English Heritage recently bought a silversmiths workshop in Birmingham Simon Thurley was quoted as saying “We have stepped in to save JW Evans because it is one of the most important Victorian and Edwardian manufacturies in existence. Its loss would not just be for Birmingham but the world. We now need to secure its long term future as a business…
Tuesday was another meetings in London day. We had excellent meetings with English Heritage, NADFAS and ICON all of whom are supportive of what the Heritage Crafts Association are trying to achieve. We were given some good new contacts and ideas. One particularly interesting idea was looking at how English Heritage are already beginning to use heritage crafts skills (and…
At the Heritage Crafts Association we are delighted that less than six months from our formation we have seen the state of traditional crafts debated in the House of Commons with the Culture Minister answering questions. Speaking at an adjournment debate on Traditional Crafts in the House of Commons this Thursday Barbara Follett said: “We are keen that the rich…
Just came across this from a design conference Nicola attended in Barcelona in 2003, I liked it and thought I would share it. “Techné is Greek for “craft” and “art” and is the term that Aristotle used in theorising knowledge, to refer to the third form of knowledge in his classification of sciences. Now understood as mere skill belonging to…
The Textile Conservation Centre was founded in 1975 by Karen Finch OBE and was based at Hampton Court Palace for nearly 25 years. It is of international importance having trained over half of the textile conservators working in the world today. In 1998 the Centre merged with the University of Southampton, one of the UK’s top research-led universities, and in…
It is a common misconception that crafts die out when they become outdated and uneconomic in the modern world. The reality is always more complex and I want to share an example to show what typically happens when an old craft finally dies. Simple wooden hay rakes have been a part of British life for 1000 years or more. This…
I have just read a rather enjoyable short book called “Apprenticeship, The Necessity of Learning by Doing” By Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley & Martin Gay Ford. At £8 for 50 small pages it is not a cheap book but I certainly had my £8 worth from it. The forward by HRH Price Charles is in itself worth reading, I’ll quote…
France has a wonderful system for supporting traditional crafts. “These craftsmen, second to none, whose talents are often anonymousand unsung, deserve to be better known, declared the Minister ofCulture and Communication,… For although the heritage is recognisedprimarily in the form of historic monuments, she explained, …ourcountry also has a great many highly skilled craftsmen and women,whose expertise is in itself…
This morning I was sent a new report on Heritage Crafts Training in Australia, it is a PDF which I can forward to anyone who is interested. I learned quite a bit from it amongst other things I did not know that there was a UNESCO convention on “intangible cultural heritage” It is inspiring here is a brief excerpt of…
I don’t think I have posted anything on the blog yet about my wife Nicola’s research. here is a video overview. So whilst many of our friends know Nicola as a spooncarver by daytime she is Dr Nicola Wood of Sheffield Hallam University and conducts research into how craft skills and tacit knowledge are handed on. She is particularly interested…
