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This study explores the relationship between wood-crafting activity and technological development in metal tools during the Late-Middle and Late Bronze Age in Southern England. It suggests that a number of tool types and forms can be characterised as direct responses to specific crafting processes. The study further suggests that through analysis of those tools and crafting processes, the socio-technological relationships between craftspeople and materials can be better explored. The thesis makes a case for the importance of wood-use during the British Bronze Age as a material key both to a range of craft activities and technological change. The discussion highlights the lack of a cohesive analysis of its use, potential and material relationships. It suggests that a semantic approach to craft practice can inform as to how those practices were facilitated, and that particular craft processes focussed on wood-use are manifested in surviving tools. Four tool types are examined - socketed axes, gouges, chisels and saws; their morphology and structure are analysed to discern variations in function and structural trends which are suggestive of common approaches to production and use. The results of this analysis are linked to woodcrafting practices to highlight how particular forms of each tool type were targeted to activity. The study concludes by arguing that Bronze Age tool forms, and their production, were the result of a complex network of social, technological and developmental influences. It finds that a number of forms were indeed targeted to specific wood-crafting tasks, and that tools ostensibly produced separately followed common structural trends which derived from those tasks. The study also concludes that certain tool forms such as saws manifest multi-material developmental origins, and that analysis based on crafting functions has the potential to provide a more cohesive perspective of Bronze Age tool development than has previously been developed.

Textile conservation, defined here as the preservation, investigation and presentation of textiles, is often viewed largely as a technical and aesthetic problem. This research develops an alternative view by understanding objects as being subject to both material and social change. The dynamic aspects of this material and social process is emphasised as ‘stuff happens’. This research proposes, and provides evidence for, a material culture approach to textile conservation, and demonstrates its development and application. An analysis of case studies shows how the material and the social interact at the point of assessment and intervention. Examination of the material aspects of textile conservation reveals that social values influence decision-making. Values held at the time of conservation are shown to depend on the categories used. Investigation of these categories demonstrates that any anomalous quality of the textile undergoing conservation allows for contestation of social values. As values change over time, analysis of each conservation assessment and intervention reveals a comparison of values held at different times viewed retrospectively. The resulting approach is centred on the interaction between things, persons and language where each mediates relations of the others. It is argued that this material culture approach enhances understanding of the dynamic material and social environment of textile conservation principles and practices.

Nigerian textile and clothing industries is face with crisis under the pressure of influx of smuggled second-hand clothing and cheap and poor quality of Chinese textiles. The situation has resulted to closure of many textile industries and massive unemployment with inability of the few existing industries to compete favourably base on price. The study was carried out in Abeokuta among tie-dye/batik practitioners and consumers of tie-dye/batik products with the aim to examine the challenges facing the resist dyeing industries. The research method is divided into three: Theoretical- this involves using secondary data from books, journal, newspaper, and the web to gather background information; Statistical- this involves the use of questionnaire to gather primary data. The data collected was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientist); and Visual- this entails the use of images to establish facts and make judgement on the basis of the facts discovered. The findings revealed that the challenges facing the practitioners are multi-facet ranging from poor educational status, lack of adequate training/re-training programmes, poor financial status, low customers’ patronage, poor management and marketing skill, lack of adequate and functional social amenities, low purchasing power of consumers who often buy on credit and pay on instalment (some don’t bother to pay their debt), increased competition from smugglers of second-hand clothing and imported Chinese textiles, poor/ no knowledge of information technology, low access to international/ overseas markets and minimal willingness to take risk. Consumers of tie-dye/batik are pertinent to the study. The findings from the consumers shows that about half of the consumers interviewed cannot afford to buy clothes monthly while slightly more than half buy clothes on credit and pay on instalment. The industry has being affected with change in taste of consumers, consequently one third of the consumers do not patronise tie-dye/batik fabrics. Consumers pointed out that tie-dye/batik fabrics are not colourfast and the designs are too common (frequently seen). Consumers also complained of poor customers services of the practitioners. Base on the findings, the study proposes holistic approach to the challenges. A sustainable model of five major pillars (Continuous innovation, Customer Relationship Management, Government Policy Support, Networking and Practitioners Personal Capacity Development) is proposed. Absence of any of the pillar will result to sustainability collapse of tie-dye/batik industry. Other model being proposed include establishment of an Export Centre with an effective and efficient two way communication model; EVIPI an acronym of English words to stimulate innovative entrepreneurial drive in niche marketing, a model for internal secondhand clothing to revisit the pass me down clothing culture among the Yoruba and a networking model to complement each other for development.

