafts through scholarship, debate, publication and presentation in the context of a specialist University College of Art and Design.

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Richard Batterham

R

ichard Batterham (born 1936) developed an early interest in ceramics whilst at Bryanston School, Dorset, encouraged by the inspirational art teacher

Don Potter. Batterham then continued his ceramic education at the Leach Pottery, St Ives, spending a formative two years in Cornwall. In 1959 he set up a pottery together with his wife, Dinah Dunn, in Durweston, Dorset, close to Bryanston School. He built a double-chamber climbing kiln and worked on a range of stoneware and porcelain vessels. He added a larger four-chambered kiln in 1966 in his studio close to his house, enabling him to make very substantial works.

Batterham’s ceramics bear evidence of his respect for the convictions of Bernard Leach, but he also developed an authoritative individual voice. Tanya Harrod comments on ‘the strong poetic charge’ of his ceramics. His work is functional and utilitarian, but his larger pieces are commanding works of high craft skill and artistic vision, within a relatively narrow repertoire of ash and salt glazes.

His work is based on simple raw materials, but it draws dignity and strength from his respect for these natural elements and from his desire to work within the harmony of the seasons of the year. He says that ‘in all the making and firing, preconceptions must be forgotten, and an open mind be kept, able to receive the good unknown qualities which will appear. One must not dictate, but listen, observe and respond’.

Richard Batterham: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1972–76

MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Jar and cover

Cut-sided jar

Stoneware, ash glaze, 1970s

Stoneward, manganese glaze, 2006

Crafts Study Centre

Loan by courtesy of Richard Batterham

University College for the Creative Arts

Salt glazed jug

P.74.208

Stoneware, 2003

Jug

Loan by courtesy of Richard Batterham

Stoneware, ash glaze, 1960s Crafts Study Centre

Two-handled teapot

University College for the Creative Arts

Stoneware, ash glaze, 2004

P.74.210

Loan by courtesy of Richard Batterham

Coffee pot

Big caddy

Stoneware, ash glaze, 1960s

Stoneware, 2006

Crafts Study Centre

Loan by courtesy of Richard Batterham

University College for the Creative Arts P.74.211

Tall ribbed bottle Stoneware, blue neck, 2002

Lidded pot

Loan by courtesy of Richard Batterham

Stoneware, ash glaze, 1990s Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts 2002.18 a-b

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Susan Bosence

S

usan Bosence (1913–96) is renowned both for her influential blockprinted textiles and for her commitment to teaching. Her textiles were produced both to

wear and for use in the home and produced in a domestic scale. She said herself that ‘the final piece of cloth should be a whole piece of cloth – the quality of the cloth, the colour and the pattern of equal standard, lovely to look at, handle and see’.

Susan Bosence was brought up in Luton and started her working life at the New Education Fellowship in London. In 1939 she moved to Devon, to take up the post of secretary to the Dartington Hall School. She began to experiment with textiles with the encouragement of significant craft artists such as Marianne de Trey (ceramics) and one of the Founder Trustees of the Crafts Study Centre, Muriel Rose, then working for the British Council. She encouraged Bosence to look critically at the blockprinted textiles produced by Barron and Larcher (examples of which were on show at Dartington). Her first experiments were in resist-dyeing and as Margot Coatts has said, ‘her interest in ethnic textile techniques was several decades ahead of fashion.

Her printed patterns were made with lino-blocks, often using two simple but opposed geometric motifs’. Bosence moved to a small farm in Sigford on Dartmoor in 1966 setting up a studio in a stable block. She was an influential teacher, with part-time teaching commitments at Camberwell and the Farnham Art School. She published Handblock Printing and Resist Dyeing in 1985.

Susan Bosence: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1989–95

MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Length

Length

Cambric, paste resist stripes, Soledon

Cotton, indigo with vat dye over paste

dye, 1950s–60s

resist, 1983

Donated to the Crafts Study Centre

Loan by courtesy of The Textiles

by Robin and Heather Tanner

Collection, University College for the Creative Arts

Crafts Study Centre

7943

University College for the Creative Arts T.75.20

Block-printed length

Block-printed length

Cotton with Soledon dyes

Linen lawn, Soledon dye, circa 1961

Donated to the Crafts Study Centre

by Robin and Heather Tanner

Donated to the Crafts Study Centre

by Robin and Heather Tanner

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts

Crafts Study Centre

T.75.24

University College for the Creative Arts T.75.21

Block-printed length Cotton, positive prints in Soledon dyes,

Block-printed length

1950s-60s

Cotton, lino-print and wax resist, 1950s-60s

Donated to the Crafts Study Centre

by Robin and Heather Tanner

Donated to the Crafts Study centre

by Robin and Heather Tanner

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts

Crafts Study Centre

T.75.13

University College for the Creative Arts T.75.18

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Alison Britton

A

lison Britton (born 1948) is an acclaimed potter, writer and commentator on modern and contemporary crafts. She studied at Leeds College of

