William Morris famously said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” Many in the craft community have taken this one step further so that we like things that are both beautiful and useful. For me wooden spoons are a good example. We have been making, buying, collecting and using…
In 1998 Stuart King and I visited Romania to study traditional woodcrafts and particularly to visit the last flask turner Ion Constantin. I had heard about him a couple of years beforehand. in fact I went to the world turning conference in the USA where he was billed as attending only to find that they had not managed to sort…
Friday and Saturday were spent in London again. Friday was meetings with charitable trusts who we hope may help fund the Heritage Crafts Association’s work and also gave us good advice about how efficient, successful organisations work. Then after a night in a cheapy £35 hotel (a cellar room near Earls Court) it was back to our committee meeting rooms…
No blog post from me today but I wanted to share Ewan Clayton’s inspirational speech from the Heritage Crafts Association forum at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many folk found it incredibly thought provoking and asked for a transcript, thankfully we had a recorder running and Ewan gave permission for it to be published. I am sure my blog readers…
In August Nicola and I are heading to Japan to work with traditional craftspeople there and learn about how they are working to share traditional skills. Nicola did her PhD looking at how traditional skills are exchanged in the UK and this will form part of her ongoing research, she is also doing publicity for the event and has a…
We have a fantastic heritage of pottery in Britain with many threads. Medieval earthenware jugs are universally praised then there are gorgeous 18th century slipware dishes, the rise of industrial ceramics in the Staffordshire potteries, salt glazed stoneware in the 19th and early 20th C and finally the studio pottery movement and Bernard Leach’s fusion of East and West. I…
It seems to me that as a society we are very confused about how we regard our physicality. In the past we had the Protestant work ethic which made hard work a moral and spiritual duty whether you liked it or not. William Morris in his Utopian novel News from Nowhere argued that there should be pleasure in hard work,…
Nice article on the BBC news website today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8586172.stm Mr Wood gave up his job as a National Trust forester in 1995 to become a professional woodworker, making traditional bowls and plates from local timber using a foot-powered lathe. The last professional pole lathe bowl turner before him, George Lailey, died in 1958 without passing on his trade. Mr Wood…
So what is craft? Most folk who work in the field have a pretty clear idea what they think craft is. I want to explore a little the history of the word, what it means and the way the things that come under this banner have changed remarkably over time. I also want to address the misconception that “Heritage Craft”…
Tuesday the 23rd of March was a great day for traditional crafts. The Heritage Crafts Association finally had it’s official launch at the V&A and opened up it’s friends membership scheme and Jon Henley published a wonderful article in the Guardian’s G2 section. Jon has a deep understanding of the crafts and we were delighted he was able to contribute…
