Craft Research - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2023

The editorial highlights how the practitioners featured in issue 14.2 seek intrinsic value within and through making, supported by relationships with the natural and social world. The contributions are clustered into three themes. In ‘materiality and nature’, Tara Chittenden explores ‘Ceramics in the wild: Deep mapping and the moon jars of Adam Buick’, and how the ceramicist’s vessels represent the cycle of a material, and life itself. Myriam Perret‘s ‘Rhythms in the production and commercialization of crafts in Chaco’ reports upon her ethnographic study of the Qow people of Argentina and their craft of cattail harvesting and weaving, revealing seasonal and weather-related choices. Theme 2, ‘making and metaphor’ includes ‘Data becomes quilt’, by Jayne Jackson, who analyses a range of influences and social semiotic meanings encoded within her own and others quilt-making. The relationship of social meanings and craft activities are researched by Miriam Gibson and Rachel Spronken-Smith’s ‘Learning in online and physical craft groups: Motivations and meanings’, while Linnea Kilpi, whose work is featured on the cover, presents ‘Meaning-making through experimental knitting practices’, supported by the concept of ‘Knittedness’. Theme 3, ‘tradition, heritage and the future’, begins with Sara Sintonen and Mikko Snellman’s portrait of ‘Tarmo Thorström’ whose contemporary craft practice is rooted in the cultural tradition of bobbin lace making in Rauma on the west coast of Finland. Wendy Ward’s review of the exhibition, We Are Commoners, speculates on how historical notions of sharing – as represented by ‘the commons’ and exemplified by the Right to Roam and Right to Repair movements – could be re-imagined as the basis for sustainable craft practice. Sarah Teasley’s (2022) Designing Modern Japan, is reviewed by Marie O’Mahony and the Tradition/Innovation: Craft and Future Intangible Cultural Heritage conference held at West Dean College in March 2023, by Paul Harper.

Creative encounters with topography and attempts to record and represent the patina of place become of growing importance as we find ways to explore human impact on our environment and to foreground the role of craft as a geo-intervention. Ceramicist Adam Buick maintains an inherently physical connection with the landscape as he walks through the local environment and as he digs for clay and collects materials. His process forms a series of deep maps, which emerge through his ceramic work. Both a concept and a practice, ‘deep mapping’ refers to an approach in which artists, scientists and scholars attempt to capture the different meanings and textures that are associated with particular places. This article discusses the potential of deep mapping as a craft research methodology. To do so, it takes as a case study Earth to Earth (2011–12), in which Buick documents the weathering away of his raw clay moon jar using time-lapse photography. His resulting film and photographic stills tell a story of movement, time and evolution. Buick’s jars draw attention to the matter we manipulate as being subject to its own environmental conversations and witnessing of change. The deep map offers the potential for a methodology that embraces multiplicity, simultaneity and complexity, encouraging a spatially facilitated understanding of our craft stories and products. Framed as a conversation and not a statement, deep maps are inherently unstable, continually unfolding and changing in response to new data and new insights. More than a collapsed or failed pot, Buick’s jars are a deep map of an adventure.

From within a network of movements, the dialogue established between craftswomen and material takes the form of craft practice. As a set of beats, what are the rhythms expressed through the crafting process? This question is approached by following closely the way artisans, from the Qom people of Resistencia (capital of the province of Chaco, Argentina), work with cattail, a native plant that grows in flooded environments such as lagoons and estuaries. The craft generated is mainly sold at the local market. The research expands upon the production and commercialization process. The article is part of an ongoing investigation started in 2012. The ethnographic method was used with information obtained through participant observation, ethnographic interview, informal and formal documentation. Among the multiple rhythms concerning the work, are those linked to: frost, sun, moon, rain, urbanization, sale opportunities and housework. Paradoxically, although a product arises, it is not based on the accounting of a homogeneous ‘working hour’. The selling agreements integrate heterogeneous rhythms that are managed with various strategies including rationing and/or storage of materials, order distribution among several people, batch delivery and drying with heat-emitting devices. Rhythms are inevitably expressed, if not in the sales agreement, through bodies, plants and forms.

Finnish lace artist Tarmo Thorström redefines the conventional understanding of lace, conceiving it as an absence rather than a presence – a philosophical stance that permeates his innovative bobbin lace creations. His artistic repertoire interlaces disparate themes, transgressing the boundaries of traditional lace artistry. The city of Rauma, located on Finland’s western coast, serves as both muse and canvas, showcasing Thorström’s evocative works in its urban landscape and holding annual bobbin lace festivals to commemorate this living tradition. Thorström’s engagement extends beyond artistic production, encompassing pedagogical and research endeavours that traverse the fields of craft education and studying materials. This multifaceted involvement is underscored by his publications, notably a work on bobbin lace crafting, highlighting its significance within the continuum of cultural heritage. Moreover, Thorström’s artistic praxis embodies sustainability imperatives, evident in his repurposing of discarded materials, such as reclaimed bobbins and threads. This ethos aligns with broader discourses on sustainable crafting practices and material ecologies. Beyond craft, Thorström’s artistic output serves as a locus for profound philosophical contemplation on the nature of existence and humanity’s relationship with the cosmos. This portrait article situates Thorström’s original approach within the larger discourse on materiality and artistic practice, shedding light on the transformative potential of lace as a medium for philosophical and artistic expression.

Review of: Designing Modern Japan, Sarah Teasley (2022)

London: Reaktion Books, 424 pp.,

ISBN 987-1-78023-202-7, h/bk, £30

ISBN 978-1-78023-230-0, e-book, £30

Review of: We Are Commoners: A Craftspace National Touring Exhibition, Curated by Emma Daker and Deirdre Figueiredo

The Civic, Barnsley, 5 February–23 April 2022

Review of: Tradition/Innovation: Craft and Future Intangible Cultural Heritage, jointly organized by The Craft Study Centre, University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and West Dean College, West Dean¹

West Sussex, UK, 30 March 2023