With my Heritage Crafts Association hat on I helped organise 18 different craftspeople demonstrating over the 18 days of the Ideal Home Show in London. Here are some pictures.Phil Gregson Wheelwright Wendy Shorter Upholstery Beth Tilston Scyther a bunch more of Phil with my daughter Jojo helping out
Last night I slept in a snowdrift, I loved it. It was a bit of a contrast to the rest of the day the Heritage Crafts Association held our annual conference at the V&A in London. There was me in my best suit and Jeremy West shoes on the podium, after a long but inspiring day I took the train…
William Morris is often sited as an inspiration for the first Labour Party Manifesto. Today many of us working in the traditional crafts feel as if we have been overlooked yet there are potentially great times ahead, hence the need for a Manifesto for Making. Not a manifesto for designing or innovating or being an artist simply for making. Yesterday…
Middleport Pottery is one of the best craft experiences I have had and a fascinating insight into a craft evolving into industrial manufacture. The pottery has a long history which is well documented, it was faced with closure and in 2011 was saved by the Prince’s Trust for Regeneration. The idea was not to keep it as a museum but…
Clogmaking is in the press again even making the Radio 4 Today program this morning. The story as reported goes like this, there is a resurgence of interest in Welsh clog dancing but not enough clogs. There is only one clogmaker left in Wales and the craft may die out, there is even a clog amnesty to get people to…
I am delighted to be part of the judging panel for a new national craft skills award which is being supported by HRH The Prince of Wales. The awards were launched on Thursday and these are the Prince’s words of support. “I have always had a huge admiration for those who have the talent to use their hands, mind and…
Things have been so busy the last few weeks I have not had time to post about the Heritage Crafts Associations spring conference to which our President The Prince of Wales sent a marvelous message copied below. We also had the great pleasure of having our new patron Emma Bridgewater speak with passion about the Stoke Pottery industry. You can…
How do we raise the status of studying artistic rather than pure academic subjects? There has been much discussion recently about how society values academic vs tacit knowledge, skills minister John Hayes said “In my view, the skills of a bricklayer are in no way less admirable and certainly no less hard-won than those of a stockbroker. Matt Crawford’s book…
A major new research project promisses to shed light on the UK traditional craft sector for the first time. When we started the Heritage Crafts Association 2 1/2 years ago one of our first objectives was to properly map the sector, to find out which crafts were endangered, which were doing well and which offered potential for growth. In fact…
When a craft business that has a special part in our history is in danger of closing what should we do? How about buy it and spend large sums of public money on preserving the building, artifacts and accumulated detritus whilst letting the last skilled artisans stop work and walk away? Two years ago I blogged about JW Evans Silversmiths…
