A voice for craft
The national charity for heritage craft skills
Supporting craft heritage
We are the national charity set up to celebrate, support and safeguard traditional craft skills, and to facilitate a national conversation about their importance to everyone now and in the future.
We are passionate about ensuring that everyone has access to craft skills that have developed over generations, and which we believe will be vital in helping us tackle the challenges of the future – and to be able to enjoy making as part of a fulfilled life.
Our Patron is His Majesty King Charles III.
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Featured makers
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Heritage Crafts was set up just fifteen years ago. Since then it has gone from strength to strength, advocating at the highest levels for crafts, publishing the Red List of Endangered Crafts, and distributing 95 grants through the Endangered Crafts Fund. We have awarded 131 training bursaries, established the Heritage Crafts Awards and shone a spotlight on our world-renowned makers through 33 National Honours successes.
Many more people are now aware of traditional crafts and the objects produced by those who carry in their hands, heads, and also hearts the skills and techniques that have been passed down through the generations.
To continue this work we need your support. Please consider making a donation, however big or small, to help ensure that heritage craft skills in the UK are given the opportunity to thrive.
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#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.
To apply, email [email protected].
#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 precious metals (supported by The Royal Mint), 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.
#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
A harmonised EU regulation for Geographical Indications (GIs) now applies to crafts for the first time, meaning groups of producers representing crafts relating to a particular region can apply to have their provenance protected within the EU, in a similar way that food and wine have previously been protected.
The new rules apply to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework, but third countries such as the rest of the UK can also apply to have their provenance protected in the EU under this scheme.
We are running a free webinar led by Dr Anne Barrett of the UK @intellectualpropertyoffice at 1pm on Wednesday 28 January. Register via the linktr.ee in our bio.
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