The Heritage Crafts Association seeks input from craftspeople

Deadline: 28 February 2010

Dear supporter,

The Heritage Crafts Association’s aim is to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. Since the HCA website went live earlier this year, we have attracted hundreds of supporters all keen to help ensure a sustainable future for traditional heritage crafts.

Going into 2010, we are looking to consolidate this support, building upon our advocacy work with politicians and representatives of key agencies. In order to achieve this, we would like to complement the huge amount of anecdotal evidence we have gathered to date with a statistical analysis of our supporters’ opinions and experiences. To that effect we are asking as many traditional craftspeople as possible in the UK to fill in a simple survey.

The survey consists of ten questions and should take no longer than fifteen minutes to complete. To do so, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FNQF6L.

We would also be very grateful if you could forward this notice to as many of your craftspeople friends and colleagues as possible, and, if you work for a crafts organisation, to post it in your newsletters and email circulars.

Many thanks in advance for your continuing support.

Best wishes,
Robin Wood, HCA Chair

Traditional crafts matter to the HCA

Craft Matters is a Crafts Council initiative to highlight the importance of crafts in people's lives. It believes that craft matters and it wants to show that it matters to thousands of people across the UK. The Heritage Crafts Association supports this initiative in the field of heritage crafts.

In the next few months, the Crafts Council will be posting the names of all its signatories on its website so that it can demonstrate the real support for craft. It wants to launch the new webpage with over 1,000 signatures, so please ask your friends and colleagues to show that craft matters to them too.

To sign up to the statement 'I'm signing up to Make Craft Count because Craft Matters to me', visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk/craftmatters.

Craft Club – a national campaign for craft in schools (England)

Craft Club is a national campaign for craft in schools. It aims to unite skilled and enthusiastic craftspeople with children and young people through after-school clubs. Working together they can engage learners beyond the curriculum and enthuse them about making.

Crafts Club believes that the future of craft lies in nurturing talent – children and young people must be able to learn about craft at school and have access to excellent teaching throughout their education. It offers advice, resources and support to inspire teachers, pupils and volunteers to set up clubs during lunchtimes or after-hours in their school or venue.

Register an interest at www.craftclub.org.uk.

Traditional Crafts on Radio 4 Farming Today

Rural crafts are being featured on BBC Radio 4's Farming Today program this week. For those who are not up at 6am to listen you can listen online using BBC iplayer (just click the link then drag the slider to 9.25 when the feature starts).

We hear quite a lot of press on good stories in the traditional crafts at the moment, though most are in conservation or building crafts. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has put nearly £10 million into these crafts over the last five years through its bursary scheme.

HLF is a reactive rather than proactive funder and, in part, it has been a result of the smaller traditional crafts themselves not having an organised voice to campaign for support that has led to them being left out. We look forward seeing support and promotion for the basketmakers, potters, weavers and urban crafts such as Sheffield cutlery in the future.

Thanks to HCA supporter Julian for pointing this one out.

Monty Don's Mastercrafts on the BBC

Back in February the Heritage Crafts Association was contacted about a new BBC TV series on traditional crafts. Mastercrafts, fronted by Monty Don, is now on its way - details on the BBC website.



Each week on Mastercrafts, three hopefuls get the chance to study under some of the country's leading master craftsmen and women. They will be trained to a high standard in the craft of their choice, including metal work, wood craft, stone masonry, glass-making, thatching and weaving. The aim is to equip them with the practical knowledge and skills to give them a head start in their chosen craft.

Monty will be charting the students' progress during their training and exploring the fascinating and often forgotten history of each craft. The aim is to put traditional crafts firmly back on the map in modern Britain.

BBC TV commission search for craftspeople

Media company Twofour has been commissioned by BBC1 to produce a new series that will transmit next Spring. It wants to find people who have been making their crafts for many years, but perhaps are looking for a way to bring their products to a wider market.

The producers already have lots of young, contemporary designer-makers apply to be involved with the show, but really feel that they are missing a more traditional kind of craftsperson - people who make beautiful or functional items but perhaps would not be contactable via the channels they have been using so far (craft websites and contemporary craft organisations etc.).

