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This week’s #craftfocus is leatherworking.

Leatherworking is the making of a wide range of leather items, often using techniques of sewing, moulding and embossing. It dates back over 400,00 years, being readily available for usage first as a by-product of hunting.

The leatherworking process is centred on the material – from sourcing the right leather to work with, examining the surface and preparing the leather, measuring and preparing/applying the pattern (marking cut lines) and cutting.

Additional processes include glueing, casing, stitching, dyeing, burnishing, skiving, stamping, moulding/shaping and perforation.

Issues affecting the viability of the craft include the time consuming process of preparing leather, and a lack of widely-available or accessible leather work training/qualifications, with a decreasing number of active makers.

There are also ethical and environmental concerns around leatherworking, resulting in a number of fashion houses moving away from it.

However, many would argue that leather is a highly sustainable material, using a by-product of the food industry that would otherwise be wasted, compared with some of the petroleum-derived alternatives.

Images: Armitage Leather @armitageleather & Billy Tannery @billytannery

#heritagecrafts #craftfocus #leatherworking #leather

Over 29 days we have profiled the recipients of our recent round of training bursaries.

Oliver Kinge, from Wiltshire, has a learning style that has not been served well by the mainstream education system. He also has a passion for blacksmithing that points to an exciting future. He will train one-to-one with blacksmith @melissacole001. Oliver plans to set up his own business, selling items at local farm shops, farmers markets and events throughout the year.

Oliver’s bursary is funded by Malcolm and Rosalind Gammie.

Oliver said:
“Securing the bursary from Heritage Crafts will provide me with the opportunity to continue in my training and acquire the resources I need to develop my skills as a blacksmith. This support will also enable me to explore blacksmithing as a career, to meet other professionals, and expand my skills and training further. Hopefully this will lead to me being able to produce items that others can use for years.”

This week’s #mondaymaker is John Potter, an accredited master fletcher at Twangers Arrows.

Fletching is the making of arrows, including shaping the wooden shafts and attaching the feather. He came into fletching many years ago through the necessity to provide himself with arrows for his longbows. John is the author of ‘Making Traditional Wooden Arrows’, 2020.

If you want to learn more about John’s work, become a member of Heritage Crafts and read his exclusive interview in the members portal: https://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/join-us/

#heritagecrafts #mondaymaker #fletching

Over 29 days we are profiling the recipients of our recent round of training bursaries.

Isabella Cobby @isabellahats, from West Sussex, has been a full-time milliner since 2022, and now wishes to transition her skills to the endangered craft of production men’s hat making. She will train one-to-one in blocked hat making with Sue Crowle at the Welsh National Opera, and in sectional patterned caps with @the.tylermiller. Isabella intends to share her newly-acquired expertise with others.

Isabella’s bursary is funded by the Maxwell Hanrahan Foundation, supporting innovative people working in field-based science, art and craft, teaching and protection of the natural world.

“Receiving this training bursary will give me the incredible opportunity to work with two exceptional hat makers, helping me develop and refine my hat and cap making skills in styles traditionally worn by men. This will enable me to handcraft bespoke hats and caps so that I can confidently offer customised fit and fabric choice, rather than relying on mass produced headwear. I’m excited to take this next step in my craft.”

In the spirit of Halloween, this week’s #craftfocus is broom making.

The making of brooms, also known as ‘besoms’ or ‘besom brooms’, consists of a bundle of twigs (often birch) tied around a stick.

With very few craftspeople in the UK making brooms on a commercial basis (combining the work with other coppice products), broom making is classified as endangered on our crafts list.

Techniques involved include:

• Collecting material for the head – material is selected from the crown of the birch tree and left to season for several months until the twigs are hard but pliant – if used too soon, the finished besom will be too brittle. 3-5 year old coppiced birch is best.

•Making the handle – after the rods for the handles have seasoned, they are placed in a shave horse and the bark is removed with a drawknife. They are then smoothed with a draw shave, and the ends pointed with an axe.

• Selecting material for the head – the piles of seasoned material are opened up, trimmed with a short-bladed billhook and then sorted by hand. Pieces that are too small and brittle for besoms are cut away and the rejected material is later tied into bundles and sold as firewood. The brush is then sorted into two groups: a) the longer, rougher material for the core; b) the smoother, shorter strands for the outside of the head.

• Making the head – a handful of longer, rougher birch twigs are rolled together, then a bundle of shorter, smoother twigs is arranged around them. When satisfied, the head is tied with two bonds of either willow or wire. The butts of each head are then chopped away.

• Fitting the handles (‘tails’) – the handle is inserted into the base and driven squarely home into the head. The head is then secured between the two bonds either with a nail, or by boring a hole in the handle with a small spiral auger and inserting a wooden peg.

Issues affecting the viability of the craft include a dilution of skills, market issues (returns are low), technological change, limited supply of raw materials, lower priced imports and insufficient marketing.

Images: Adam King, taken by Paul Felix

#heritagecrafts #craftfocus #broommaking #halloween