Craft status
The Heritage Crafts Red List
Drawing on the conservation status system used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, Heritage Crafts uses a system of four categories of risk to assess the viability of heritage crafts. A heritage craft is considered to be viable if there are sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation.
Extinct in the UK
Crafts classified as ‘extirpated’ or ‘locally extinct’ are those which are no longer practised in the UK. For the purposes of this research, this category only includes crafts which have become extinct in the past generation.
Critically Endangered
Crafts classified as ‘critically endangered’ are those at serious risk of no longer being practised in the UK. They may include crafts with a shrinking base of craftspeople, crafts with limited training opportunities, crafts with low financial viability, or crafts where there is no mechanism to pass on the skills and knowledge.
Endangered
Crafts classified as ‘endangered’ are those which currently have sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation, but for which there are serious concerns about their ongoing viability. This may include crafts with a shrinking market share, an ageing demographic or crafts with a declining number of practitioners.
Currently Viable Crafts
Crafts classified as ‘currently viable’ are those which are in a healthy state and have sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation. They may include crafts with a large market share, widely popular crafts, or crafts with a strong local presence. A classification of ‘currently viable’ does not mean that the craft is risk-free or without issues affecting its future sustainability/viability.
Heritage Crafts Inventory
The 2025 edition of the Red List of Endangered Crafts marks a significant evolution in how we understand and safeguard traditional crafts.
This year, we introduce the Heritage Craft Inventory – a new, inclusive framework that ensures all heritage crafts, regardless of their current status, have a place where they are recognised and valued under one umbrella. This expanded approach allows us to shine a light not only on endangered and critically endangered crafts, but also on those that are resurgent, culturally distinctive, or rooted in specific communities and regions. It reflects the dynamic landscape of craft today – one that is constantly evolving and shaped by both challenges and opportunities.
Culturally distinctive crafts
Crafts designated as ‘culturally distinctive’ might have a broad uptake across the UK, but hold a particular significance for a defined community of practice, whether that is geographic, cultural, ethnic or religious. Those that are also on the Red List are known as ‘crafts in need of cultural safeguarding’.
- Canal art and boat painting (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Cornish hedging (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Fair Isle Knitting
- Fair Isle straw back chair making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Fairground art (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Gansey knitting
- Harris tweed weaving
- Islamic calligraphy
- Northern Isles basket making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Orkney chair making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Petrakivka (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Pysanky (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Sgian dubh and dirk making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Shetland lace knitting
- Shinty caman making
- Sofrut calligraphy
- Sporran making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Irish vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Scottish vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Welsh vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Vardo and living wagon crafts (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Welsh double cloth weaving (craft for cultural safeguarding)
Resurgent crafts
Crafts designated as ‘resurgent’ are currently experiencing a positive trajectory as a result of an upswing in new entrants. Just because a craft is considered resurgent does not mean that it cannot also be endangered, but rather that its decline has started to reverse and that its situation is likely to continue improving.
Latest Red List stories
Craft skills remain under threat with 20 new additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts
Nine more grants to help save endangered crafts
Craft skills under threat with 17 additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts
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Heritage Crafts and the @theleathersellers have launched new training bursaries for new or early-career practitioners in leatherworking. The successful applicants will benefit from up to £4,000 in funding, as well as one-to-one support from the staff at Heritage Crafts.
The bursaries are provided to help cover or subsidise the cost of training for a new entrant or early-career practitioner who would otherwise be prevented from pursuing this career path as a result of the cost.
Leatherworking crafts are those which feature leather as a primary material. They can include but are not limited to saddlery, shoemaking, harness making, tanning, fashion, accessory making, and so on.
The fashion textiles and costume making bursaries sit alongside others in fashion textiles and costume (supported by the Costume Society), saddlery (supported by the Saddlers’ Company), shoe making (supported by the Cordwainers’ Company), stained glass (supported by the British Society of Master Glass Painters), maritime rope and twine crafts (supported by the International guild of Knot Tyers) and building crafts in Northern Ireland (supported by CITBNI). Additional bursaries for other crafts will open in April.
To find out more including how to apply (deadline 20 March) follow the linktr.ee in our bio.
📷 2025 recipient @amarpatelstudios
#matchMAKER opportunity!
Rush weaver
Location: Bedfordshire
Rush Matters is seeking a part-time rush weaver to join their team, working 3 days per week. The position involves plaiting, sewing rush floor matting, squaring and binding rugs. In the summer, you will also be involved in the rush harvest, unloading bolts on the farm and turning them everyday. No previous experience is necessary.
Find out how to apply at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/matchmaker.
#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.
Heritage Crafts and the @costume_society have launched new training bursaries for new or early-career practitioners in fashion textiles and costume making. The successful applicants will benefit from up to £4,000 in funding, as well as one-to-one support from the staff at Heritage Crafts.
