Craft status

We are profiling the recipients of our latest round of Endangered Crafts Fund grants.

Jessica Light @jessica_light_, from London, has been funded to train apprentice @annaraytextiles in the craft of passementerie, and together explore new routes to market.

Jessica is the last working passementier in the East End of London, one of the craft’s historic areas for production. She’s known as ‘The Tassel Queen of Bethnal Green’ and she brings a ‘measured couture-crafted anarchy’ to her passementerie where tradition meets modernity.

Jessica’s grant is funded by an anonymous donation to the Endangered Crafts Fund.

Jessica said: “I see myself as a link in a long passementerie chain that goes back centuries, and hopefully this funding will help ensure I won’t be the last link and the chain can continue growing. This funding will help widen the exposure of this endangered craft and push the creative possibilities by working collaboratively with artist Anna Ray.”

📷 @kristinperers

We are profiling the recipients of our latest round of Endangered Crafts Fund grants.

The Framework Knitters Museum @fwkmuseum, in Nottinghamshire, has been funded to commission, purchase and install new prototype bearded needles for their stocking frames, and train volunteers in their use.

The Museum’s grant is funded by the Julia Rausing Trust.

David Longford, Museum Manager, said:

“For the critically endangered craft of framework knitting this funding is incredibly significant for us. It will enable us to supply new needles to finally fully restore an 1840 frame, as well as use across our existing working frames. Thus increasing our capacity to demonstrate to visitors and to offer new training opportunities to learn this special craft.”

A straw hat maker, a watch case maker and a harp maker are among the recipients of a new round of grants to help safeguard some of the UK’s most endangered craft skills.

Heritage Crafts has awarded the grants through its Endangered Crafts Fund, which was launched in 2019 to increase the likelihood of at-risk craft skills surviving into the next generation. This round’s grants are funded by the Julia Rausing Trust, the William Grant Foundation and a private donor.

The seven successful recipients are:

• James Anderson @anderson_vintage06, from Luton, to restore antique straw hat making machines and buy a boater hat block for his blocking machine, as part of his mission to revive straw hat making in the town.

• Framework Knitters Museum @fwkmuseum, in Nottinghamshire, to manufacture, purchase and install new prototype bearded needles for their stocking frames, and train volunteers in their use.

• Seth Kennedy @sk_mechanician, from Hertfordshire, to refurbish and provide storage for specialised tools, to be used to teach horologists and silversmiths to become watch case makers.

• Jessica Light @jessica_light_, from London, to train apprentice @annaraytextiles in the craft of passementerie, and together explore new routes to market.

• Gail McGarva BEM @gailmcgarva.boatbuilder, from Dumfries and Galloway, to secure a barn to become the Traditional Boat Building Beacon, in which to teach regional clinker-built boat construction.

• Mark Norris @marknorrisharps, from the Scottish Borders, to help open a school of harp making and develop a curriculum of tuition before the craft dies out in Scotland.

• Mark Rochman, from Leeds, to gain bicycle frame making skills from Ellis Briggs Cycles and add bicycle making to the offering of @leedsbikemill, a workers cooperative currently offering bicycle repair and maintenance.

Read more via the linktr.ee in our bio. We will be posting about each of the individual recipients over the coming days.

📷 David Longford, @paulreadphoto, @alicia_canter, @jamesglossop

Before Christmas the Heritage Crafts staff team attended a half-day workshop at @tufting_london. It was such good fun and a sure recommendation if your New Year’s resolution is to try something new.

Plus, initiatives like this have done wonders to increase the popularity of rug tufting and get it off of the Red List of Endangered Crafts.

@tess_osman @elizabeth.bizz.fretty @maryeluned_craft @ailsap22 @finnarschavir @weaverraedesigns @danielcarpenter_

This week’s #mondaymaker is Deb King @debkingdesign – a handweaver.

Deb is an award-winning handweaver and textile artist who creates timeless designs with care and attention, focusing on the tactility, drape and weight of pieces alongside the appearance of finished cloth. Deb uses natural materials and yarn, often from individual farms and micro mills, supporting British growers and processors.

View Deb’s full profile on our maker’s directory: https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/maker/debking/

#heritagecrafts #mondaymaker #handweaving

At our recent Heritage Crafts Awards Winners’ Reception at @wentworth_woodhouse, bursary recipient @kerriehanna gave this wonderful speech about the difference her bursary had made.

“It’s a real honour to receive this Heritage Crafts bursary, and I want to extend my sincere thanks to Heritage Crafts and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

“Growing up, I was always captivated by stained glass – one panel in particular which stands out in my mind is the ‘Patience’ window in St Anne’s Cathedral by Ann Smyth. Within the window, a woman was shown holding a spherical portal to another realm, and the way light shifted through it in the changing Irish weather, felt like a threshold into a parallel world. This image left a great impression on me.

“I never imagined I’d have the chance to study glass, with no dedicated courses in Ulster. I got in touch with several organisations, and just by chance Glassmarque Design replied. They needed help for a few weeks to finish a project as the main artist had been unwell so time was against them. Those few weeks turned into four years of assisting with new commissions and restoration work.

“In 2023, I took the leap and set up my own studio. Since then, I’ve been delighted to work on commissions for organisations including the National Gallery of Ireland, Belfast City Council and the National Trust.

“The image of that window from my childhood makes its way back to me now. The woman in the glass holding a portal to another realm; today, this bursary pushes me forward to pass through a new threshold, leading me to pathways of knowledge, new skills and possibilities.

“Not only will I deepen my technical skills, but I will be lucky to build creative community as part of the craft lineage in this historic medium. It is an honour to be welcomed into the Heritage Craft fellowship with everyone in this room and wider networks beyond.”