THE CWA is a hive of activity when it comes to handcrafts, SARAH HUDSON reports

Libby Milner looks thoughtful for a moment.

"Quilting, beading and scrap booking would be our most popular crafts," says Libby, the head of the Victorian Country Womens Association's handcrafts division.

"Many crafts that were popular have died off - glove making, macrame and millinery. Baby knitting used to be very big but now everything is mass produced and is thrown in the washing machine.

"There are a lot of new crafts too, such as pave - where you arrange organic material on a plate, or casalguidi - rich Italian embroidery, and amigurumi - Japanese crochet.

"And each craft has its own schools and traditions. I could go on and on for hours about embroidery. The hardest would have to be lace, there's hundreds of different varieties."

Aside from its vast cooking prowess, the CWA is also the nation's repository of all things handcraft.

Take, for instance, its upcoming state conference, to be held in St Arnaud in August.

While there are about 50 competition categories for home industries - such as jams, fruit cakes and sponges - there are 243 for handcrafts, including everything from lingerie to decoupage, china painting to floor rugs.

In all, conference organisers expect to receive about 1200 entries.

There are so many craft items in the CWA's keeping that Libby is about to embark on a massive archiving of all the precious items in its store. Today, though, at CWA headquarters in Toorak, she is overseeing one of the association's biannual craft schools.

While groups around Victoria hold their own craft schools, some with monthly get-togethers, the headquarters only holds two a year.

Increasingly concerned the traditions of craft are a dying art, the CWA is keen to promote a love for the arts.

"Craft schools are important, not just for the friendships and the socialising, but because they allow members - particularly our judges - to get a little bit more knowledge," says Libby.

"Many of our elderly judges have got a wealth of knowledge about the intricacies of all crafts, but there is a lot to know, so this helps."

There are about 65 handcraft judges across the state, who take about two to three years to learn the skills to become a judge, with beginners able to specialise in one field.

"We don't really have enough (judges). We need more," Libby says.

Today's craft group is divided into two: one learns the finer points of embroidery, while the other gets a grip on the latest crocheting trend, amigurumi - a Japanese craft that means "little doll", usually seen on the funky streets of Melbourne rather than a CWA meeting.

Amigurumi teacher Abbi Cininas, from Woodleigh in Gippsland, first saw the craft in a newspaper column two years ago - about the same time she joined the CWA.

Last year she won first prize in her Bass CWA branch for a miniature amigurumi pig, which was displayed at the State Exhibition.

"It's not hard. It's just very fiddly. Patterns call for 8-ply wool, but I do my creatures in cotton," says Abbi, who has never taught a class before.

"You use a crochet hook one size smaller than normal to make it tiny and firm."

One of her amigurumi students is past state president and handcrafts judge Noela Macleod.

"When you judge items you need to be able to sort out the winners. These lessons make you appreciate how difficult some items are," says Noela, who stops for a second to focus on her work.

"Is this right?," she asks Abbi, "it looks like a boofhead, like a pimple on a pumpkin."

Abbi tells her amigurumi is designed so body parts are out of proportion.

In the other group, Sue Gass, from Cooriemungle, is teaching embroidery to her focused students. No one utters a word.

Sue has won numerous awards for her work and is also a teacher at the Embroider's Guild.

"With classes like these the CWA is trying to keep crafts going," says Sue.

"I think unless they do this kind of thing crafts will die out. I'm teaching my grandkids to do embroidery but there's a whole generation that don't have these skills. They just want the quick and easy.

"Traditions like this and going back to basics are important. I think we'd all be a lot less stressed if more people did more craft."

    CHECKLIST
  • CWA State Exhibition, August 7-8, St Arnaud Town Hall. All handcraft entries must be at CWA headquarters in Lansell Rd, Toorak before July 29.