Gail McGarva will be speaking at the Heritage Crafts Association spring conference at the V&A in March and the next few blog posts will be profiling some of the excellent speakers you’ll get a chance to hear if you are coming and to whet the appetite of those who are yet to book. I blogged about Gail’s work with the…
This for me is a very sad video, my friend Trevor Austen rakemaker filmed after the onset of motor nurone disease. Sad too because this viable business died and the workshop was broken up when he could no longer work. Trevor finally passed away on Christmas day. Here are a few more articles about Trevor’s work. Telegraph 2001 Museum of…
Regular readers might remember my visit to Galicia in Northern Spain last October to visit hand weaver Anna Champeney and basket maker Lluis Grau blogs here, here and here I was there to help with an internet marketing for craftspeople course and since Anna has set up a very nice blog which I would recommend to anyone with a broad…
Meet Takahiro Yoshino a remarkable chairmaker we met in Japan. What made him remarkable was that he is the first chirmaker I have met (and I know a lot) who makes truly bespoke chairs that are tailored (I can’t think of a better word) to fit the user. Now some may argue with this point. I know a lot of…
In 1901 there were 6800 saddlers working in Walsall. Little wonder then that the train station is in the saddler centre and the football team are nicknamed the saddlers but how much of the craft is alive today? This is the workshop of Frank Baines one of the twenty or so saddlers listed in Walsall yellow pages. This is Frank…
This is a style of woodworking very popular in Scandinavia and the US but very little known in the UK. I have to say most of the work done today I find rather kitch or twee. Folk for some reason often use the style to carve elves and gnomes or goofy caricatures. I am going to ignore all that stuff…
A 7th generation Onggi pottery operated by the Kim family and lead by Kim Il-Maan, a Korean National Cultural Treasure, filmed by Adam Field who was apprenticed there for most of 2008 This is the first stage, though if you were watching closely you will have seen this in the background of the previous film. Glazing big pots, hard physical…
It has been a pleasure to watch Edwardian Farm. HCA Patron Alex Langlands has been trying out more crafts this time joining Nigel Legge lobsterpot maker, artist, fisherman. He seemed like a lovely bloke with a fine accent. He also seems to have a perfect lifestyle with a mix of making lobster pots, painting and taking holiday makers on boat…
Following last blog mentioning old slate workings in Langdale I should post about Englands last working slate mine at Honister, a real good news story. The notes below are taken from their website. In 1986, after three centuries of near continuous slate mining at Honister, the mine closed down after a protracted period of decline. With it, it seemed, went…
This is Standard Quay in Faversham It remains a working quay and home to historic craft particularly Thames sailing barges. The fabric of main wetherboarded building is listed for it’s historic value, the grazing marsh around is protected as a RAMSAR site but the crafts and trades which have centuries of unbroken history are not recognised in the same way…