Art, the Central School of Art and Design and then, together with a celebrated group of fellow potters (the ‘gang of four’ also included Jacqueline Poncelet, Jill Crowley and Carol McNicholl) in the 1970s, at the Royal College of Art. She held a major one person exhibition at the Crafts Council in 1979. She is one of the leading international exponents of contemporary ceramics, with work held in prestigious museum as well as private collections. Alison Britton is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, and she was awarded the OBE in 1990. More recently, she was awarded an honorary degree by the University College for the Creative Arts to acknowledge her key position and influence as a potter, writer and curator.

Alison Britton is constantly engaged in an exploration of the pot form, and she has ‘a continuing interest in cross-cultural images or symbols both as relief and as painting’. She wrote about one of her pots ‘Ringed Bird’ that she was trying to ‘enmesh pictures in a pattern...Pictures are raw whereas pattern is cooked’. This phrase was brought into use again in the ground-breaking exhibition that Alison Britton co-curated with Martina Margetts for the Museum of Art Oxford, an exhibition that led to a new understanding of the power of ceramic art.

Alison Britton: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 2006 to the present day

10

MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Bottle Hand-built high-fired earthenware, painted with slips and underglaze painting under a clear matt glaze, 2004 On loan from the Ed Wolf collection

Bulwark Hand-built high-fired earthenware, painted with slips and underglaze painting under a clear matt glaze, 2005 On loan from the Ed Wolf collection

Green Jar Hand-built high-fired earthenware, painted with slips and underglaze painting under a clear matt glaze, 1998 On loan from the Ed Wolf collection

11

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Michael Casson

M

ichael Casson (1925–2003) was, in Emmanuel Cooper’s words, ‘one of the pioneers in the renaissance of studio pottery in the post-war period,

a greatly respected and charismatic teacher and educator who influenced several generations of potters’. Casson was deeply influenced by the work and the ethos of Bernard Leach and, in common with many British potters, found the means to put Leach’s ideas into practice, as well as develop a powerful ceramic voice of his own.

Casson practiced as a potter in London, and his first domestic works in earthenware used a tin glaze. Moving to Buckinghamshire in 1959, Casson turned to the production of well-designed and decorated gas reduction-fired earthenwares. He moved again in 1976, seeking a more rural location, setting up at Wobage Farm, Herefordshire near the Forest of Dean. Here Casson continued to experiment, finding that a wood-fired kiln and a salt glaze kiln gave him the means to produce a variety of works, now including individual pieces as well as repeat domestic items. His skills as a decorator were matched by an intuitive feel for form, giving his best works a spontaneous and harmonious total effect, and securing his international reputation.

Casson was an active supporter of a number of key craft organisations including the Crafts Centre of Great Britain; he was a founding member of the Craftsmen Potters Association and an influential member of the Crafts Study Centre.

Michael Casson: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1993–2000

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MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Jug Stoneware, tenmoku glaze over red slip decoration, 1977 Loan by courtesy of the Crafts Council P 262

Legged snake dish Stoneware, tenmoku inside ash glaze over paper resist and porcelain sgraffito, 1983 Loan by courtesy of the Crafts Council P 331

Jug Saltglazed stoneware, incised and sgraffito decoration, 1980s Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Creative Arts P.83.1

Small oval bottle Stoneware with wood ash glaze, 1960s Purchased for the Crafts Study Centre by Trustee Muriel Rose Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Creative Arts P.74.32

Jug Saltglazed stoneware, incised and sgraffito decoration, 1980s Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Creative Arts 2005.3

13

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Heather Child

H

eather Child (1911–97) was born in Winchester, and expressed an interest in the visual arts and crafts from an early age. She studied at the Chelsea

School of Art with Mervyn Oliver who taught her calligraphy amongst other art forms. Oliver had been one of the pupils of the renowned calligrapher Graily Hewitt, a favourite of Sydney Cockerell, who had himself been taught by Edward Johnston. Child’s work can therefore be seen in a direct lineage to Johnston, whose influence on English calligraphy was immense.