The series is fronted by the perfume guru Jo Malone, a British entrepreneur who built a luxury brand from her kitchen. She will be helping the people she selects to take their product to a larger, national market.

If you are interested in being involved, email info@heritagecrafts.org.uk and we will forward your details to Twofour.

Help the Heritage Crafts Association in its next stage of development!

The Heritage Crafts Association aims to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage - through surveying, advocating, celebrating, safeguarding and supporting traditional craftspeople. To help us achieve this we wish to become a registered charity. Becoming a charity will open up a range of new funding opportunities and other benefits.

To register as a charity, we need to show that we have at least £5,000. We have already raised £3,000 from work done for CCSkills by committee members, and the the Chair and Vice Chair have each donated £500, leaving just £1,000 still to find. If each of our website supporters and Facebook friends donated £2 we could easily raise this amount. If they donated £5, £10 or more, then we can do even more to support and protect heritage crafts in the UK.

The money will be used to fund various projects. For example, we are hoping to run an internet marketing course for craftspeople with places subsidised to around £30 per person to help showcase and celebrate traditional crafts. We have also been offered free space at various high profile events around the country during 2010, which will be staffed by volunteers, but we need stand fittings and promotional material to show the quality of traditional craftsmanship in the UK. We are also continuing our advocacy work to raise the profile of heritage crafts, with meetings with the Heritage Lottery Fund and Shadow Arts Minister Ed Vaisey in early November.

If you would like to help us achieve these aims we would be most grateful for a donation, however small. To donate, visit www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/donate.html. You can donate using your PayPal account, or if you don't have a PayPal account, using your debit or credit card.

Many thanks for your continuing support!

www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/donate.html

A Taste for Tutoring - learn to deliver a crafts workshop

This series of free training days, from Voluntary Arts, is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Learning Revolution Festival, taking place in October 2009. The days will enable amateur artists and craftspeople to run workshops with groups of other amateurs in their chosen art or craft form.

By attending one of these days, amateur traditional craftspeople will gain the generic skills and confidence to deliver a simple workshop to other amateurs.

Where and when?

• London - FULLY BOOKED
• Tuesday 20 October – Brighton
• Wednesday 21 October – Bath
• Friday 23 October – Birmingham
• Friday 23 October – Norwich
• Monday 26 October – Bingley, West Yorkshire
• Tuesday 27 October – Durham
• Wednesday 28 October – Nottingham
• Wednesday 28 October – Manchester
• Monday 2 November – Plymouth area (venue to be confirmed)

How much?
Thanks to Learning Revolution Festival funding, these days are available to attend absolutely free. To help cover our costs in the event of non-attendance, we are asking all delegates to pay a £15 returnable deposit when booking, which will be repaid on attendance of the day.

To book:

• By post – download a copy of our booking form at www.voluntaryarts.org/linkevents/pages/tastefortutoring.pdf. Return with a cheque or postal order made payable to Voluntary Arts Network for your £15 returnable deposit to the address provided on the form.
• Online – visit www.voluntaryarts.org/linkevents/pages/tastefortutoring.html to book online and pay your deposit via our online payment facility.

Places are limited to 16 on each day - please phone 029 20 395 395 for availability.

Standards in Craft

The Heritage Crafts Association is currently helping CCSkills to produce the new National Occupational Standards for craft. These standards are important because if we are successful in achieving the increased funding for training and apprenticeships (which we hope to) then that training will have to tick the boxes laid out in the National Occupational Standards. Now is our chance to make sure those boxes are appropriate to as wide a range of traditional crafts as possible and that people feel that they are an accurate description of the skills required to successfully practice their craft.

There is an online survey which we would encourage all involved in craft in the UK to look at and input to. Now is your chance to make sure that this becomes a useable set of standards. If the tick boxes of the survey do not accurately describe what you do then there are comments boxes where you can be more descriptive.

The online survey can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9aRK2k2BIPVqEW2uI5HKiA_3d_3d.

