This article is about the contemporary British magazine. For the early 20th century American magazine, see The Craftsman (magazine).
Craftsman Magazine Issue 182
Craftsman Magazine is UK based publication for professional craftspeople and hobbyists wanting to sell their work, with a focus primarily on selling through Craft Fairs and Trade Fairs in Britain. It was launched in 1983. The magazine developed alongside the UK craft industry and became an important resource for people wanting to earn a living from their work.
The publishers, Angie and Paul Boyer, Directors of PSB Design & Print Consultants Limited, first realised there was a need for such a publication when they were selling their own work at UK Craft Fairs in the early 1980s; there was nothing available at that time to inform people about the craft fairs, who organised them, where and when they were taking place or how to book stands at events.
As the UK Craft industry expanded and developed over the years, the publishers realised that the profile of the magazine needed to change as well, so in the summer of 2007 they relaunched the publication as Craftsman craft&design Magazine with a new format, new design and a more contemporary approach to the content. The aims remain the same, to help craftspeople in Britain to earn a living from their work.
Development and History
Craftsman Magazine Issue 1
The first issue of Craftsman Magazine was published Winter 1983 by Paul and Angie Boyer, Directors of PSB Design and Print Consultants Limited, a small graphic design business based in Commercial Street, London E1. The first issue was 16 pages, printed in 2 colours onto newsprint and 30,000 copies were circulated free of charge at craft fairs all over Britain. The editorial in the first issue featured Bookbinding, Batik, Jewellery, Leather Carving and Craft Fairs. The aim of the magazine was to put craft people in touch with each other, to inform craft makers and buyers about where and when craft fairs were being held, and to provide information about who organised craft fairs in Britain and how to book a stand at the fairs. Advertising was mainly from craft fair organisers.
Husband and wife team, Paul and Angie Boyer continued to publish Craftsman Magazine 4 times a year from their London address until 1985 when, with issue number 5, they moved to Littlehampton in Sussex. By that time an annual subscription had been made available, editorial content had been expanded to include Business Advice for craft people and advertising had grown to reflect the growth in the number of craft fairs being held all over Britain. Events being advertised were at venues such as Stately Homes, Town and Village Halls, Wildlife Parks, Schools and Colleges, Hotels, Racecourses, Concert Halls, Community Centres, National Trust Properties, Leisure Centres, Sports Halls, Exhibition Centres, Shopping Centres, Airports and even US military Bases in the UK. Specialist Miniatures shows were also being advertised.
In 2002 and 2003, informative Directories were included within the pages of Craftsman Magazine; subjects included Craft Fair Organisers, Craft Supplies, Courses and Workshops, Craft Galleries, Guilds & Associations.
Issue 191 June 2007, with a cover price of £2.50 and 52 pages was the last to be published as Craftsman Magazine. With a new title and a new format, it was relaunched by Angie and Paul Boyer, Directors of PSB Design and Print Consultants Limited, as Craftsman craft&design Magazine. The first issue under the new title and format was July/August 2007, Issue 192. (The issue numbering continued from one format to the next).
Shows and Events
CraftAid
In 1986, Craftsman Magazine organised CraftAid, a national craft auction in aid of Save the Children. Craft people all over Britain donated work, the Craftsman offices in Littlehampton were turned into storage space for all the donated pieces, which ranged from pots by well-known ceramicists Lucie Rie, Michael Cardew and Janet Leach, through to precious metal jewellery, designer clothes, toys and teddy bears - all manner of work from both professional and hobby crafts people. Clandon Park, a National Trust Property in the South East of England, was hired as the venue for the auction, which took place over a weekend just before Christmas. People working in the craft industry donated their time to help with the auction - craft fair organisers, craft makers, friends and family. This unique event not only raised a substantial amount of money for charity, it also brought the British Craft industry together in a way that had never happened before.