Heather Child’s first employment was prosaic: she wrote labels and notices for the Gas Light and Coke Company. However she was fortunate to work for an enlightened Managing Director, Sir David Milne-Watson, who encouraged her talent for calligraphy, and especially her skill for ornamental cartography. Her first two exhibits at the annual exhibition of the influential Society of Scribes and Illuminators depicted Hadley Chase (the Dorset residence of the Milne-Watson’s) and a Map of the Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s novels. After the second world war, her career developed strongly, and she worked on the Royal Air Force and American Air Force Books of Remembrance, as well as designing the heraldry for the Lifeboat Service Memorial Book. She wrote influentially, providing 245 illustrations for the Collins Pocket Book to Wild Flowers, and most notably, writing on calligraphy in Calligraphy Today and The Calligrapher’s handbook. Heather Child was a key member of the Boards of the Art Workers’ Guild as well as the Crafts Study Centre, and she donated significant collections of her own and other’s work to the Centre. She was awarded the MBE in 1975.

Heather Child: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1980–94 14

MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

RNLI gold medal award to Richard Matthew Evans

The sun in splendour

Watercolour design on vellum, 1959

paper, 1980

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

C.95.5ii.b

C. 96.3.d.i

Panel depicting the heraldic arms of the Worshipful Company of Salters

The sun in splendour

Preliminary drawing, pencil on tracing

Preliminary drawings and text, watercolour, ink and gold leaf, 1980

Watercolour paints and gold on vellum,

Crafts Study Centre

circa 1960

University College for the Creative Arts C.96.3.e

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts

Portrait of Heather Child

C.95.6

Chalk

Venice

D.W. Hawksley, 1963

Preliminary drawings, watercolour,

Crafts Study Centre

pencil and biro

University College for the Creative Arts

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts C.96.2.a

Venice Preliminary drawings, ink on tracing paper Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts C.96.2.b

15

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Edmund de Waal

E

dmund de Waal (born 1964) is a potter, writer and academic. His elegant installations of porcelain vessels have been shown to mesmeric effect in public

and gallery spaces as diverse as Blackwell (the Arts and Crafts House in Cumbria), Chatsworth House, High Cross House, Dartington, Kettle’s Yard Cambridge and at the new MIMA in Middlesbrough. These exhibitions and installations delicately and persuasively explore how the vessel (often a pure white porcelain sometimes barely touched with glaze colour) can change a perception of place. This becomes a subtle invasion of territory, a well mannered subterfuge into strongly determined historic space. The pot has become a symbol of change.

De Waal was taught pottery by Geoffrey Whiting who was one of Bernard Leach’s followers, working in the Oriental-English manner espoused by Leach. He developed his own personal interest in Japanese culture and ceramics, pursuing a career in making pots after his degree (in English, at Cambridge University). A later trip to Japan coincided with a commission to write a book about Bernard Leach, and this scholarly, critical account of the Leach tradition and its myths caused a dynamic reaction: it made some other accounts seem like hagiography. De Waal was also enabled by this explosive piece of writing to clarify his own intentions for his creative work and find his own individual voice. He describes the sense of ‘a lot of longing going on in my pots, a longing for a piece of music or a poem....or a memory of a journey...embedded feelings and thoughts that bring about a new piece of work’.

Edmund de Waal: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre from 2001 and Chair from 2005 to the present day 16

MAKERS

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MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Two porcelain buckets 2002 Loan by courtesy of Edmund de Waal

Below the waterline Porcelain, 2005 Loan by courtesy of Edmund de Waal

17

CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Robert Goodden

R

obert Goodden (1909-2002) had a distinguished career as an architect and designer, as an educationalist and as a contributor to significant arts boards,

including Chairman of the Crafts Council from 1977–82. He trained as an architect but in 1934 set up the company Asterisk Wallpapers. He associated with industrial manufacturing at this time, for example by designing mass produced domestic glass ware for Chance Brothers. During the Second World War, Goodden specialised in the sea-going camouflage of Royal Navy ships and vessels.

Goodden, in partnership with R.D. Russell, designed the Lion and the Unicorn Pavilion for the Festival of Britain, and developed his repertoire as a designer of silverware, including a silver and gilt tea-set intended for the Royal pavilion (now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum). In 1948 he was offered a Professorship at the Royal College of Art and worked within the department of silver and glass, later the School of Silversmithing and Jewellery. As Victor Margie said ‘Goodden nurtured the talents of generations of students...The school achieved international authority with our material culture being immeasurably enriched by its graduates’. Goodden became Pro-Rector of the Royal College of Art from 1966–74.

