Since the first COVID-19 lockdown we have been running a series of free online events on Zoom. Here you can find out what event we have coming up. Click here to re-watch the recordings for some of the previous events.
Coming up
Andrew Grundon in Conversation – Tuesday 7 May 2024, 7pm
Current Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year Andrew Grundon is a true Renaissance man! A specialist in the rare craft of hand painting, lettering, and carving of pictorial signs, he combines traditional sign painting with wood carving, marionette making, illustration and sculpture. He is also currently writing his first novel and building a mobile marionette theatre. Working from his home studio in rural Cornwall, his clients include Liberty of London, the Tower of London, television chef Rick Stein, BT Sport and ITV.
Click here to watch the recordings of previous online events
16 to 25-years olds have until 27 January to apply for one of our three free ‘pre-apprenticeship’ taster courses in the crafts of Cornish hedging, basketry or coppersmithing this Spring. This opportunity is being funded and run in partnership with Penwith Landscape Partnership.
Cornish hedging
Course description: During this five-day course, participants will have a good taster of working in Cornish hedging, which will include learning about the materials used, selecting the right materials, how to work tools correctly, techniques used, preparing and setting up a work area, good code of practice, and how to work safely.- Location: The Guild of Cornish Hedgers, Sancreed.
- Start date: To be arranged depending on participants and trainers availability. They plan for it to begin in the middle of March.
- Duration: 5 days, once a week. This will be weather dependent.
- What next?: Aside from this being a great opportunity to have a taster of what Cornish hedging is like, after the free 5 day taster training course, there is the option to attend a further paid for 10-day training course with the Guild.
Basketry
Course description: During this course, participants will learn a bit about working with living willow, which will include some planting and possibly creating willow arches at a recently discovered ancient willow garden. There will be the opportunity to try out various basketry techniques, talk to other crafts people and also learn a bit about selling work in galleries and outlets.- Location: Various, which include Rosudgeon and Porthleven with basket maker Geraldine Jones.
- Start date: To be arranged depending on participants and trainers availability. They plan for it to begin in the middle of March.
- Duration: 9 days, which are planned to be run in blocks.
- What next?: This course is aimed to give you an insight into learning more about basketry and also how to set up a small business. Participants could become a self employed crafts person and map out any further training they may want to attend to develop their practise.
Coppersmithing
Course description: During this course, participants will have the opportunity to learn some coppersmithing techniques in a well established workshop with experienced trainers. They will also see examples of past and present commission/project work.- Location: The Copper Works in Newlyn.
- Start date: To be arranged depending on participants and trainers availability. They plan for it to begin towards the end of February / beginning of March
- Duration: To be confirmed as this depends on commissions/projects they have in place at the time and availability of participants/trainers. They would prefer training to run in blocks, which will last for no more than 18 days.
- What next?: This training will give participants a great opportunity to try out Coppersmithing and to see how a successful business in the industry works. There will also be opportunities to discuss further skills development outside of this project and how to work in the industry.
If you would like to apply for any of these opportunities, please fill out the application form here.
For more details, please contact Project Manager Anna Pope at anna@heritagecrafts.org.uk.
We are saddened by the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and extend our deepest sympathies to Heritage Crafts’ President King Charles III and the rest of the Royal Family.
Throughout 2021 we ran a series of free online events on Zoom profiling some of the most prominent figures in the field of lettering brought together by Heritage Crafts Chair and professional scribe and illuminator Patricia Lovett MBE. Here you can re-watch the recordings. Click here to watch our other online events.
Ewan Clayton (calligraphy) – 14 October 2020
Ieuan Rees (letter cutting) – 27 January 2021
Tom Perkins (calligraphy) – 24 February 2021
Lida Cardozo-Kindersley (letter cutting) – 30 March 2021
Sheila Waters (calligraphy) – 22 April 2021
Katharina Pieper (calligraphy) – 27 May 2021
Julian Waters (calligraphy) – 22 June 2021
Dr Stella Panayotova (manuscripts) – 21 July 2021
Peter Halliday (calligraphy) – 29 September 2021
Gemma Black (calligraphy) – 27 October 2021
Professor Michelle Brown (mediaeval manuscripts) – 16 November 2021
Tim Noad (calligraphy) – 7 December 2021
Patricia Lovett MBE (calligraphy and illumination) – 25 January 2022
Deadline: 25 February 2022
We are seeking submissions of short films (under 30 minutes) for the craft cinema at Making Places on 26 March 2022, a one day event as part of The Making of Coventry, a partnership project between Heritage Crafts and Creative Lives, funded by Coventry City Council, and coinciding with Coventry City of Culture.
The Craft Cinema will showcase the best of UK heritage crafts, both historic and practiced today, focusing on both Coventry and the rest of the UK. The theme of the the event is how crafts contribute to local distinctiveness and a sense of place through time.
Categories:
- Films about craft in Coventry and surrounding areas (historic and/or practiced today)
- Films about heritage crafts practised elsewhere in the UK that show how making contributes to local distinctiveness and a sense of place through time
Guidelines
- All genres are welcome.
- Films must be between 2 and 30 minutes long.
- Your film must be your own work, and you should have obtained copyright or relevant permissions for all images and films used in your piece.
- Contributors selected for screening will be notified by Friday 4 March 2022 and will be required to submit a high res file of their film by Monday 14 March.
- In case of selection, the copyright holder automatically authorises Heritage Crafts to screen the film during the Making Places event in Coventry on 26 March and for additional screenings in the UK, as well as short clips to be used for promotional purposes.
Please submit your films (link to films streamed online, or stored on a cloud sever) along with the following information to info@heritagecrafts.org.uk. Please do not attempt to send videos as email attachments.
- Your name
- Your telephone number
- Your email address
- Title of the film
- Synopsis of the film (200 words maximum)
- Names of craftspeople featured (if relevant)
- Statement confirming that you are the copyright holder and/or have obtained copyright or relevant permissions for all images and films used in the piece, and that you authorise Heritage Crafts to screen the film during the Making Places event in Coventry on 26 March and for additional screenings in the UK, as well as short clips to be used for promotional purposes.
Heritage Crafts’ mission is to support and promote crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. As part of this mission and our continuous aspiration to improve as an organisation, we would like to make an honest and open statement about what heritage means to us. We don’t mean this as a finished statement, but as a starting point for a discussion.
We believe that the value of our craft heritage comes from the diversity of skills and traditions across all of our communities, wherever they originated and whenever they were brought here. We want everyone to feel included in Heritage Crafts and our work, no matter how long they have called this country home or what their background may be.
Our heritage is what we choose to take with us, from our complex (and at times difficult) past, into a future that we wish to realise. Through dialogue about craft we can learn from many traditions, acknowledge past and present injustice, and strive to create a future that is fairer and more equal. We don’t believe we can do that until we have come to terms with our past, and fully acknowledged the ways in which it continues to affect us today.
We recognise that throughout history British society has been full of inequalities, many of which continue to this day. Sometimes these are expressed as explicit prejudices, but often they are implicit, embedded in the structures of our institutions and public discourses in ways that disadvantage, disenfranchise and alienate people. We applaud efforts to bring to light discrimination and injustices, including those of the past that have implications today, and believe that more needs to be done to reveal and tackle them.
We don’t own the debate about how heritage is defined and we recognise that many people have been (and continue to be) excluded from the debate. Where we can, we want to use our position to give them a voice. We are not afraid to question the society within which we operate, or in turn be questioned and challenged by others, and be prepared to change.