National Fleece to Jumper Spinning Competition
In the same year, 1986, Craftsman Magazine organised the first National Fleece to Jumper Spinning Competition, which ran for 10 years at various craft fair venues in England, drawing supporters and participants from all over the world, including New Zealand, where the competition originated. Up to six teams, each made up of six people took part. The challenge was to knit a child's size jumper from a raw, unwashed fleece using a previously unseen pattern in the shortest possible time within a four-hour time limit. Teams started by sorting the fleece and selecting the best fibres. These were then carded, spun, plied and knitted. The final Fleece to Jumper Spinning Competition was held in 1995 at East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley, West Yorkshire, a National Trust property. It was won by the Craven Guild, who retained the title and the trophy as it was their third consecutive win. It was also the 10th year of the competition and the centenary year of the National Trust, a timely conclusion to a popular competition.
The Craftsman Magazine Fleece to Jumper Speed Record was developed from the main competition and gave individual teams the opportunity to work against the clock to a set pattern, without competing with any other teams at the same time. In 1989 the Cambridge Carders set the first record at 3 hours, 7 minutes, 5 seconds. The record was subsequently broken a number of times, but the Cambridge Carders finally reclaimed it at the Alexandra Palace Christmas Craft Fair, setting a time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, 12 seconds.
Craftmakers Materials Show
In October 1999, Craftsman Magazine organised their first Craftmakers Materials Show in London. Exhibitors were companies which supplied materials, equipment and services to craftspeople and hobbyists, plus craft guilds and associations, artists, designers and craft book publishers. Visitors could purchase art and craft supplies, watch demonstrations of art and craft techniques, take part in workshops and business advice sessions. Held annually until 2002, also in Harrogate from 2001 - 2002.
Craftsman Magazine Awards
British Craft Trade Fair Newcomer Award
In 1996, Craftsman Magazine sponsored the Newcomer Award at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, for the first time. The winner was Christine Cummings from Ormskirk in Lancashire with her Ceramic Swine sculptures. (Sponsorship of this competition continues under the magazine's new title of Craftsman craft&design Magazine).
Ros Ingram, winner of the Craftsman Magazine Student Award at Art in Clay 1998
Student Award at Art in Clay
In 1999, Craftsman Magazine sponsored the Student Award at Art in Clay (a ceramics show held at Hatfield, Hertfordshire) for the first time. It was presented in recognition of the quality of design and making of the work exhibited, the student/graduate's potential to earn a living from their work. The aim of the award was to help a young graduate to start up and run a successful business working as a potter or ceramic artist. In 1999, the award was presented to Mirka Golden-Hann for her hand thrown salt glazed pottery. Sponsored until 2007, the final Craftsman Magazine Student Award went to Kerry Williamson. Each year's winner had their work featured as a front cover article in Craftsman Magazine and were also presented with a commemorative plate specially made by Laurence McGowan.
Craftsman Award at Potfest
In 2002, Craftsman Magazine sponsored the potters’ competition at Potfest in the Pens (a ceramics show held in Penrith, Cumbria) for the first time. The concept of the competition was for exhibitors at Potfest in the Pens to make a piece to reflect a specific theme; the challenge was to use techniques different from those they usually employed in their work. With a theme of ‘Dish of the Day’ in 2002, the winner was Dennis Kilgallon of Red Dust Ceramics, whose work was subsequently the subject of a front cover feature 138 January 2003. (Sponsorship of this competition continues under the magazine's new title of Craftsman craft&design Magazine).
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated related tools like scissors, carving implements, or hooks. It is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, clay, etc. One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used. In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 5000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village. Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional term craftsman is nowadays often replaced by artisan and by craftsperson (craftspeople).
Bernard Howell Leach, was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".
The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary craft in the United Kingdom, and is funded by Arts Council England.
Gustav Stickley was an American furniture manufacturer, design leader, publisher, and a leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley's design philosophy was a major influence on American Craftsman architecture.
American craft is craft work produced by independent studio artists working with traditional craft materials and processes. Examples include wood, glass, clay (ceramics), textiles, and metal (metalworking). Studio craft works tend to either serve or allude to a functional or utilitarian purpose, although they are just as often handled and exhibited in ways similar to visual art objects.