Goodden’s major commissions included silver and glass for Cambridge Colleges, Coronation hangings for Westminster Abbey and silver and gold plate for the Royal College of Art. Fiona MacCarthy described him as ‘a tall, shy, charming, vaguely patrician man with an enormous breadth of erudition and great human sympathy’.

Robert Goodden: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre: Chairman 1981–82; Vice Chairman 1982–92 18

MAKERS

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MOVERS

Henry Hammond

H

enry Hammond (1914–89) was highly-regarded both as a potter and as a teacher, initially working as a part-time tutor at Richmond and Farnham

schools of art, eventually settling on a permanent position at Farnham. He placed a good deal of emphasis on applied skills in the ceramics course at the West Surrey College of Art and Design (the successor institution to the Farnham Art School), something against the tenor of the times. He emphasised the need for a strong technical grounding, sharing this view with Paul Barron, and he strove to place craft activity at the centre of the secondary school curriculum through his work for the Society for Education through art.

Hammond was a skilled potter working in stoneware and porcelain, with an output of useful wares such as wheel thrown bottles and vases and bowls. These had elegant, tapering forms decorated with sensitive brush stroke patterns of natural materials, fishes and birds. He looked to the Far East for artistic inspiration and in this way can be seen as working within the Leach tradition. He espoused the view set out by his contemporary William Staite Murray that technique should be restricted in order to know a few things deeply, giving as Sophie Heath has said ‘the discipline of a rehearsed approach [enabling] a more sophisticated delivery’.

Hammond argued that the crafts were ‘a truly educative medium’ and the values of the Crafts Study Centre as a place to study, learn and enjoy the crafts through the handling of original artefacts, were close to his own beliefs.

Henry Hammond: Founder Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1970–88 19

CRAFTS

H E N RY

STUDY

CENTRE

H A M M O N D

:

E X H I B I T S

Bowl Stoneware with ash glaze and painted decoration of fish Loan by courtesy of Leszek and Pat Muszynski

Bowl Stoneware with ash glaze and brush decoration of plants Loan by courtesy of Leszek and Pat Muszynski

Vase Stoneware with iron glaze and painted decoration of Phoenix, 1960s Loan by courtesy of Leszek and Pat Muszynski

Vase Stoneware with ash glaze, iron and cobalt bands, circa 1982 Loan by courtesy of Pat and Ken Carter

Bowl Stoneware with ash glaze, abstract painting of seascape and motifs, circa 1983 Loan by courtesy of Pat and Ken Carter

Bowl Porcelain with painted decoration of a fish, 1980s The bowl was given by Henry Hammond to his fellow Crafts Study Centre Trustee Susan Bosence as a present Crafts Study Centre P.89.4

Watercolour with brush decoration of a fish Loan by courtesy of Leszek and Pat Muszynski

20

MAKERS

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MOVERS

John Leach

J

ohn Leach was born in 1939 in Pottery Cottage, St Ives, his father David Leach and his grandfather Bernard Leach. He was almost predestined to

become a potter, following as a significant exponent in the remarkable Leach ceramic dynasty, and studying as apprentice to his father and grandfather. He established the Muchelney Pottery in Somerset in 1964 and works there today, producing oil, and since 1976 wood-fired stonewares, for domestic use. His three-chambered wood-fired kiln was built in the Japanese climbing style of the 1920 kiln at the Leach Pottery, St Ives. These pots produced from it by Leach himself and his small team of studio assistants are hand thrown, often traditional in appearance, and reflecting medieval antecedents. Leach also hints at Oriental influences in pots which are reminiscent of leather drinking vessels, and he favours early American domestic hand-made pottery, but his place in ceramic history is firmly in a sturdy English tradition of useful and robust kitchen wares.

John Leach is also deeply committed to environmental issues. He purchased nine acres of land adjacent to his pottery in order to conserve a precious wetland habitat, planting 4,000 hardwood trees (planted to compensate for the wood burned in the pottery kiln) and creating a wildlife sanctuary. Leach describes ‘the biggest, best and most important thing I have created out of clay’ as his water wildlife haven.