Mastercraft television series to showcase traditional crafts

Ricochet TV is creating new six-part television series called Mastercraft, focusing on some of the country’s oldest and most highly-skilled crafts. They have enlisted some of the UK's top craftspeople from a variety of disciplines who will each mentor three apprentices on an intensive training course (from mid August to September this year). Among the crafts are green wood working, metal work, thatching, stonemasonry, weaving and stained glass.

At the end of each training period the apprentices will have the opportunity to create a final piece which will be judged by their mentor. This will be a great opportunity to raise the profile of traditional crafts and their continuing relevance today.

Ricochet have recruited the master craftspeople and are now looking for potential apprentices. The project takes place over six weeks, with accommodation provided, during which students will create a finished piece of work at the end. This has been advertised widely on the web and will have attracted a great number of applications.

If you are interested in finding out more, contact the Mastercrafts team on 01273 224800 or email mastercrafts@ricochet.co.uk.

Buy a piece of Sheffield history for £20

Nick Wright is the fifth generation of Wrights in the Sheffield scissor-making business (now trading at Kutrite). Though his team continues to produce hand crafted products of the highest quality, sadly the availability of cheap, mass-produced scissors has meant that they are currently short on orders and working a three day week.



As a result, Nick is hoping to market some scissors directly rather than selling everything wholesale. He has agreed to do a mail order service for supporters of the Heritage Crafts Association for one of their most popular lines: 8 1/4" dress making shears. These tools are at once a mini sculpture and a gorgeous piece of engineering ... and great value for money at only £20 plus £5 post and packing.



The difference between these and a cheap pair of scissors is that these are drop forged out of high carbon steel then hardened and tempered to give a very tough and hard long lasting tool. The other big difference is the setting. On a pair of cheap modern scissors the two blades never actually touch; they lie parallel to each other and do not cut as a pair of proper shears do. The two blades are skilfully ground and set in a slight curve so that they always touch just at the point you are cutting.



So here we have the perfect gift for anyone who has ever been frustrated at the lack of quality in modern tools. For just £20 plus £5 post and packing you can have a little bit of Sheffield history and help to keep this wonderful trade going for a little longer.



At the moment Nick does not accept PayPal or credit card payments so to order our scissors please send a cheque made payable to 'Kutrite of Sheffield Ltd', including your address and a note asking for 8 1/4" dress making shears to:

Kutrite of Sheffield Ltd
Kelham Works
72 Russel Street
Sheffield
S3 8RW

Thatching apprentice wanted - based in Salisbury

Thatcher Adam Nash is looking to take on a new apprentice. The individual will work with a small team (three at present) and over a two to three year period and will be taught to thatch and all aspects of thatching (combed wheat and water reed).

He or she needs to be fit and robust, and happy to work in all weathers. Hours are 8am to 5pm on site. Pay will be £46 per day with four weeks paid holiday. A sense of humour is vital!

Ideally they will have their own transport. Adam’s team is located in Salisbury but works as far away as Shaftesbury (one hour commute).

Anyone interested should come and spend two days with the team as their interview to dispel the romance attached to thatching – it is hard work.

For more information about Adam's work, visit his website at www.adamnashthatcher.co.uk. Adam can be contacted on 07976832393.

Adjournment debate on the preservation of traditional crafts

Less than six months after the formation of the Heritage Crafts Association, the first debate on the state of traditional crafts has taken place in the House of Commons, with the Culture Minister answering questions put to her by High Peak MP Tom Levitt.

Speaking at the Adjournment Debate on traditional crafts on Thursday (25 June 2009), Barbara Follett said:

“We are keen that the rich intangible cultural heritage of the United Kingdom is properly valued and, when necessary, preserved…. Whether tangible or intangible, … our heritage is a marvellous asset that we want to protect and nurture.”

She then called on local and regional authorities to do their bit along with central Government and its agencies to support these vital heritage crafts:

“As a Regional Minister, I see a role for the regional development agencies and local authorities. They need to play their part, along with central Government and non-departmental bodies, in ensuring that our traditional skills are upheld and preserved.”

