Arts and Crafts Mouvment

The Arts and Craft movement emerged towards the end of the 19th century as a reaction to the increasing industrialisation and over ornamentation of the Late Victorian period. Inspired by the socialist writings of John Ruskin and to some extent those of Carl Marx, the members of the movement who were led by William Morris, looked to the medieval period for their inspiration. The architect AN Pugin led the Gothic revival, while his contemporaries Charles Robert Ashbee, T. J. Cobden Sanderson, Walter Crane, Nelson Dawson, Phoebe Anna Traquair, Herbert Tudor Buckland, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Christopher Dresser, Edwin Lutyens, William De Morgan, Ernest Gimson, William Lethaby, Edward Schroeder Prior,Barnsley brothers Frank Lloyd Wright, Gustav Stickley, Greene & Greene, Charles Voysey, Christopher Whall and artists in the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Were responsible for furniture, buildings, fabrics and paintings.
Generally speaking (there were some contrasting views) all wanted to see an end to the dehumanising effect of the accelerating mechanisation of the industrial age and a return to the master craftsmen. They belived that a single craftsman should be responsible for the whole process of his trade. That machines should only be used for reliving the tedium of repetetif operations or the heaviest of tasks. Some did not even agree with this use of machines. Being a bit of a Luddite myself I do sympathise with this view, however it is taking the romantic vision too far if one is to survive in a competative environment.
Edward Barnsley the son of Sidney Barnsley was a keen proponent of this method of working as was his father and conitnued up to the end of the second world war. Financial difficulties came with the changing nature of work and he was finally forced to accept the need for small batch production and limited machinery.

Early Arts and Crafts furniture was almost exclusivly oak with peged mortise joints. Heavy solid and with wrought hardware. The movment evolved and had far reaching influence that still continues to this day.
Referances of this influence would include:

Europe
**Widely exhibited in Europe, the Arts and Crafts movement's qualities of simplicity and honest use of materials negating historicism inspired designers like Henry van de Velde and movements such as Art Nouveau, the Dutch De Stijl group, Vienna Secession, and eventually the Bauhaus. The movement can be assessed as a prelude to Modernism, where pure forms, stripped of historical associations, would be once again applied to industrial production.
In Russia, Viktor Hartmann, Viktor Vasnetsov and other artists associated with Abramtsevo Colony sought to revive the spirit and quality of medieval Russian decorative arts in the movement quite independent from that flourishing in Great Britain.
The Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, played an independent role in the development of Modernism, with its Wiener Werkstätte Style.
The British Utility furniture of World War II was simple in design and based on Arts and Crafts ideas.
In Ireland, the Honan Chapel, located in Cork, Ireland, on the grounds of University College Cork, built in 1916 is internationally recognised as representative of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement.
[edit] United States
In the United States, the Arts and Crafts Movement took on a distinctively more bourgeois flavor. While the European movement tried to recreate the virtuous world of craft labor that was being destroyed by industrialization, Americans tried to establish a new source of virtue to replace heroic craft production: the tasteful middle-class home. They thought that the simple but refined aesthetics of Arts and Crafts decorative arts would ennoble the new experience of industrial consumerism, making individuals more rational and society more harmonious. In short, the American Arts and Crafts Movement was the aesthetic counterpart of its contemporary political movement: Progressivism.
In the United States, the Arts and Crafts Movement spawned a wide variety of attempts to reinterpret European Arts and Crafts ideals for Americans. These included the "Craftsman"-style architecture, furniture, and other decorative arts such as the designs promoted by Gustav Stickley in his magazine, The Craftsman. A host of imitators of Stickley's furniture (the designs of which are often mislabeled the "Mission Style") included three companies formed by his brothers, the Roycroft community founded by Elbert Hubbard, the "Prairie School" of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Country Day School movement, the bungalow style of houses popularized by Greene and Greene, utopian communities like Byrdcliffe and Rose Valley, and the contemporary studio craft movement. Studio pottery — exemplified by Grueby, Newcomb, Teco, Overbeck and Rookwood pottery, Bernard Leach in Britain, and Mary Chase Perry Stratton's Pewabic Pottery in Detroit — as well as the art tiles by Ernest A. Batchelder in Pasadena, California, and idiosyncratic furniture of Charles Rohlfs also demonstrate the clear influence of Arts and Crafts Movement. Mission, Prairie, and the 'California bungalow' styles of homebuilding remain tremendously popular in the United States today.** (Source Wikipidia )

Bodged or Botched

Someone the other day was explaining to me how he had "bodged" something he was making, That's great said I, you made a good job of it then. "Are you mucking about" he said "what are you talking about". So I had to explain that this was my favorite way of starting up a conversation in defense of the much maligned Bodger. Bad work is Botched not Bodged, in fairness I think the two words have become confused simply because they sound so alike and if you have never heard of a Bodger, whats the harm anyway. Right lets put the record straight. The Bodgers were highly skilled craftsmen turners who made chair spindles and turnings for furniture factories, who in turn used them to make chairs.

The bodgers would camp in a forest and cut coppice poles, previously cut trees that send up new growth and are a by product of the main forestry work. They would then build a shelter in which to sleep and construct all the equipment that they needed from timber they cut in the forest. The only things they brought with them were their turning chisels, draw knife, an axe and a froe for splitting and two metal screw points. These points they used to secure and hold the turnings on the pole lathe they would construct.

At the height of their popularity during the mid 19th century, there were a great number of bodgers working in and around High Wycombe the main centre of chair production in the UK. In fact there were so many chair factories there, that it was said " if you see a man with all his fingers, he's a tourist" so poor were the working conditions, with little or no guarding on the highly dangerouse machines. Sorry, I'm wandering away from the Bodgers here, but I do like these side roads. Anyway, before turning the parts the Bodgers would rough shape the spindles with a draw knife and stack these up ready for turning. These stacks were know as Bodger's gold. Although there really wasn't that much money involved for the Bodgers a couple of pence for each leg at most. So they really had to work hard from sun-up to sun-down if they were to earn enough for the year.

We can see much of the Bogers work in the many fine old Windsor chairs that still exist, I have two very fine smokers bow chairs that were made in High Wycombe. It's interesting to feel the fine crisp turnings and note that they are slightly oval. This is a sign that they were turned while the wood was still green and are genuine "Bodged Turnings" with not a hint of botching in sight.