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Heritage Crafts has awarded seven new 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 and a private donor.
The seven successful recipients are:
• Elena Fleury-Rojo @redflowerglass, from Essex, to purchase a dedicated scientific glassblowing torch setup and associated equipment, to build on her training bursary and preserve the endangered craft of scientific glassblowing.
• Robert Girling @selinijewellery, from Lancashire, to purchase specialist machinery and establish a functional diamond cutting workshop, expanding his lapidary skills into traditional diamond cutting and passing this endangered knowledge on to future generations.
• Rosa Harradine @rosaharradine, from Sheffield, to purchase an antique Lipe & Walrath stitching machine to use alongside her foot-powered winder, to improve efficiency and sustainability in traditional broom and brush making.
• Philippe L’olive, from Kent, to purchase and modify a draw-bench and its associated tooling to produce specialised tubing in-house, as part of his mission to reduce reliance on imported components in UK brass musical instrument making.
• Mark Marchant @ceramicmouldsuk, from Stoke-on-Trent, to support specialist tool costs, materials and teaching time to train an apprentice in mould making, blocking and casing, safeguarding critically endangered industrial pottery skills.
• Caroline West @englishlacemaker, from Tyne and Wear, to establish a national mentorship programme that pairs aspiring lace teachers with experienced makers, to address the critical shortage of teachers in the endangered craft of bobbin lace.
• Aaron Wright @wrightsheritageglaziers, from Norfolk, to support the costs of enrolling an apprentice onto the Stained Glass Apprenticeship at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, helping secure the future of historic stained glass conservation.
Read more via the linktr.ee in our bio. We will post more about each of the recipients over the coming days.
We are delighted to announce our expert judging panel for our inaugural Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year Award, supported by @woodsmith_uk! 🪓🌳🪵
• Mike Abbott @abbottslivingwood – Universally acknowledged as the ‘godfather’ of British green woodworking, Mike has spent over forty years reviving and refining traditional woodland skills. Through his internationally acclaimed courses in Herefordshire and three seminal books, Mike has trained thousands of makers worldwide, fostering a global ‘New Wood Culture’ and securing the future of the craft.
• Maurice Pyle @mauricewoodsmith – With a background in outdoor education and personal development, Maurice has dedicated his career to connecting people with nature through green woodworking. He honed his expertise alongside iconic craftspeople like coppice merchant Bill Hogarth, later founding Woodsmith to deliver community woodcraft courses and supply high-quality specialist tools.
• Lorna Singleton @lornaweavesoak – A master coppice worker and basket maker specialising in oak spelk baskets and hazel basketry, Lorna is a graduate of the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Scheme. Dedicated to passing on heritage skills and ensuring that woodlands are valued, Lorna’s work is regularly exhibited and she teaches throughout the country.
This new award celebrates those in the first five years of their professional practice who are breathing new life into freshly cut wood, be that bodging and chair making, pole lathe turning, bowl and spoon carving, timber framing, hurdle making, shingle making, split wood basketry… or others.
There is a £1,000 prize for the winner to be presented at a high-profile Winners’ Reception in November. Plus, we are also running similar awards in crafts, such as building crafts, with additional prizes of £1,000 provided by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and others.
📅 Deadline: Friday 21 August 2026 (at 5pm)
➡️ Nominate someone (or yourself) today via the linktr.ee in our bio or directly at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-awards/emerging-green-woodworker-of-the-year-award/
📷 Sharif Adams by @suzybennett.photography / @dartmoor.artisans
The Endangered Crafts exhibition at Stourbridge Glass Museum @glassmuseumuk opened today!
A partnership between @glassmuseumuk @contemporaryglasssociety and @heritagecrafts, the exhibition features fabulous objects made using crafts featured on the Heritage Crafts Red List including scientific glassblowing, brilliant cutting and neon sign making!
A lot of the curation and organising was done by glass artist and trainee scientific glassblower Elena Fleury-Rojo @redflowerglass, who is a Heritage Crafts training bursary and Endangered Crafts Fund recipient.
There were also some amazing demonstrations of mouth blown flat glass, glassblowing and neon tube bending… all in a UK heatwave! 🥵
The exhibition is open until 7 November 2026.
✨ Nominations are OPEN for the 2026 Heritage Crafts Awards! ✨
For the fourteenth year, Heritage Crafts is celebrating the incredible master craftspeople, emerging makers, and unsung heroes keeping the UK’s traditional living crafts alive. 🛠️🧵
These awards celebrate the extraordinary talent across the UK, from silversmiths and weavers, to stained glass makers and upholsterers and beyond – who work with their hands, heads and hearts to preserve our cultural legacy.
🏆 With 22 categories and prizes include:
• Patron’s Award for Endangered Crafts: £5,000 award (£1,000 for runner-up) for safeguarding at-risk skills as per the Red List of Endangered Crafts
• National Makers of the Year: Regional awards up to £2,000
• Emerging Makers: £1,000 prizes for early-career practitioners (new categories announced!)
• Backbone of the craft: Celebrating top Trainers, Trainees, Community Catalysts and Lifetime Achievers
📝 Key Info:
• All via a single online form.
