When: Saturday 9 March 2019, 10am registration to 4.45pm
Where: Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY
When the Health Secretary starts to recommend ‘prescriptions’ for art and craft sessions instead of pills, you realise that at last other people are waking up to the value of making. Those of us involved in making know how it can calm the mind, give a focus, and cut out the rest of the world if only for an hour or two.
Programme
- Jay Blades, BBC2 The Repair Shop – Good Making is Passed On
- Celia Pym, Woman’s Hour Craft Prize finalist – Damage and Repair
- Mike Jenn, Men’s Sheds – Making Good and Good Making
- Daniel Carpenter, Research Manager – Red List of Endangered Crafts
- Mary Lewis, Endangered Crafts Officer – Supporting Endangered Crafts
- Celebration of Excellence – National Honours and Heritage Crafts Awards
- Katy Bevan, aka The Crafter
- Rachael Matthews, author of The Mindfulness in Knitting
- Will Beharrell, Turquoise Mountain
- EJ Osborne, Money for Nothing, Hatchet and Bear
- Gilding the Gingerbread, HCA-led project funded by the Goldsmiths’ Company, presented by Ellie Birkhead
- The Chair Maker, film about Lawrence Neal making rush-seated, ladder-backed chairs, followed by questions with Lawrence Neal with his apprentices Sam Cooper and Richard Platt
The Carpenters’ Company, 1 Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2JJ
9 May 2018
Craftspeople from the Heritage Crafts Association and QEST demonstrated an array of skills with opportunities for visitors to join in at the Carpenters’ Company on 9 May 2018. Demonstrators included 2017 HCA Maker of the Year fore-edge painter Martin Frost and 2017 Cockpit / The Arts Society Award winner paper marbler Lucy McGrath (pictured), both Red List critically endangered crafts.
At 3pm furniture maker and designer John Makepeace OBE gave a talk on how he made the Master’s Chair for the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, followed by a champagne reception that provided a further opportunity to interact with these exceptionally talented makers.
HCA Patron and ceramics producer Emma Bridgewater was amongst our keynote speakers at our 2018 conference Crafts for the Future, held on 24 March 2018 at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. After lunch celebrated the winners and runners up of the Heritage Crafts Awards sponsored and funded by QEST, The Arts Society and the Marsh Christian Trust. In the afternoon session we heard from selected makers on the HCA/Radcliffe Red List of Endangered Crafts.
Keynote speakers
- Emma Bridgewater, ceramics producer and HCA Patron
- Sam Walton, Hole & Corner magazine
- Paul Martin, TV presenter and HCA Patron
Afternoon speakers from the HCA Radcliffe Red List critically endangered category:
- Martin Frost, fore-edge painter
- Skelton Saws. saw makers
- Wim Visscher, parchmenter
- Jojo Wood, apprentice clog maker and wood worker
- Jacob Moss, curator of the Fan Museum
Download the full programme here
Saturday 6 May 2017, 10.00am to 4.30pm
Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE
Kaffe Fassett, worldwide authority on textiles and colour spoke at the Heritage Crafts Association’s conference on Saturday 6 May 2017, 10.45–4.30pm at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE.
Kaffe kicked off a spectacular day when craftspeople and those interested in our rich heritage of traditional skills could hear from makers, celebrate the best in the country, and find out more about our research on endangered crafts – The Radcliffe Red List.
- 10am – 10.45am – Registration and tea/coffee
- 10.45am – 10.55am – Welcome – Patricia Lovett MBE (Vice-Chair of the HCA)
- 10.55am – 11.55am – ‘The Texture of Craft’ – Kaffe Fassett (Patron of the HCA)
- 11.55am – 12.40pm – ‘Cræft: On how traditional crafts are about more than just making’ – Dr Alex Langlands (Patron of the HCA)
- 12.40pm – 12.55pm – The Radcliffe Red List of Endangered Crafts – Greta Bertram (Secretary of the HCA)
- 12.55pm – 1.05pm – The National Trust, local ranges in shops – Genevieve Sioka (Buyer, Artisan and Craft)
- Lunch and viewing Instant Gallery
- 1.15pm – 2.30pm – HCA AGM – all welcome (approximately 20 minutes)
- 2.30pm – 3pm – Celebrating Excellence – The Heritage Crafts Awards and National Honours
- 3pm – 3.25pm – Lisa Hammond MBE (Potter) – The ‘Adopt a Potter’ scheme at Middleport
- 3.25pm – 3.50pm – Florian Gadsby (Potter) – Craft apprenticeships and beyond
- 3.50pm – 4.15pm – Greg Rowland (Master Wheelwright) – Training in traditional crafts
- 4.15pm – 4.30pm – Heritage Crafts Updates
Photo by Simon Trueman -‘Tyring a wheel at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm, Shropshire’
Wednesday 3 May 2017, 3.30pm to 5pm
Houses of Parliament, Parliament Square, Westminster, London SW1A 0PW
The Heritage Crafts Association and the Radcliffe Trust shone a spotlight on the UK’s most endangered crafts at the prestigious launch of their Red List project at the House of Lords. Hosted by HCA Patron Lord Cormack, attendees met and chatted with craftspeople and cultural sector leaders at the celebration of this groundbreaking project, which we hoped would trigger a significant turning point in the country’s support for heritage craft skills
A Place for Craft was the theme for 2015’s conference which was held on Saturday 9th May at the V&A Museum.
