This book documents the Australian colonialists' timber, clay, stone. textile and metal handicrafts. It discusses their improvisations, their professional artisans and their leisure-time crafts.

Remedying a neglected part of architectural history, this volume presents the work of four of Australia's most innovative arts and crafts architects—Walter Butler, Harold Desbrowe-Annear, Walter Liberty Vernon, and Robin Dods. The influence of the arts-and-crafts movement in Australia has long been lost between the far better known Gothic and classical revivals and the modernist movement, and obscured by the chronological construction of "federation" architecture, but this study, along with the accompanying photographs and plans, brings to life the simple lines of their design and illustrates why it is so deserving of further recognition.

By contrasting American experience with the Canadian context, which includes a unique Quebec identity and a Native dimension, Sandra Alfoldy argues that the development of organizations, advanced education for craftspeople, and exhibition and promotional opportunities have contributed to the distinct evolution of professional craft in Canada over the past forty years. Alfoldy focuses on 1964-74 and the debates over distinctions between professional, self-taught, and amateur craftspeople and between one-of-a-kind and traditional craft objects. She deals extensively with key people and events, including American philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb and Canadian philanthropist Joan Chalmers, the foundation of the World Crafts Council (1964) and the Canadian Crafts Council (1974), the Canadian Fine Crafts exhibition at Expo 67, and the In Praise of Hands exhibition of 1974. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unexploited materials, this richly documented survey includes descriptions and illustrations of significant works and identifies the challenges that lie ahead for professional crafts in Canada.