The bursaries are provided to help cover or subsidise the cost of training for a new entrant or early-career practitioner who would otherwise be prevented from pursuing this career path as a result of the cost.
Fashion textile crafts can include, but are not limited to, dressmaking, tailoring, pattern cutting, hat making, millinery, glovemaking, fabric pleating, corsetry, and so on. Costume making can include garments and accessories made for theatre, film, television, musical performance, historical re-production, role play and so on.
The fashion textiles and costume making bursaries sit alongside others in leatherworking (supported by the Leathersellers’ Foundation), saddlery (supported by the Saddlers’ Company), shoe making (supported by the Cordwainers’ Company), stained glass (supported by the British Society of Master Glass Painters), maritime rope and twine crafts (supported by the International guild of Knot Tyers) and building crafts in Northern Ireland (supported by CITBNI). Additional bursaries for other crafts will open in April.
To find out more including how to apply (deadline 20 March) follow the linktr.ee in our bio.
📷 2025 recipient @megan.eleanor.graham
#matchMAKER opportunity!
Ceramic Decorator Apprentice
Location: Stoke-on-Trent
Local heritage ceramics manufacturer, Middleport Pottery, is seeking a ceramic decorator apprentice to join their team in Stoke-on-Trent.
What you will do:
-Pad Printing – decorating plates and bowls from an engraved design using a printing machine
-Colour mixing – preparing decorating colours for application.
-Lithography – application of printed water slides to glazed ceramics.
-Tissue Decorating – decorating holloware shapes with Burleigh’s world famous technique.
-Assist in maintaining a healthy, safe and secure working environment and act in accordance with the company policies and procedure.
-Undertake any other work required by management which is commensurate with the responsibility of the post.
-Training/knowledge will be given in associated production areas to ensure a knowledge of any up/down stream processes are fully understood.
Middleport pottery is the home of Burleigh Pottery.
Find out how to apply at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/matchmaker.
#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.
This week’s #mondaymaker is Emily Fletcher @emilylisbethjewellery – a jewellery designer/maker.
Working from her private studio in Cheshire, Emily’s work is described as timeless elegance with a contemporary twist. Handcrafted using recycled precious metals and responsibly sourced gemstones, Emily creates meaningful heirloom pieces designed to last a lifetime. Emily’s style is constantly evolving, combining modern and experimental techniques with a foundation of traditional goldsmithing skills.
View Emily’s full profile on our maker’s directory: https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/maker/emily-fletcher/
#heritagecrafts #mondaymaker #jewellerymaking
Find out more about our funding and awards
When: 20 January and 7 April
We are providing training bursaries, Endangered Crafts Fund grants and awards in 2026. To find out more and to ask questions about the opportunities on offer, please do consider coming along to one of our two Q&A sessions on Zoom.
Visit the linktr.ee in our bio to register for the session on Tuesday 20 January at 4pm or Tuesday 7 April at 6pm.
📷 @fashionnatascha from @costume_society and 2025 Fashion Textile Maker of the Year @rachelfrosthatter
We are profiling the recipients of our latest round of Endangered Crafts Fund grants.
Mark Norris @marknorrisharps, from the Scottish Borders, has been funded to help open a school of harp making and develop a curriculum of tuition before the craft dies out in Scotland.
Mark’s grant is funded by the William Grant Foundation
Mark said: “From the start of my own musical instrument making apprenticeship in the late 1970s, and throughout 45 years of designing and making harps, I have enjoyed developing a great range of craft skills as a Scottish harp maker. My Heritage Crafts grant will help me greatly towards setting up a small Scottish School of Harp Making, so that I can pass on my accumulated knowledge and skills to the next generation of young Scottish harp makers.”
📷 Gwendoline Ricoul
This week’s #craftfocus is tailoring.
Tailoring is the cutting and sewing of cloth to make and alter clothing to fit an individual’s unique proportions.
Tailoring can be bespoke (creating a custom pattern specifically for a client), or made-to-measure (adjusting a pre-existing base pattern to suit a client’s measurements).
Techniques vary widely depending on the type of fabric used, but generally, tailoring involves moulding and shaping a garment to fit a body type and providing foundational support through interfacing and lining, alongside precise shaping techniques.
Finishings such as buttonholes and invisible hems can be incorporated to ensure a durable and polished appearance.
Tailoring is classified as viable on our Craft Inventory, but threats include changes to fashion trends, particularly since the 1970s towards more casual wear, significantly driving down demand for tailoring services. Ongoing skills development is needed to keep up with changing trends.
With an increased demand for sustainable and ethically sourced fabrics, tailors may struggle to find suppliers who meet this criteria. However, a steady interest in tailoring remains for those considering it an investment offering higher garment quality.
Images: Ryan Rix @ryanrixuk and Anne Fontenoy @artandthedress
#heritagecrafts #craftfocus #tailoring
