I have been talking about this on the blog since last year but now we finally have something for everyone to see and to sign up their support. The HCA website went live last night with information about endangered crafts, photos and videos. There’s an explanation of what the HCA hope to do to change the trend and support this…
It is a common misconception that crafts die out when they become outdated and uneconomic in the modern world.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…
Folks who have been watching my blog for a while may remember me visiting Stuart Mitchell a knifemaker in Sheffield. He works in Portland Works which was built in the 1870s as a cutlery works. It has an incredibly important part in Sheffield if not world history as the place where stainless steel was first manufactured in 1913. Today the…
It has been a very busy week with lots of work, a mini break camping trip with an old friend to Robin Hood’s bay but the highlight was yesterdays meeting in a basement in London where we made major steps forward with out new Heritage Crafts Association. Our committee has grown to 8 and we had an all day meeting…
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…
Yesterday I went to London. That meant a 7am start, drive through the snow to Chesterfield and train to London. I was there for an inspiring meeting. A small group of very committed folk were discussing the way forward for traditional crafts. We have been researching all the previous initiatives and all the different organisations that have done work in…
Things are changing around the world in the way that “heritage” is viewed. I would like to share a few words from Linda Fabiani, Scottish Minister for Culture from her introduction to the new report “Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland, The way Forward” “Our cultural heritage informs the identity of our nation. It’s more than what we can see and…
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…
This seems like a good subject for the first post of 2009. My major aim for this year is to achieve a national organisation to campaign for traditional crafts. Why is a new organisation needed? The traditional crafts are currently in a state of crisis. Many skills which have been part of our culture for centuries are now practiced by…
For many years I have felt we need an organisation to support traditional crafts in the UK. I have lobbied and campaigned in the hopes of getting a government organisation but finally realised that it will be better if it comes from the craftspeople ourselves. The last few weeks I have been in correspondence with many folk in the traditional…
