I have been very busy this last week taking a first aid course over the weekend and then teaching a developers spooncarving course which finished today, I shall post pictures soon. Tomorrow I am off to London again representing the Heritage Crafts Association at the first meeting of the working group on National Occupational Standards in Craft. This underpins all…
Yesterday was the grand launch of the craft blueprint, a document which we hope will help direct training in the craft sector over coming years. The event took place on the terrace at the House of Lords that’s the little marquee bottom left in this picture. The document is available to download here Inside it looks like this and it’s…
Whilst I was away in Germany last week my MP Tom Levitt visited Mike Turnock the country’s last sievemaker. More info on Tom’s website here After the visit Tom wrote to me saying that he is going to apply for an adjournment debate on the conservation of heritage craft skills. These are allocated by ballot so there is no guarantee…
Yesterday was another London trip to meet with Rosy Greenlees and Amanda Jones, executive director and director of external relations of the Crafts Council. The Crafts Council is the national development agency for contemporary crafts in the UK their funding comes through the arts council and in their programs they tend to promote work which is innovative rather than traditional.…
I finally had a reply via my MP from culture minister Barbara Follet to my letter sent in February asking what the government were doing for heritage crafts in response to the UNESCO convention on living heritage. I am disappointed in the lack of depth to the answer given it took over 3 months to prepare, but at least it…
Tom Levitt has asked Culture minister Andy Burnham to recognize some of England’s dying craft skills as being as worthy of preservation as famous castles and paintings. “Many of these skills are dying out,” says the MP. “In areas like High Peak they are truly part of the cultural fabric of rural communities in particular, and it is right that…
On Saturday Morning I went along to one of my MP’s surgeries. I think most MP’s do this in their constituencies, Tom Levitt books an hour in a local cafe and anyone can turn up and raise issues with him. I took along a riddle made by the last riddle maker one of Tom’s constituents in Whaley Bridge. We have…
Last December I wrote about a very special scissors factory in Sheffield here. Yesterday I went back to do help them take photographs for their new retail website. I am not a photographer but I have learned simple ways of using natural light and a simple background to show this sort of product off reasonably well. It is also quick…
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…
Now this may not seem like the most fun blog post I have done for a while but I think it is potentially one of the more important for the future of traditional and heritage crafts in the UK. Since our inception the Heritage Crafts Association have been working closely with Creative and Cultural Skills the industry led government body…
