The Crafty 1970s

The Art and Craft Exhibition evening was an annual event at Concordia in the 1970s. A great deal of effort went into impressing visiting relatives and friends, and many of the items displayed have come to represent that particular decade.
In 1970 some of the crafts were copper enamelling (together with jewellery making, this was the most popular) and rya (shag) rug knotting. We are told that students produced ‘copper chains, enamelled cuff links, ash trays (!), cheese hats, woollen rugs and table mats.’

At the 1972 exhibition visitors were invited to enter a blacked-out chamber of horrors with skeleton mobiles swaying under ultraviolet lights, together with piggy banks in weird animal shapes.
The following year those attending were treated to a display of wood and metalwork projects ‘subtly lit by macramé lampshades.’
The 1974 Brown and Gold reports that 1000 people attended that year’s display of student work in leather, macramé and rug knotting, to name just a few.

Photo: Macrame lampshade making (1970)