Traditional faux marbling and wood graining CPD accredited courses

by Endangered Crafts Fund recipient Simon Nobs, Specialist Decorator & Paint Effects Artist, CPD Accredited Course Designer and Lead Tutor at South Coast Studio

“Firstly, I would like to thank Heritage Crafts for all the vital work that they do for the crafting community and for validating our passion for the work that we do. This endangered crafts grant award is a really important step to safeguarding the future of traditional marbling and graining techniques. For many years I have been aware of the lack of choices for students and craftspeople and their opportunity to receive high quality training in these ancient crafts and now, sadly, these disciplines have been placed on the red list of endangered crafts.

“In 2018, I turned 55, and I decided to embark on a ten-year plan to establish an easily accessible collection of courses and workshops in decorative paint techniques, funded entirely through income from my already established decorating and design business, and topped up through any income received through running the courses and workshops. I have had some previous teaching experience working in adult education, however running my own courses and workshops has been a huge and ongoing learning experience, and despite the difficulties caused by the covid outbreak in 2020, I have managed to build a sustainable and accessible business providing this much needed training asset.

“Over the last four years, I have tutored a large number of students, from a wide variety of occupations and disciplines. This has enabled me to collate data and opinions from a knowledgeable and varied group of people and as a consequence, I have been able to tailor the courses on offer to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

“A significant proportion of students expressed an interest in taking courses that had been accredited under the CPD, Continuing Professional Development, scheme and, thanks to Heritage Crafts, these courses are now live on the website, with new dates being added throughout 2025. The process of having my courses accredited was not straightforward and involved many hours of work, however, I believe that they offer a valuable resource for those that require professional tutoring with the assurance that the course material has been independently scrutinised and verified for quality.

“Has the project been a success so far? Well only time will tell.

“One of the major obstacles I faced and continue to face is in creating awareness of the course material that I offer. So far, due to financial restraints, I have had to rely on social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, my own website and a small number of outreach projects in the local community. This has proved successful to a point, but I believe that the recognition and exposure I hope now to receive from Heritage Crafts, will provide an enormous boost to my efforts. This will inspire and enable me to expand, allowing me to give more time to producing the high quality, accredited training courses I believe are so badly needed.

“I would like to express my gratitude and look forward to working closely with Heritage Crafts to ensure a bright future for the craft.”