Craft as Anarchy/Collective Responsibility/Pirate Lifestyle

This morning I learned that New Model Army, is not only the name of a great band, but was a real army that could not be counted upon to follow orders. Unlike Blackwater or Xe's mercenary army, an army that... well, look it up in wikipedia, I'm too lazy to respew the whole story.

We keep some decent reading material in the bathroom, and after months of enjoying and re-enjoying "Great Bikes of the '70s", "Cheap Date" (find it right now, it's a great compilation of a killer British zine from the '90s), a compendium of all the #1 hits from 1955 - 1988, and assorted mid-'70s National Lampoon magazines, I began adding some of the huge stacks of issues of "Craft" magazine (British) from the '70s and '80s that I found at an estate sale last weekend.

Among the sometimes painfully tasteful items in the March/April 1977 issue is an article titled "Masterless Men", about the historic origins of craftspeoples' independence. "Independence has always been more important to the craftsman than even his second Rolls Royce," author John Fletcher asserts. Back in the day (the day being the late medieval times), they organized their own communities, governed themselves, bartered with each other, farmed their own plots, grazed their own animals, helped out smugglers if they lived within 50 miles of the sea, partied hard, and when the going got rough, put together groups of travelling morris dancers to raise funds. One interesting thing as well is that they educated themselves, "on a level comparable with any present [1977] university, and that bit more fresh and vital because it was disscovered as a result of interest rather than imposition, and could be evaluated 'alongside work and the occasions of humanity'." They often, notably "self-educated craftsman William Blake", held empowering views of religion, despite some of their number being burned at the stake by their more fearful, hierarchical countrymen.

Lots of spicy, wild history here, hopefully enough to inspire you to look these rebels up yourself. The icing on the cake for me was "St. Monday", an icon of their self-determined schedule. Their work hard/play hard schedule would make any present-day macho wannabe pee his pants, I imagine. "In a craftsman's cottage, work would usually cease on a Saturday afternoon. The night would be spent in boozing, the Sunday would be spent at church - usually non-conformist - and attending to family and community matters, the Monday, or Saint Monday as it was universally known, was not a working day, but traditionally a time for the whole working population to drink and make merry. Tuesday, or Saint Tuesday, was a day of national recovery from Monday, and a day on which a tentative start to work was made. Gradually through the week the momentum and rhythm of work would build up in the craftsman's cottage, until by Friday night things were usually going so fast, that the whole family would work right through Friday night into Saturday." Keep in mind this pre-dates the industrial age.

As someone who punched a time clock at the same factory for ten years (name withheld to protect the guilty, namely me for putting up with it that long), I had a great time transiting into a part time job, then to full-time work at home in my own studio. It took some time and self-observation, but I did find my own working rhythm. Or am I just putting off doing my taxes and getting back on the beadwork-creation train by doing this blog post? Ha!

My rationale for doing this (supposedly quick) blog post is that Kim Werker just interviewed me and posted it on her website http://www.kimwerker.com/. I read it, then realized that if she's posting this blog address, I'd better get y'all something to read! So, welcome to this blog, I know you're new to it because I just began doing it. By the way, Kim is great with her 5 interview questions format. Alice Velasquez, aka Alice Bag of the legendary original punk band the Bags, also has a grrrreat, thoughtful blog http://www.alicebag.blogspot.com/ and a website http://www.alicebag.com/ that has a ton of 8-question-format interviews with other great original punk women.

Happy Saint Monday!