I first heard about Patterson’s many years ago whilst I was still working for the National Trust as a forester. It was an unusual property for the Trust to take on because it was relatively modern industrial heritage. On Tuesday I finally got to visit. I was in Northern Ireland partly to work on the forthcoming National Occupational Standards for…
I just downloaded some pictures I took on my last London trip for the the Heritage Crafts Association committee meeting last Sunday. We meet in a basement room just round the corner from Charing Cross which is kindly provided free of charge for us. Charing Cross tube station has rather nice artwork with images of medieval craftsmen at work and…
This is the last of my photos from Norfolk Show, I wanted to share the work of Terry Kenny a coracle maker from Newport Shropshire. Terry has done a great deal to popularise the coracle over the last 20 years, up until the 1950’s coracles were primarily used for fishing with nets on rivers like the Severn and Teifi. The…
At the Norfolk show I had distant memories of childhood rekindled by watching Margaret making corn dollies. I remember as a child on the neighboring farm where I spent much of my time they still made dollies every year to ensure a good harvest the following year. Corn dollies are fascinating because they bridge the gap between folk craft and…
Until a couple of years ago Jeremy was the only clogmaker in the country still using the traditional knives to hand cut clog soles and make traditional British clogs. As was traditional in the mill towns of Lancashire and Rural Wales I have a pair of working clogs and a pair of posh clogs, I also have a pair of…
This is my mate Adam King, he has been into traditional crafts all his life having grown up doing craft events with his dad Stuart King. Stuart and I visited Romania together researching traditional craftspeople in 1998. Adam is one of the last besom broom makers, he cuts young birch branches in the winter and dries them thoroughly, bundles them…
Whilst there are more willow basketmakers than swillers or trugmakers it is still a declining craft. There are a good number of amateurs and many people using basketmaking skills to produce sculpture, the area that is in decline is the full time working basketmaker producing functional baskets and this is arguably the area that demands the highest skill, some would…
Owen is one of my craft heroes. He learnt the craft from a retired swiller at a time when nobody else would take it on and has single handedly kept it alive for nearly 20 years. The swill is a Lakeland basket and they are regularly pictured in Beatrix Potters books. Designed for tough farm use such as picking potatoes,…
I love nice pots, especially ones that you can use everyday in the kitchen. Yesterday we visited “Fire and Earth” an annual event at Rufford AbbeyThere were lots of nice pots to see and potters to chat with including a blogging friend Doug Fitch. I don’t have time to follow many other craftspeoples blogs but Doug’s is always interesting. He…
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…
