What a beautiful name for a beautiful vessel. Each area of the British coastline evolved particular types of traditional boats developed to suit the shoreline and the local fishing methods. The Lerret was the boat of the Dorset coast read more about them and how they were used here and here. By this time last year there was only one…
I am delighted that the Headley Trust have agreed to support the Heritage Crafts Association with a grant of £30,000 to pay a part time administrator for 2 years HCA has come a long way in just 18 months and primarily funded by donations from the committee (totaling over £5000) and more recently by supporters signing up to the friends…
Whilst at the Museum of English Rural Life a few weeks ago Terrence McSweeney told us the wonderful story of his mother’s basketmaking. I asked him to email me details which I am sure others will enjoy as much as I did so here you are in Terence’s words. In 1976 there were only a few professional basketmakers in Ireland:…
Back in April after a day breaking stones for a new footpath I wrote asking if hard work was good or bad. Jeff one of my blog readers in the US mentioned a new book by Matthew Crawford. “Shopcraft as Soulcraft:An Inquiry into the Value of Work” It was not out in the UK so I ordered it from the…
Years ago I loved to experiment with wild food and worked my way through Richard Mabey’s “food for free“ After a couple of years experimenting with stewed nettles and the likes I came down to half a dozen wild foods which I still enjoy when in season but the rest are the sort of thing which in the words of…
Just clearing photos off my camera, it was interesting to see how dry and brown everything was down south, I think it is only when you travel abroad and come home that you realise how amazingly green Britain generally is. Driving home coming back into Edale we met sheep in the road which made us feel like we were back…
There are some major perks of my work and I certainly count a week at Glastonbury Festival as one. My friend and HCA supporter Nigel Townshend came down to help set up and man the stand and tell people about the work of the Heritage Crafts Association. This is what our stand looked like, I rather like the mix of…
This week we had a “developers” carving course. Thanks to a great bunch of folk we had a fun time and carved some lovely work. My daughter Jojo has just done her basic food hygiene training so she can work in the village cafe so she was in charge of catering for the first time. Phil and Peter having…
I wanted to do a quick blog post to publicise what I expect will be an interesting Crafts Council event in London next Tuesday 22nd June. Some may think that Assemble will just be a talking shop but there are many intellectual craftspeople who enjoy a bit of brain work mixed with their hand work. As John Brown said in…
Yesterday Sophie the glass artist from BBC mastercrafts joined HCA to demonstrate her craft at the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading. The HCA stand was manned by committee members including Daniel Carpenter who runs the HCA website, facebook group and initiated the bring back mastercrafts campaign. Helping get the message out were Brian Crossley chair caner and Chris…