The full transcript of the 30 minute debate is available at the They Work for You website and on Hansard.

The Chair of the Heritage Crafts Association, Robin Wood, welcomed the Culture Minister’s comments:

“For people like Mike Turner, the last traditional sieve maker in this country, Barbara Follet’s comments represent a beacon of hope that when they retire, their skills gained from a lifetime of practicing traditional crafts may not fade away with them.

“However, we are concerned that the full picture of the value of the heritage crafts to the economy, and the scale of the loss that lack of action could produce – both the loss of cultural traditions stretching back in some cases thousands of years, and the loss of economic potential which this cottage industry presents – has not yet been fully appreciated by the Government.

“In light of the Minister's comments in support of traditional crafts, it seems fair to ask for some alternative plan to safeguard this vital part of our living heritage, and some money to do it with. We look forward to continuing to discuss these issues with the Minister and her department on an ongoing basis”

Adjournment debate this Thursday

On Thursday (25 June 2009) there will be an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on the preservation of traditional crafts. The debate will be raised by Tom Levitt, MP for High Peak some time before 6pm. You can watch it live on the Parliament Channel.

Tom has also written a short piece for the Epolitix web site, which will be published on Wednesday.

Launch of the Craft Blueprint

Creative and Cultural Skills (CCSkills), the sector skills council for the creative industries, in association with the Crafts Council, launched the Craft Blueprint at the House of Lords on Wednesday (10 June 2009). The aim of the document is to create a plan of action for developing the craft workforce across the UK.

CCSkills and the Crafts Council have heard from education providers, craft employers and those running courses about their provision and the changes that are impacting upon them, and have taken into account current policy developments, changes in technology, and, crucially, the effects of economic change. The resulting recommendations, including many from the Heritage Crafts Association, lie at the heart of the Blueprint.

The Heritage Crafts Association was represented by four committee members: Patricia Lovett, Robin Wood, Chris Rowley and Daniel Carpenter. Here is the video shown at the launch, featuring a good representation of traditional heritage crafts:



Copies of the blueprint are available to download for free.

Senior Tory Ken Clarke caught 'skiving' at Northampton shoe factory

From an article in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo in May:

Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke took to a factory floor today to help make a pair of his favourite trademark brown shoes. The shadow business secretary got involved in 'skiving' - thinning the leather upper - of a Crockett and Jones shoe on a visit to the company's plant in Northampton.

The Tory 'big beast', who made a dramatic return to the political spotlight in January, was invited to the traditional home of British shoemaking by Michael Ellis, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Northampton North.

To read more, visit http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Senior-Tory-Ken-Clarke-caught.5228555.jp.

MP to take up case of disappearing sieve maker

High Peak MP Tom Levitt has pledged his support for a local craftsman to help prevent his skills being lost forever. Mike Turnock, from Whaley Bridge, is the last practising sieve maker in the country and fears that when he retires it’ll be the end of a centuries-old tradition of fashioning quality sieves from wood and wire.

Mr Levitt visited Mr Turnock in his workshop (last Thursday, 28 May) to see for himself how the skilled craftsman creates sieves and riddles for all sorts of purposes – from sifting flour for cooking to separating different sized grains of metals used in industry, or for sieving glazes used in the pottery trade. His customers include individual cooks and gardeners, as well as foundries and others he keeps supplied with regular bulk orders.

The MP has already raised the matter with the Culture Minister and is planning to apply for an Adjournment Debate before Parliament rises for the summer.

For more information, go to www.tomlevitt.org.uk/mp-to-take-up-case-of-disappearing-sieve-maker-30-may-2009.

Knitting up a storm at the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival

In this article in The Times, Claire Cameron writes about Paul Dodwell, who will be bringing gansey jumpers to the celebration of traditional boatbuilding and crafts in Aberdeenshire:

It’s not often you come across a young man interested in knitting, never mind one so enthusiastic about the craft that he has rediscovered and revived a traditional form of it.

