The taxidermist’s apprentice: stitching together the past and present of a craft practice

Abstract

University of Bristol -Explore Bristol Research General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms The taxidermist's apprentice: stitching together the past and present of a craft-skill Merle PatchettUniversity of Bristol, UK Abstract How do you witness the development and reproduction of a craft practice? This essay explores this provocation in relation to the craft practice of taxidermy and, in so doing, aims to stitch together non-representational and historical geographic concerns within the discipline. Mobilising and developing on an Ingoldian perspective on the process of skill, the author places herself in the position of apprentice to a practising taxidermist in recognition that the position of learner is a highly instructive context in which to enquire into how present-day practice relates to a representational culture charting the development of the craft in historical 'how-to-do' manuals. When juxtaposing contemporary ethnographies of taxidermy practice with descriptions of practice in historical 'howto-do' manuals, the author shows how past and present practice resonates rather than replicates. Overall, this article aims to introduce and develop theoretical and methodological pathways for studying and storying (historical) geographies of craft and skilled practices.

Craft as work–life unity: The careers of skilled working‐class men and their sons and grandsons after deindustrialization

“…Sennett () argues a craft can only be mastered through the slow time development of skills and grounded practice. However, Patchett () sees this as a poor description because crafts are not static disciplines but persistently developing areas of practice. To define craft as a practice learned through a distinct process pedagogy of generational learning, and evaluated by a communal aesthetic, I developed the following category: Description of practice: the individual's practice demonstrates a development and adaption of skills to versatile contexts with the aim of mastering techniques in contrast to static reproduction.…”

“…First, the project began with Darrel practising his draughtsmanship as learnt in the dockyard, then all developed new skills, such as bricklaying. The Carrin's development of new knowledge and skills illustrates Patchett's (2016) point that craft transmission is not based on static practices. Second, as Noel's skills were recognized by his father and he became the authority on carpentry, we see that experience was core to leadership but measured by expertise and not age.…”

Visions from behind a desk? Archival performance and the re‐enactment of colonial bureaucracy

“…In the same way that the scale of a single gesture might not serve to represent its repetition over time, there is a tension between the mode of individual scholarship and activities that are as inherently social as clerical work. The re‐enactment of craft or technically difficult work can be measured against the yardstick of a goal object: historical material culture can reveal whether (or not) the appropriate skills and techniques have been acquired by the historian (Patchett, ). Other historical experiences are more open‐ended, more processual, however, and don't offer such clear criteria for success.…”

“…Other historical experiences are more open‐ended, more processual, however, and don't offer such clear criteria for success. In such enquiries historical geographers have turned to surviving historical actors as companions, or better guides, who help ground, interpret and analyse the fragments of historical experience gained in re‐enactment (Lorimer, , ; Patchett, ). In Zambia I didn't succeed in finding anyone who could talk me “around” colonial bureaucracy with either their own or hereditary memories (Ashmore et al., ).…”

Machine-made lace, the spaces of skilled practices and the paradoxes of contemporary craft production

“…Alongside the personal space of the individual looking, feeling and 'working it out' with the materials to hand, the 'we' of the machine suggests interpersonal spaces of collaboration and competition in production. The necessary human involvement in a mechanized process that the quote suggests also indicates that mechanization has not led to a deskilling of practice, but to alternate ways in which skill is manifest Whereas research on the cultural geographies of making has tended to focus on artisanal skills and work places 2 , in this article we look beyond these niche settings to manufacturing skills in a factory setting. While a factory may seem a counter-intuitive place for insights into skilled practice or craft, we shall show that it has some relationship to the settings where Gibson argues 'workers once employed in factories mass-producing goods have [latterly] gained renewed agency as rare, skilled artisans in a craft-based mode of creative production' 3 .…”