John Leach: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1990–98

21

CRAFTS

J O H N

STUDY

L E A C H

:

CENTRE

E X H I B I T S

Stoneware plate Spiral wax-resist decoration with cut decorative marks, Muchelney Pottery, 2003 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

Cross-handled or ‘leather’ bottle Stoneware with wood ash over a khaki glaze, Muchelney Pottery, 2005 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

‘Black mood’ vase Sawdust-fired, Muchelney Pottery, 2006 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

‘Black mood’ bowl with two lugs Sawdust-fired, Muchelney Pottery, 2006 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

Tea caddy Fluted body, Cornish stone over khaki glaze, Muchelney Pottery, 2004 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

Plate Stoneware, snake pattern, wax-resist, Cornish stone over khaki glaze, Muchelney Pottery, 2007 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

Tall medieval jug Stoneware, wood fired with Cornish stone and khaki glaze, Muchelney Pottery, 2006 Loan by courtesy of John Leach

22

MAKERS

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MOVERS

Alan Peters

T

he eminent furniture designer-maker Alan Peters was born in 1933 in Petersfield, close to the Froxfield workshops set up by Edward Barnsley.

He was apprenticed to Edward Barnsley, and his restrained and elegant furniture carries the hallmark of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Peters went to London to take a teacher’s training course and then studied interior design at the Central School of Art and Design. In 1962 he moved to Grayshott in Surrey to set up his own business, establishing a reputation as a prominent artist designing domestic furniture and making individual pieces on commission. He moved to Devon in 1973 and was awarded a bursary by the Crafts Council to visit Japan. This trip proved highly influential in setting a new direction for his artistic ideas. These were particularly important during the craft revival of the 1970s. He taught at John Makepeace’s School for Craftsmen in Wood in Dorset.

Alan Peters is also well known as an author and his book Cabinetmaking: the professional approach is a lucid analysis of the challenges for aspiring furniture designers, as well as containing a rich resource of images of his creative output.

He has held significant Trustee positions including Vice Chairman of The Devon Guild of Craftsmen. He was awarded an OBE in 1990 and currently has a workshop in Minehead, Somerset.

Alan Peters: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1988–99

23

CRAFTS

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STUDY

P E T E R S

:

CENTRE

E X H I B I T S

Reading table English oak, commissioned for the Crafts Study Centre in 1981 Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Creative Arts 2006.24

Chair in ash and sycamore with a leather cushion Chairs of this standard design were made by Alan Peters as dining chairs or as Boardroom chairs for PosTel Ltd., London. The original chair in sycamore was commissioned as a oneoff by the Crafts Council.

Loan by courtesy of Alan and Laura Peters

Romanian-inspired chest Oak, 1998–2001 Commissioned for the celebrated ‘One Tree’ project and made from a 170-year-old oak tree from the National Trust’s Tatton Estate in Cheshire.

Loan by courtesy of Alan and Laura Peters

Collector’s cabinet Ebony and satin aluminium, 1972 Gift of Barbara Robertson Crafts Study Centre, University College for the Creative Arts 2006.25

24

MAKERS

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MOVERS

Robin Tanner

R

obin Tanner (1904–88) was a remarkable protagonist for the crafts. He became a teacher in 1924 working in schools in Greenwich and then in

Corsham and Chippenham, Wiltshire. A motivational Inspector of schools in primary education from 1935–64, he worked in Leeds, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. After his retirement, he continued to lecture and arrange displays, developing particular relationships for example with Dartington Hall, Devon and Cowley Manor, Gloucestershire. Tanner passionately believed that the study of the natural world and the hands-on exploration of arts and crafts, music and poetry were essential for the full development of children and teachers.

He was a prolific print maker, particularly after his retirement: keenly observing plants and rustic scenes, especially in Wiltshire, where he and his wife Heather Spackman had their house Old Chapel Field built in Kington Langley in the arts and crafts style. He developed an interest in topographical book illustration and his book on print making Wiltshire Village was highly successful. He used his role as a Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre with judgement and discretion, encouraging many noted artists to donate founding collections. The Tanner Gallery of the Crafts Study Centre is named as a tribute to Robin Tanner and his wife Heather.