Paul Dodwell began knitting while studying at the University of St Andrews, and a local designer, Di Gilpin, introduced him to the gansey, which is a type of woollen sweater that has been worn in fishing communities along the exposed British coast for hundreds of years.

Apart from their obvious use as a warm and durable jumper, ganseys have a sad and compelling tale to tell. Woven into each garment are intricate details of herring bones, anchors, diamonds and ropes.

Each pattern corresponds to a different fishing community and can help to decipher where the sweater was made and the identity of the man wearing it. So in the event of a drowning, the deceased could be identified.

The histories behind each design fascinate 24-year-old Dodwell. He plans to demonstrate his skills at the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival this summer. The festival takes place in Portsoy, one of the oldest fishing villages on the Aberdeenshire coast. The stone harbour dates back to 1692 and the burgh traces its history to a charter from Mary, Queen of Scots, in the 16th century.

The Scottish Traditional Boat Festival takes place in Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, from 2 to 5 July 2009. For more information, go to www.stbf.bizland.com.

Article source: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article6349436.ece

Forming Ideas – Cairo Symposium ‘Khamseen’

Wednesday 8 July 2009, 1pm to 3.30pm
Thursday 9 July 2009, 8.45am to 1.15pm
The Ismaili Centre, South Kensington, London SW7 2SL

Khamseen (‘sandstorm’ in Arabic) will explore how art and craft practice in Cairo is impacting on society through the work of contemporary practitioners and innovative art projects. It will ask how society can nurture traditional skills whilst remaining open to innovation? Why Cairo? Because in Cairo today we have a model where the recognition of the value of traditional skills is in resurgence and is playing a pivotal part in the regeneration of Cairo and artistic practice across the Middle East.

Khamseen will bring together leading artists and professionals to discuss the context for this change and how it might relate to contemporary practice here in the UK.

Tickets are available for purchase until 3 July 2009 from www.formingideas.co.uk/content/conferences-0.

Selling opportunity for craftspeople in Sheffield

Art in the Park will be making a den with schools and the public in the Winter Gardens in Sheffield throughout the last two weeks of June (open access session 12pm to 4pm on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June).

If you would be interested in having a stall demonstrating your craft and selling your wares, there is an opportunity to do so at the Dens Celebration Event at The Winter Gardens on Tuesday 30 June.

Craftspeople are needed approximately 3pm to 7pm. Although there is no payment available, any money made from sales of your crafts would be yours to keep. Plus, this should be a fun and high-profile event to be part of and a great way to get your name and skills known.

To apply, please email Cassie Kill at cassie@artinthepark.org.uk or phone her on 0114 268 6813 with details of your craft.

Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland

In 2008, a team from Edinburgh Napier University, funded by Museums Galleries Scotland, undertook a scoping and mapping exercise in order to evaluate how a project to record Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Scotland would look. The full report can be found here.

Edinburgh Napier University has been awarded a substantial Knowledge Transfer Fellowship grant from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to bring the report's recommendations to fruition. The primary outcome of the project, funded primarily by the AHRC, and utilising the knowledge and expertise of Local Authorities across Scotland, will be the establishment of an online inventory of Scotland’s ICH, taking the form of a customised wiki.

This will record and preserve the aspects of Scotland’s culture that do not easily fit into museum collections. The data will be collected and inputted into the main database by teams across Scotland and will provide a valuable record of ICH, as it is currently practiced, and will be practiced in the future, across Scotland. The database is designed not to be a record of ICH at a given moment, but, rather, to be dynamic, in a way that mirrors its subject matter. ICH, on account of its nature, evolves in form over time, and the database must be of a form that is able to adequately capture this.

For more information, visit the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland website at http://ichscotland.org.

ICON training bursaries

The Institute of Conservation is pleased to advertise the fourth year of its training bursaries scheme, with six 12-month internships starting this September as part of the four-year scheme supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Additionally, Icon is advertising two of its own Internships in partnership with other employers and funders. Venues include private and public sector conservation workshops across the UK, offering experience in the conservation of archives, metals, stone, textiles, stained glass and photographic materials.