American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its immediate ancestors in American architecture are the Shingle style, which began the move away from Victorian ornamentation toward simpler forms; and the Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright. The name "Craftsman" was appropriated from furniture-maker Gustav Stickley, whose magazine The Craftsman was first published in 1901. The architectural style was most widely used in small-to-medium-sized Southern California single-family homes from about 1905, so that the smaller-scale Craftsman style became known alternatively as "California bungalow". The style remained popular into the 1930s, and has continued with revival and restoration projects through present times.
The concept of mingei (民芸), variously translated into English as "folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, including the potters Hamada Shōji (1894–1978) and Kawai Kanjirō (1890–1966). As such, it was a conscious attempt to distinguish ordinary crafts and functional utensils from "higher" forms of art – at the time much admired by people during a period when Japan was going through rapid westernisation, industrialisation, and urban growth. In some ways, therefore, mingei may be seen as a reaction to Japan's rapid modernisation processes.
John Axel Prip, also known as Jack Prip (1922–2009), was an American master metalsmith, industrial designer, and educator. He was known for setting standards of excellence in American metalsmithing. His works and designs have become famous for bringing together the formal, technical tradition of Danish design into harmony with the American desire for innovation. Several of his designs for the Reed and Barton Company are still in production today.
craft&design was a magazine about crafts in the UK. The magazine was originally published as Craftsman Magazine from its launch in 1983 up until July 2007. With the March–April 2017 issue, its print edition folded and it became an only-online magazine. In December 2018, the online magazine and the "craft&design" website closed due to the retirement of their owners.
Craft Ontario, legally known as the Ontario Crafts Council (OCC), is a member-based, not-for-profit arts service organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The organization is dedicated to promoting the recognition and appreciation of craft and craftspeople in Ontario and beyond.
Object: Australian Design Centre is a leading non-profit organisation for the promotion of contemporary design. It plays a critical role in building and supporting design culture in Australia. The organisation previously occupied office and gallery space on the redeveloped St. Margaret's Hospital site at Surry Hills, Sydney and is now located in William House, in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. It is a member of the peak organisation, Australian Craft and Design Centres (ACDC), which represents the professional design and craft sector in all states and territories in Australia.
The Canadian Handicrafts Guild was an association of Canadians involved in handicrafts that was founded in Montreal in 1906. At first the goal was to preserve and market traditional home crafts that were seen as being at risk of dying out. Demand for high quality products and a shift towards more "professional" craftspeople and modern designs placed stress on the organization. In 1967 the provincial branches became autonomous, and subsequently evolved separately. At the national level the Guild was merged with the Canadian Craftsman's Association in 1974 to form the Canadian Crafts Council, now the Canadian Crafts Federation.
Eudorah Moore was an American curator and patron of the arts. She is regarded as revolutionizing California design and for her advocacy of craft as an art form.
Charles Counts (1934–2000) was an American potter, designer, textile artist, quilter, teacher, writer, and activist. Counts worked to preserve the art forms of his native Appalachia, and later moved to Nigeria where he taught until his death.
Mary Eleanor Joachim (1874–1957) was a New Zealand book-binder in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
Denise Wren was an Australian-born British studio potter and craftsperson. Wren was one of the first female studio potters in Britain. She studied and taught with the Kingston School of Art, Knox Guild and Camberwell College of Arts. Wren and her family subsequently set up the Oxshott Pottery and wrote on the subjects of ceramics, textiles and making.
Craft Horizons is a periodical magazine that documents and exhibits crafts, craft artists, and other facets of the field of American craft. The magazine was founded by Aileen Osborn Webb and published from 1941 to 1979. It included editorials, features, technical information, letters from readers, and photographs of craft artists, their tools, and their works. The magazine both "documented and shaped" the changing history of the American craft movement. It was succeeded by American Craft in 1979.
Jan Dunn born in Springvale, Victoria, Australia, was a potter, ceramicist and teacher.
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