The conference highlighted the relationship between crafts and location – focusing on those crafts which have developed in particular regions or locations, and why craftspeople have chosen to live and work in areas with a special tie to their craft. Speakers included Sir Christopher Frayling and Genevieve Sioka, artisan buyer for the National Trust, and makers and craftspeople were able to bring and exhibit the tools of their trade at the conference.
Speaker Biographies
Sir Christopher Frayling
Sir Christopher Frayling has a deep interest in art, design and craft, and has written extensively on the subjects, including his book On Craftsmanship. He was Chairman of Arts Council England 2005–2009 and has also been Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, and a Trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum. He was a governor of the British Film Institute in the 1980s.
Christopher Frayling was awarded a knighthood for Services to Art and Design Education in 2001. He has written and presented television series such as The Art of Persuasion on advertising, and Strange Landscape on the Middle Ages.
Genevieve Sioka
Genevieve is Artisan & Craft buyer for the National Trust, last year launching their Artisan & Craft collection featuring the work of Sasha Wardell, Sue Binns, Scott Benefield and Wallace Sewell to name but a few.
Tasked with sourcing products with provenance, authenticity and spirit of place, Genevieve works closely with established and emerging makers alike to develop pieces for the National Trust shops, forging sustainable and profitable relationships for both parties in order to continue to support the National Trust in looking after special places for ever and for everyone.
With a background in lecturing Textiles and Printmaking and with a Masters in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking, Genevieve now thoroughly enjoys being able to bring great British craftsmanship to the National Trust audience, encouraging shopping for a cause whilst telling the stories of great makers.
Felicity Irons
Her passion for all things rush led her to start designing and making. She and her team now cut 4-5 tons of rush a day during the summer harvest. They hand weave a range of work: rush floor matting, tableware, log baskets, handbags, cushions, hats and shoes.
Their work can be seen in National Trust properties in the UK, the Chateau Azay le Rideau in France, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY and they work with many designers, architects and shops here in the UK and overseas. She also teaches her craft here and in Europe. Felicity was made a Yeoman of The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers in 2009 and in 2011 Rush Matters was awarded the CPRE Mark in the Living Countryside Awards.
Richard Eaton
Richard Eaton, who was born and brought up in London, initially came to Denby Pottery in rural Derbyshire as an enthusiastic young student on work experience for his Master of Arts degree. Richard instantly felt an affinity with Denby’s stoneware clay, designing and putting into full production a unique, and now collectable, range of giftware.
Richard returned to Denby in August 1987 after completing his M.A. in Ceramics and a B.A. in 3 dimensional design. Within a short time Richard was promoted to Head of Design and subsequently Design Director. Over successive years Richard has built up the Denby Design Team which comprises six designers and five technicians.
In addition to his work for Denby, Richard encourages the work of young new designers. He has been a member of the panel of Judges for the Royal Society of Arts design competitions and an advisor on the Princes Youth Business Trust. Richard was until recently an external assessor for M.A. in Ceramic Design at Staffordshire University and is currently undertaking special projects with a number of Universities.
Veronica Main
Over one, under two – Straw plaiting for the hat industry was an occupation for tens of thousands of men, women and children throughout the United Kingdom in 1800s but with the introduction of imported straw plait from the Far East in the 1870s the skills began to die. By the 1930s the number of plaiters in the country could be counted on one hand. Veronica’s presentation will tell her personal journey to rediscover these skills. Her journey, started in the 1970s has taken her around the world and leads her to become a museum curator looking after the nationally important Hat Industry and Headwear collection at Wardown Park Museum, Luton.