Closing date is 1 June 2009. Information on all placements and details of eligibility can be found on the Icon website at www.icon.org.uk

Debate the threat to rural skills - 22 May 2009, 4pm

Join Emma Bridgewater, Hugh Peachey, Mike Moody and Daniel Butler at the Hay Festival for the 2009 Country Living Magazine discussion: 'Thatcher, Farrier, Cooper ... Call Centre Worker?'

Rural skills are under threat, and without training for a new generation of craftspeople, the traditions we treasure will exist only in tales of days gone by. Chaired by countryside writer Daniel Butler, who talks to Hugh Peachey, gypsy wagon restorer and stonemason, Mike Moody, chair of the National Heritage Training Group, and entrepreneur Emma Bridgewater.

Click here for more information and to book. Sponsored by The Balvenie.

If you plan on attending this event, please send your reviews or comments to us at info@heritagecrafts.org.uk.

Traditional craftspeople wanted in Gateshead - 12 September 2009

Gatehead Heritage @ St. Mary's is having a heritage craft open day on 12 September 2009 and is looking for traditional craftspeople who may be interested in demonstrate their craft on that day.

If you are interested in taking part, please email Eva Larsen at evalarsen@gateshead.gov.uk.

Click here for more information on Gateshead Heritage @ St. Mary's

Gardeners turning to the rural craftsmen to sweep away gloom

This article was published in The Times on Saturday (25 April 2009), by Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor.

The worst recession in 60 years might have hit the City hard, but the world of traditional country crafts is enjoying something of a boom.

Across Britain craftsmen who have been honing their skills without fanfare for years have experienced a sudden demand from people keen to hark back to bygone days.

A new awareness seems to be developing of the need to protect the environment, buy local and support traditional tradesmen, who make quality goods that are built to last.

Among the beneficiaries are John Rudd, 70, and his son, Graeme, 38, the last commercial rake makers in Britain. They have barely noticed the economic downturn and make up to 1,000 rakes a month at their workshop in Dufton, near Appleby, Cumbria, where four generations of the family have carried on the craft since 1890.

A hay rake made by them should last at least 30 years. Some rakes are still used for haymaking but most are used for collecting garden cuttings or sweeping gravel on drives and paths.

Mr Rudd senior, who has been making rakes for 54 years, is thrilled that he has seen off modern competition, though times were tough in the 1970s, when rakes were mass produced in aluminium and plastic.

He said: “We are lucky because golf clubs like them to clear bunkers and they are used for the sand on athletics tracks. Lots of people have bought them this year because of the snow. We just keep going and we are the only people producing them. We sell through wholesalers and they go to ironmongers and agricultural merchants, where they sell for about £20.”

Little has changed since Mr Rudd made his first hay rake as a six-year-old boy. Even the design with 16 teeth is the same. The fashion for allotments is also helping Kevin Skinner, 57, from Hailsham, East Sussex, who is inundated with orders for garden trugs.

“I have not been affected by the downturn. Gardeners could just use a plastic tray for weeding but trugs are something people adore. I am making 50 a week. People are also buying them for picking fruit and vegetables, collecting eggs and laying flowers. I have even sold them to pubs and restaurants to store napkins or cutlery.”

The past three months has also lifted demand for traditional brooms, or besoms. Mark Cottrell, one of the last traditional makers, who runs Oakwood Sawmills, near Reading, said: “I have done so well since Christmas I have sold right out of stock.

“I have hardly noticed the recession. There is definitely a trend for an original broom. It’s nothing to do with the Harry Potter effect. People just want the real thing to sweep up leaves. With all the interest in growing vegetables, the other side of my business has gone ballistic. I have never sold so many bean pods and pea sticks.”

Scythes are even fast replacing strimmers. There is no traditional scythe- maker left in Britain, but they are becoming so popular that Simon Fairlie, of South Petherton, Somerset, is importing them from Austria. “Scythes are cheaper than strimmers. With global warming, people are trying to cut down use of fossil fuels. Strimmers make a lot of noise and break down a lot. If everyone owned a scythe we’d get much quieter Sunday afternoons.”