• Finalists will be invited to a high-profile Winners’ Reception at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, this November in partnership with @thegoldsmithscompany
⏳ Deadline: Friday 21 August, at 5pm
🔗 Nominate someone (or yourself!) today: Head to the Heritage Crafts website to apply via the linktr.ee in our bio, https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/opportunities/awards/ or the ‘Opportunities’ section of the Heritage Crafts website.
Help shine a spotlight on the makers who define our culture. Our enormous gratitude to our generous sponsors who make this possible.
The awards are presented in partnership with supporters the @kingcharlesfund, @royalmintuk, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, @thegoldsmithscompany, @costume_society, @marshawards, @theleathersellers, the Broderers’ Company, @SPAB1877, @bsmgp, @woodsmith_uk, @sonnaz_, @roseuniacke, @hiutdenim and @mournetextiles
#HeritageCrafts #HeritageCraftsAwards #UKMakers #TraditionalCrafts #CraftAwards
Our Endangered Crafts Fund at @heritagecrafts is one way we support makers in keeping their skills alive.
As @patternmakers mentioned, it’s more than the financial support, it’s about being part of a community of makers and having access to support. When makers receive funding from us, they have access to our Recipients` Circle, fostering long-term support with regular Circle Social and Circle Surgery meetings.
Applicants who practice an endangered craft can apply for up to £2,500 develop their practice. Whether it’s for tools, machinery or for creative way to pass on the knowledge. For example, @patternmakers was able to apply for a large dyeing vat, which helped her to be able to print longer length of fabric, which keeps her practice viable. Look how beautiful her work is on display at this year’s @craftfestival in Bovey Tracey. 😍
When you become a member or donate, this is the sort of work you’re supporting!
DEADLINE for the next round of applications is 5pm, Friday 16 October 2026.
We have more details on our website under `Opportunities`.
If you’re thinking of applying these are the sorts of things to consider…
Does your idea help ensure the longer-term viability or survival of heritage craft skills, for example:
⭐️developing a new, innovative approach to heritage craft skills;
⭐️investing in more efficient machinery;
⭐️developing new routes to market;
⭐️exploring the use of sustainable alternative materials while maintaining the heritage character of your practice.
Direct and indirect skills transfer, for example:
⭐️taking on a trainee or apprentice;
⭐️preparing to teach courses, including the creation of training materials;
⭐️online or video content to support skills sharing and documentation;
⭐️specialist tools and equipment to facilitate training.
Continuous professional development, for example:
⭐️acquiring the knowledge and skills required to run a successful small business;
⭐️acquiring the advanced craft skills or allied craft skills necessary to make a craft practice more viable, e.g. through a training course or self-directed learning.
Do you know the real story behind the Red List of Endangered Crafts?
We’ve had a few new followers around here and thought it was about time that we tell you about one of our most high-profile projects.
The Red List is not supposed to just be about the shock factor of crafts at risk – it’s about giving makers a framework with which to communicate the value of what they do, and to give the public a space to debate what they collectively want to carry into the future.
There are many makers out there who are so busy trying to do what they do best, they don’t have the time to advocate for themselves, and so the Red List is a way for the whole sector to raise awareness of the wider structural issues that affect the viability of heritage crafts.
One glimmer of hope is that as more people reject AI and turn towards analogue, material and off-screen experiences, they will really appreciate the value of the handmade and the skill that goes with that.
Let’s protect the skill and those who hold them, and enable them to pass it on to the next generation!
#heritagecrafts #endangeredcraft #whatistheredlistofendangeredcrafts #craftUK
Wow! As a small charity we literally do a happy dance every time someone signs up to be a member, donates and chooses to be part of our community. Welcome to all our new followers! We are overwhelmed with gratitude. 20k followers in two days is incredible. 🤯
We have worked hard over the last 16 years to build an argument to protect craft skills as living heritage and none of this would be possible without you. It is truely the community of makers that inform what we do. There’s also the fans and the supporters who are local and across the world, that enable us to continue too. We couldn’t do it without you.
For context, we made a post pretending to do a Netflix documentary, and its success shows that many of you are interested in the work that we do around the Red list of Endangered Crafts. It’s research that we undertake every two years and research for the next edition is just about to start, due to be published nearly next year.
Stay in touch, be part of the community and once again we are so grateful you’ve chosen to follow us.
#redlistofendangeredcrafts #heritagecrafts #make #craft
Behind the scenes of the Netflix documentary trend, which that blew up. We are in awe! Thank you for following us and supporting heritage craft skills. We hope that with so many new faces around here will be able to do so much more to help Heritage Craft in the UK.
We had a person volunteering with us to help with social media and after three months, this was their last day. They suggested that we try out this new Netflix documentary trend while we were at the festival of making and next thing you know, the followers started rolling in. We hope this is a sign that everyone is starting to value craft, making and the handmade. We hope that people now know about the Red List of Endangered Crafts and that we are the authors of it. We also hope that people realise that we aren’t publicly funded which means every Membership or donation helps us to do what we need to do to support Heritage Crafters.
Thank you for your support! We have more details on our website if you would like to get involved.
Many thanks! The Heritage Crafts team 💖
#heritagecraft #redlistofendangeredcrafts #maker #craft #saxophone
