A voice for craft

This week’s #craftfocus is straw hat making.

Straw hat making involves the creation of hats and boaters through the stitching of straw plait or braid and using a hat block to form the shape and finishing.

Typically, creating a straw hat starts at the centre of the crown (the button) and spirals outwards to form the headpiece and brim.

Techniques:

-The handmade plait is checked, damped and wound onto a plait winder (some types of braid may not require damping).
-A button (top centre crown) is created by hand or machine. The plait or braid is sewn together either by overlapping or edge to edge to form a hat shape.
-The hat is matched to the design hat block, checking size and shape. Some hats are created free-form, where the intended shape develops without a block.
-Remaining processes of stiffening, finishing and trimming are carried out.

Straw hat making is classified as critically endangered on our Craft Inventory. There are now only a limited number of makers who are able to machine-stitch straw and a few individual hat makers, inhibiting skills transfer. The market is facing competition from overseas, with skills being lost to makers in other countries. Alongside rising prices for materials and supplies, specific courses are unavailable due to a lack of machines.

Images: Amy Bowen @heyimagoblin & Veronica Main @hat.plait

#heritagecrafts #craftfocus #strawhatmaking

This National Apprenticeship Week, we are highlighting the two recipients of our Apprenticeship+ project, launched last year in partnership with the @hugoburgefoundation.

The scheme supplements two pilot apprenticeships with a financial contribution to the apprentices’ salaries and a grant to help compensate the employers for the reduction in their earnings during the training period. These costs are often prohibitive for sole traders and micro-businesses, resulting in a low uptake of many apprenticeship standards for crafts on the brink of extinction.

One of our recipients is Sue Humphries, who is training her apprentice, Lewis Judd, Lewis Judd, in stained glass at Dan Humphries Studio in Somerset. Lewis is completing the Stained Glass Craftsperson Apprenticeship overseen by the University of Wales Trinity St David

Sue Humphries says: “As our business grows, with stained glass on the Red List and a lack of training providers, we have had a problem recruiting staff.

The bursary we have received has enabled us to find an apprentice and help us with all the costs of sending him away to Swansea to learn from the excellent team there as well as in house training here in our workshop.

So it’s a win for us and the craft of stained glass to be taking on someone completely new to the craft.”

Apprenticeship+ seeks to establish a better evidence base for the financial needs of small craft businesses wanting to pass on their skills to the next generation, by providing a compelling advocacy case to the Government about the additional support needed to ensure a healthy future for these culturally and economically significant industries.

#heritagecrafts #nationalapprenticeshipweek #stainedglass

This National Apprenticeship Week, we are highlighting the two recipients of our Apprenticeship+ project, launched last year in partnership with the @hugoburgefoundation.

The scheme supplements two pilot apprenticeships with a financial contribution to the apprentices’ salaries and a grant to help compensate the employers for the reduction in their earnings during the training period. These costs are often prohibitive for sole traders and micro-businesses, resulting in a low uptake of many apprenticeship standards for crafts on the brink of extinction.

One of our recipients is Katie Gunn, who is training her apprentice, Amelie Priestman, in jewellery making at her business KatieAnnDesigns in Gosport. Amelie is completing the Jewellery, Silversmithing and Allied Trades Professional Apprenticeship overseen by the British Academy of Jewellery.

Katie Gunn says: “For me, mentoring an apprentice is about passing on traditional techniques while encouraging curiosity and creative thinking. Seeing someone develop their skills, confidence and design voice at the bench is incredibly rewarding. It feels important to be part of keeping these skills alive, while also showing how heritage techniques can evolve in modern, sustainable ways.

Alongside these creative projects, my apprentice is also assisting with real workshop jobs such as repairs and resizing, gaining an understanding of the standards and care required in professional jewellery making.”

Apprenticeship+ seeks to establish a better evidence base for the financial needs of small craft businesses wanting to pass on their skills to the next generation, by providing a compelling advocacy case to the Government about the additional support needed to ensure a healthy future for these culturally and economically significant industries.

#heritagecrafts #nationalapprenticeshipweek #jewellerymaking

This week’s #mondaymaker is Debbie Rudolph @debbierudolph_weaving – a weaver.

Debbie is a Falmouth-based textile designer and heritage weaver who blends traditional techniques with modern sustainability. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, she specialises in hand-woven tapestries and homeware. In March 2025, she began establishing her own natural dye garden, and as of late 2025, she has been weaving these naturally dyed materials into a new collection of Cornish Coastline Tapestries and hand-spun fleece and linen pieces.

Debbie works with traditional second-hand looms, such as Glimakra Countermarch and Upright Tapestry looms, which she restores and rethreads. To make her craft more accessible, she developed her own range of Make Me Looms – a selection of small looms produced from recycled plastic and made locally in Cornwall. As a qualified teacher, she also often teaches weaving workshops.

#heritagecrafts #mondaymaker #weaving

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

James Anderson @anderson_hats06, from Luton, has been funded 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.

James’ grant is funded by the Julia Rausing Trust.

James said: “This funding has been essential to bringing some beautiful rare antique hat manufacturing machinery back into service for another generation to use. I am very grateful to Heritage Crafts for helping me get what I need to bring proper straw hat making back to its ancestral home in Luton.”