Meanwhile, the decline in the use of plastic bags is driving sales of willow baskets at P H Coate & Son, of Stoke St Gregory, near Taunton. The company, which started in 1819, is based in the Somerset levels, which provides ideal conditions for growing willow.

Jonathan Coate, a director, said: “Business is very upbeat, especially for the wicker shopping trolley on wheels. People are going off the plastic ones and we think more people are shopping locally instead of using the car. We are noticing that people don’t mind paying a little extra for something grown and made in the UK.”

Tom Perkins creates logo for the Heritage Crafts Association

Tom Perkins is an Honoured Fellow of the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society who is a world-renowned letter cutter and designer, and whose work has graced a number of public buildings. He was the first choice of designer as someone who would be able to create a forward-looking logo for the Heritage Crafts Association, and who also encompasses all the elements of a skilled craftsman at the very top of his profession.

Tom's letters are always hand drawn. For the Heritage Crafts Association logo, Tom started by just doodling and playing around with the letter-forms. These particular letters didn't create too much of a problem, as the ascender on the letter 'h' and the last letter 'a' could both be flourished (sometimes the letter configurations are very challenging).

These were then worked up into thumbnail sketches, and Tom created quite a few for the committee to choose. In the end, they chose the one which had an extension to the letter 'a' that encased the three letters HCA to look a little like an @ symbol. Tom then worked this up to a full design, which will be used on all Heritage Craft Association literature.

Tom's other work:

• The letter 'd' is a piece now in the Fitzwilliam Museum Collection of Contemporary Calligraphy in Cambridge, and is reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics.
• The shining letters are stainless steel, cast from letters designed by Tom for St Martin-in-the-Fields.
• The roundel with gold letters is a v-incised and gilded Welsh slate.

Closure of the Textile Conservation Centre

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 1999 relocated to a purpose-designed building on the University's campus in Winchester. Now, less than ten years later, it is set to close.



Speaking on behalf of the Foundation, Peter Longman, Deputy Chairman, said ‘this closure will have serious implications for the conservation and museum sector in terms of career-entry education, CPD and research.' The TCC Foundation will continue to make every effort to ensure that the TCC's work, accumulated knowledge and expertise will not be completely lost as a result of the University of Southampton's closure decision.

Time will be made to celebrate the huge achievements of the Centre, and that end the TCC is organising two open days (18 and 19 June 2009) for supporters, former clients, graduates and the Centre's friends to see the work of the current staff and students for one final time before closure. A major reception will also be held in London for those who have funded and supported the TCC over the past 34 years.

For more information about the closure or about the TCC's June Open days please contact Nell Hoare, Director of the TCC, at tccuk@soton.ac.uk.

www.textileconservationcentre.soton.ac.uk

Looking for craftspeople in the North West

In May, Sarah Morton is moving to Morecambe to open a small shop selling arts and crafts of local makers. As well as looking for stock in the shop, she has also been given permission to use all the empty units in the arcade as free display space for arts, crafts and community groups.

This is a great opportunity for traditional craftspeople to advertise and showcase their work. If you are interested, please email Sarah at webfoot@hotmail.co.uk.

Easter hunt for Britain’s master craftspeople

While the rest of the country is hunting for Easter eggs this weekend another search is being launched for England’s disappearing craftspeople. The recently-formed Heritage Crafts Association is putting out a call for all those woodturners, weavers and wheelwrights to join together and fight for this threatened part of our heritage. Its founders would like the public to search out and tell them about people practicing rare and endangered crafts. They are afraid that the centuries of knowledge that helped create the crafts for which Britain was once renowned are in danger of disappearing forever.

The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) has been formed to preserve the traditional skills that have been passed on through generations. Some of these craftspeople, like sievemaker Mike Turnock, are the last surviving practitioners of trades that take years to learn and perfect.

“Sieves like Mike’s products may be mass produced in plastic or metal for sale in kitchen and garden shops,” says HCA Chair and co-founder Robin Wood, “but they’re generally poor imitations of an original that was woven by hand into a steam-bent wooden frame that will last a lifetime and be a joy to use. If the knowledge behind those techniques is allowed to die with Mike I think we’ll lose something quintessential about what it is to be British.”

