I’ve just finished watching MASTERCRAFT on BBC2. This week the participants were three people who were given just six weeks to learn the craft of weaving that normally takes someone about five years to learn.
In true TV fashion the pressure was piled on and despite the participants themselves not being competitive it was all still about competition. My heart went out to Momtaz Begum-Hossain who approaches craft in an intuitive way. The other two were off the starting blocks and away. Had they been skaters then I suspect they would have received 5.9 from most judges for technical skill but I’m not so sure about artistic interpretation. Perfect is not always preferable. The comment from someone who suggested that Tref’s work was so perfect that it could have been done by a machine summed it all up for me. I like to see the hand of the maker.
I hope we will see more of Momtaz’s weaving. I will keep an eye on her website/blog. Now that the TV programme has been broadcast the secret is out. Come on Momtaaz, post us some pics.
C r a f t y P e o p l e ---- confessions of a lapsed reader 
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 12:04
I wholeheartedly agree with your synopsis and felt the outcome was not satisfying. I felt the whole process was more focussed on the ‘technical’ rather than the ‘craft’. I would have liked to have seen all the students do a ‘free’ piece to allow them less rigid constraints. An enjoyable glimpse into weaving all the same.