Thesis (Masters Diploma (Technology))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town,1989 / In iniustrialised societies which are !:JecoIninJ increasingly reliant on ca:rprter te::hnology the proliferation of han::lcraft would seem to be an anachramism. 'Ihis phenomenon has been explored from the viewpoint of the discipline of design and !OClre specifically in the areas relating to interiors and furniture. Against the background of a survey of contemporary activity in South Africa the historical evolution of craft has been examined in an attenpt to trace the relevance of this recent occurrence. The quality of idealism has been identified in that category of craft which emerged fram the Arts and Crafts Movement of last century. 'Ihis idealism in concert with the crafts emanating from the earlier material cultures of southern Africa has been proposed as a possible influence on design. A practical component has been included in the study in the form of experiments in han:icrafting pieces of furniture. The intention has been to gain urrlerstanding of the process and assist in furtherirrJ this particular craft.

See Coversheet for system requirements. The aim of the research is to integrate computer technologies and environmentally - sensitive materials and processes into the practice of the ceramic designer-maker, in order to assess the impact of new technologies on practice. A critical contextual review (including analysis of visual material) revealed a developing interest in environmental issues and computer technologies in designer-maker practice. A shift away from a philosophy which historically has been anti-industrial, towards a wider spectrum of craft production was noted. This diversity was shown in the types of production and the scale of manufacture - from ‘one-offs’ to industrial manufacture. New technologies were acknowledged by critics, commentators and practitioners as facilitating this development, although concerns about the potentially detrimental affect that computer technology could have on craft skills was voiced. A link between a pragmatic philosophy of ‘craft’ practice and new approaches to computer systems design highlighted a perception of the validity of ‘craft’ as a contemporary skill. The lack of established methodologies for practice-based ceramic design research has led to the development of a naturalistic approach within this work which is both holistic and emergent. By necessity this methodology places the design researcher at the centre of the inquiry, and uses practice as the main research vehicle. Selected research outcomes were peer reviewed through two significant international touring exhibitions: ‘Hot Off the Press: Ceramics and Print’ and ‘Objects of Our Time’. Initial investigations concentrated on the development of environmentally-sensitive lustre glazes [lead and cadmium free] incorporating an innovative ‘safe’ reduction firing system. Subsequently, ceramic surface designs and three dimensional forms were developed through the integration of: computer assisted design work (CAD); computer assisted manufacture (CAM); colours and glazes; and environmentally-sensitive screen printing, and existing making methods. The outcome was new aesthetic qualities and an extension of practical capabilities. A critical framework for the analysis of research outcomes was developed in order to make explicit and transferable some of the tacit knowledge embodied in research investigations. The analysis was developed through the use of a computer database system from which an electronic document was developed, allowing the integration of a large amount of visual material into the thesis. The research demonstrated that the integration of new technologies into the holistic and emergent practice of the ceramic designer-maker was appropriate. Many advantages of computer technologies for the ceramic practitioner are identified as transferable to the wider field of designer-maker practice and embody the potential to enhance future developments in this field.

Knitting always begins with a line. As the needles and hands work together, performing the same action over and over again, the line quickly becomes a collection of lines, crossing, looping and locking. The looping and locking generates a surface, and the surface becomes a form. Knitting generates form. Knitting is commonly categorized as a craft, associated with quick hands, idle time, and everyday objects that clothe us, and as a result, the technique is often overlooked and rarely pursued beyond its’ culturally constructed boundaries. What if knitting constructed new forms that transcended the ordinary and the expected, and challenged tradition? What if those forms spoke to shape, space, and light? The following collection of lines documents research and material explorations in an attempt to reinvent and redefine the boundaries and application of a traditional arts and crafts technique.

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This thesis analyzes Rabi­ Yehuda Halevy synagogue, which Victor Babani designed and Francisco Canovas built from 1941 to 1942 in the Colonia Roma Sur of Mexico City. I focus on its formal characteristics, as well as its socio-historical context. I examine late-nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century life for Sephardic Jews in Mexico: their cause for immigration, experience in their new homeland, and relations with other Jewish groups and non-Jews in the city. I explore the use of style and iconography in the synagogue in relation to the history and prior employment of these architectural features. Defining "style" in the Rabi­ Yehuda Halevy demands an understanding of the employment of a particular formal language in the design of minority groups' architecture. The process of finding a style to portray national identity in Mexico was parallel to the Mexican Sephardim's use of architecture to articulate their own identity in the city.