Robin Tanner: Founder Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre, 1970–85

25

CRAFTS

R O B I N

STUDY

TA NN E R

CENTRE

:

E X H I B I T S

March

The wicket gate

Etching, 1982

Etching, final state, 1978

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

April

Wiltshire road maker

Etching, 1985

Etching 1928, reworked 1970

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

Still is the land

Woodland

Etching

Watercolour

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

Martin’s hovel

The gamekeeper’s cottage

Watercolour, 1928

Etching, second state, 1928

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

The old thorn

A garland for Heather’s 70th birthday, 1973

Watercolour

Silverpoint on baryta paper

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

Autumn bunch

Still Life

Egg tempera on canvas, 1942

Watercolour

Crafts Study Centre

Crafts Study Centre

University College for the Creative Arts

University College for the Creative Arts

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MAKERS

&

MOVERS

A country alphabet

monumental volumes of their work.

and slip case

These he bound and covered with their

The Old Stile Press, 1984

designs.

Text by Heather Tanner and

The two volumes played an important

illustrations by Robin Tanner. This

role in bringing together and inspiring

‘special edition’ volume is inscribed by

the group of people who were to become

the Tanners as a gift.

the first members of the Crafts Study

Crafts Study Centre

Centre Trust.

University College for the Creative Arts

Crafts Study Centre University College for the Creative Arts

Phyllis Barron 1890–1964 Dorothy Larcher 1884–1952 A record of their block-printed textiles: Volume One

2001.1.a

One of two volumes compiled in duplicate by Robin Tanner in 1968.

Presented to the Crafts Study Centre by Robin and Heather Tanner.

Robin and Heather Tanner became close friends of Phyllis Barron, who survived Dorothy Larcher by 12 years.

Phyllis left all of their life’s work to Robin Tanner with the evocative phrase: ‘He will know what to do with it’.

Anxious to record and preserve the work of these two leading 20th century hand-block printing textile artists, Robin Tanner worked closely with Phyllis Barron in planning the task of compiling a catalogue of their material.

Barron, however, died suddenly in 1964, leaving Tanner to complete two

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CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

Amelia Uden

A

melia Uden (born 1946) is known both as a woven textile artist and as an educator. Her art school education began at Reigate and Redhill School of

Art and Craft, where she first ‘contacted weaving’, taught by Morfudd Roberts.

This was followed by three years at Chelsea School of Art. Uden was a student of Marianne Straub’s at the Royal College of Art from 1968–71. She set up her own weaving workshop in 1973, after a short period in industry, which focused her need to work directly with materials and to be a maker. The work was produced between 1975–80. Uden says that ‘my work at that time was involved with the visual sensations of colour relationships within a structure of repetition, and a perverse excitement of breaking the vertical and horizontal line, intrinsic to weaving: warp threads becoming weft or appearing to disappear’.

Uden began her formal association with Farnham as an external examiner for the BA woven textiles degree at the West Surrey College of Art and Design. She then joined the teaching staff at Farnham, becoming subject leader for woven textiles until 2005. Her work on the development of the significant textile collection of the University College for the Creative Arts is a practical demonstration of her belief in the powerful educational and artistic exposure to original artefacts as a means of learning and inspiration for students. Her Trusteeship of the Crafts Study Centre (on the recommendation of Marianne Straub) gave her an additional opportunity to focus on the importance of continuing a craft collection with a special focus on woven textiles from influential makers.

Amelia Uden: Trustee of the Crafts Study Centre 1992 to the present day 28

MAKERS

&

MOVERS

E X H I B I T S

Woven constructed length Mercerised cotton gauze, cotton ground, 1975 Loan by courtesy of the Crafts Council T045

Woven sample Draw loom-woven procion-dyed cotton in geometrical design, cotton plain weave with mercerised cotton brocading, 1980 Loan by courtesy of the Crafts Council T046

Textile length Hand-woven cotton with extra warp and weft brocade, 1982 Loan by courtesy of the textiles collection, University College for the Creative Arts

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CRAFTS

STUDY

CENTRE

A C K N O WL E D G E M E N T S

Curator and text: Simon Olding Object selection and collections management: Jean Vacher Technical support: Michael Richards Textile arrangements: Sheila Harvey Photography: David Westwood Graphic design: Celsius Marketing and promotion: Susie Alcock Front of House support: Susan Campbell and Ingrid Stocker

The Crafts Study Centre is very grateful to the following organisations and individuals who have supported Makers & Movers by key loans from public and private collections: Barrett Marsden Crafts Council Central St Martins Museum and Study Collection University College for the Creative Arts Sylvia Backemeyer Richard Batterham Alison Britton Ken and Pat Carter Edmund de Waal John Leach Patricia Muszynski Alan and Laura Peters Ed Wolf

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