Scrimper's Fretworking Site - Handicrafts magazine

Like Hobbies, Handicrafts published their own weekly magazine. The very first issue No. 1 Vol. 1 was published on the 9th November 1907 the magazine bore a striking similarity in content and appearance to the Hobbies version Hobbies Weekly. The first issue was supplied with a very sophisticated free design sheet No 1 featuring a Japanese Fretwork bracket.

Describing the design the editor stated that their intention was for the free design to be one of the most important features of the magazine and added that they have engaged a staff of artists whose work has been prominently before the public during the last ten or twelve years. This of course was true as they had been creating the designs for rivals Hobbies before.

The editor of Handicrafts Magazine was of course one Frank Skinner who was instrumental in publishing Hobbies own magazine Hobbies Weekly. As you will have read on another page Frank Skinner was the brother of John Henry Skinner who founded the Hobbies company.

The reason why Frank Skinner left Hobbies in 1907 to establish rival company Handicrafts is lost in time never the less he was the reason that the Handicraft Magazine bore a remarkable resemblance to Hobbies Weekly. Shown right the cover of the first edition of Handicrafts weekly magazine.

Some Handicrafts magazine covers are shown below.

Notice how the title of the magazine changes over time and the early versions were printed in Grey scale only - from 1910 they added some red to the cover to brighten it up a little then after 1930 the magazine changed colour with each issue. Also of note is that unlike Hobbies weekly which remained a weekly magazine until it's demise in 1965 Handicrafts switched to a monthly magazine during WWI and stayed monthly until it ceased publication.

Early editions of Handicrafts did have a lot of Fretworking content - perhaps more so than rival company Hobbies and in some cases their designs were more complex and ambitious than those offered by Hobbies, However by 1930 Fretwork was becoming less popular and Handicrafts magazine changed more to householder/do it yourself type magazine featuring little of interest to the fretworker.

By 1939 the magazine was gone as far as any interest in fretwork was concerned but under new management the Handicrafts magazine and company continued into the 1950's, covering general craft issues and household tasks but had no fretwork content at all.

Below are some example pages of Handicrafts Magazine.

You will see that their magazine bears a remarkable similarity with the Hobbies weekly magazine with similar subjects and lovely artwork headings. As I mentioned on the history page this was due to the fact that Frank Skinner who created Hobbies weekly magazine left them in 1907 to form the Handicrafts company and adopted the same artwork that he used for them on his new company magazine.

As well as their regular magazine Handicrafts also had a second weekly magazine entitled simply Fretwork and unlike their normal magazine Fretwork covered just Fretwork and nothing else. This magazine was supplied to members of the National association of Fretworkers or NFA for short. The NFA run by Handicrafts and comprised people who passed a test to show their fretworking competence to join. You can read more about the NFA on the Handicrafts History page. Below are some examples of the NFA magazine.

Next Page. Hobbies Catalogues

Home

Google Sites

Report abuse