Robin wants everyone who practises or cares about traditional crafts to join the Association so they can present a united front to fight for the survival of these skills. “There must be dozens of people out there, working in isolated workshops in villages and cities, knowing they’re the last of the line,” he says. “But they needn’t be the last and it’d be a disaster if they were.”

Robin and his colleagues argue that the current economic downturn is a perfect time to nurture traditional skills which form a vital part of Britain’s heritage. Many of those artisans who do survive have thriving businesses and products that are valued at home and abroad. For example, Robin, who makes hand-turned wooden bowls, has a healthy trade with America, as well as providing the genuine article for living history exhibitions and domestic dinner tables.

The HCA will be campaigning for greater support so the current masters can pass on their knowledge. It wants more help to create the conditions necessary to maintain Britain’s reputation for a ‘living heritage’ that is practised in the midst of our communities. “We have English Heritage to look after our old buildings and Natural England to care for the landscape,” says Robin. “Who will nurture the skills and occupations that are our living heritage and could form the bedrock of a resurgence of a creative and profitable cottage industry?”

The HCA has launched a website at www.heritagecrafts.org.uk for anyone wanting to pledge their support for traditional crafts and as a showcase for these crafts. They’re encouraging anyone who cares about or practices traditional crafts to join the campaign for the benefit of their own industry – and the country’s cultural heritage.

Note to Editors:

The HCA can suggest some craftspeople they have already found who are willing to be interviewed and photographed in their workshops.

For further information please contact:
Robin Wood (HCA Chair): 01433 670321
www.heritagecrafts.org.uk

Traditional wheelwright wins Best Traditional Business

Last month, on the eve of the Countryside Alliance awards, Christopher Middleton from The Telegraph mets a wheelwright who is keeping an ancient tradition alive:

"Step inside the workshop of the Wellington Carriage Company, and you enter not just a different century, but a different world, with its own private language and its own dusty rhythm of doing things.

"The walls are lined with rows of primitive iron tools, the floors are heaped with sawn-up lengths of oak and ash, and on every work surface little solidified mounds of wood-shavings bear witness to work done many long months ago.

"It’s the kind of cobwebbed kingdom you imagine some Harry Potter-type wizard to inhabit, and in some ways what happens here is indeed a kind of lost magic.

"The entire enterprise is the creation of softly-spoken, faded-blue boiler-suited Philip Holder, who, at 66 years of age, is not only the firm’s founder, managing director and sole employee, but also one of the few old-fashioned wheelwrights still working in this country. For 50 years, he has operated from this same little warren of sheds in the middle of rural Shropshire, quietly building up his reputation as repairer and constructor of horse-drawn coaches. Now, at long last, his talents are to be trumpeted further afield, with the news that his one-man carriage-building operation has been named winner of The Daily Telegraph-sponsored Best Traditional Business category, in this year’s Countryside Alliance Awards..."

Read the remainder of the article

Awards scheme offers cash boost for craftspeople

Traditional craftspeople across the UK are being given the chance to compete for a cash boost to their business by entering Country Living Magazine’s The Balvenie© Artisan Awards 2009.

The scheme, created by hand-crafted single malt Scotch whisky, The Balvenie, aims to reward the individuals and businesses who are helping to keep traditional skills and crafts alive in the UK today. It offers a total of £9,000 in cash prizes plus bottles of The Balvenie and launches in the April issue of Country Living Magazine, on sale now.

The Awards feature four categories:

• Artisan Mentor of the Year;
• Best Start-up business based on a traditional craft or skill;
• Artisan Apprentice of the Year and Artisan of the Year.

Craftspeople can enter the Awards by downloading an application form and, for the first time, the general public is being invited to nominate craftspeople they know. Full details can be obtained by visiting www.thebalvenie.com or calling Artisan PR on 01578 722690.

Entry is free of charge. The closing date for entries is 30 May 2009 and the winners will appear in the November issue of Country Living Magazine.