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”