The HCA had been helping Ricochet on the second series of mastercrafts and were very disappointed to learn this week that the BBC have decided not to commission the second series after all. HCA set up a facebook page to ask BBC to change their mind and give people the information they need to give their voice the greatest weight…
The Heritage Crafts Association have launched a map of traditional craftspeople in the UK. This great map allows you to zoom in to your county or area and follow links to websites or get contact details of interesting traditional craftspeople to visit or commission. If you are a traditional craftsperson and not on the map yet you can input your…
Friday was sourcing wood day for me, I bought a tree which will make many hundreds of bowls and keep me busy for a few months. The importance of getting the right tree can create or save hundreds of hours work over that time and will also affect the character of the bowls available for sale on the website over…
Brian is secretary of the Heritage Crafts Association and a second generation chair caner with over 40 years personal experience Today Brian shared a picture of his work with the committee and I thought HCA supporters may be interested too. “Currently commissions are just rolling in without any effort on my part, many of which are ordinary but some are…
In the UK traditional crafts fall outside the remit of all government support agencies. We do not fit in the innovative artistic remit of the Crafts Council and English Heritage’s remit is buildings and monuments. This leaves traditional basketmakers, sievemakers, Sheffield folding knife makers, country potters, weavers and anyone else making traditional functional craftwork without an agency to promote and…
I just found out about this organisation in Slovakia and they have a nice English website which is worth a few minutes browsing. “Creating utility and decorative items according to old patterns or according to one´s creative ideas is a very attractive form of free time activity. It is the reason why ÚĽUV promotes the crafts courses for adults and…
Wooden bowls and spoons are a joy to use, wood is a natural insulator so keeps your food warm without having to heat the bowl first and mealtimes are quieter without the scraping of metal on ceramic. This was dinner last night. The duck bowl was one I made a couple of years ago and is painted with natural home…
I have just finished a very enjoyable 3 day bowl carving course. These 8 bowls were carved by 4 course participants. This was only the second bowl course I have run, the first was a great success with students making 2 bowls each and a fantastic standard of work. I was unsure though whether we were just lucky with a…
Very busy and behind with work at the moment but lots of interesting things which would be nice to share when I get time. Today I just wanted to share a few thoughts on wabi sabi. Ever since Bernard Leach went to Japan and wrote about Japanese aesthetics there has been great interest in the Japanese ideas about beauty. I…
Last week I was away on holiday but Radio 4 did a nice piece on the plight of Portland Works and the traditional Sheffield trades housed there. I did a brief interview the week before which is included toward the end and if you are in the UK you can listen to it on iplayer here Portland Works item starts…
