When: Wednesday 18 May, 8pm
Where: Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 11, and streaming service NOW
Heritage Crafts President HRH The Prince of Wales has lent his name to a new seven-part series, The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation, set to spotlight Britain’s rich heritage of traditional crafts, airing this month on Sky Arts. Backed by Heritage Crafts and The Prince’s Foundation who put forward the featured experts from amongst Heritage Crafts members, the series is produced by Spun Gold TV and hosted by Jim Moir, and will see a selection of top amateur craftspeople take on a variety of crafting challenges to supercharge their skills before each of them creates a final showcase piece to present to His Royal Highness in person.
When it comes to traditional crafts, Britain has a rich heritage – from wood carving to blacksmithing and weaving to stained glass – but we risk losing them forever. Last year alone in the UK, four heritage crafts were declared extinct and a further 56 critically endangered on the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts.
Drawn from across the country, the six amateur craftspeople will explore the history and importance of six key disciplines. They’re joined by some of the country’s leading experts who each week set them a new task within their crafts. The challenges and experts are as follows:
- Wood carving – Sarah Goss asks the craftspeople to create a carving inspired by William Morris and the arts and crafts movement
- Stained glass – Derek Hunt challenges the craftspeople to create a stained-glass panel to include a symbol
- Weaving – Rezia Wahid sets an intricate task asking our craftspeople to use different types of weaving in as they weave material of their choice
- Blacksmithing – Phil Carter challenges our craftspeople to create a fire poker with a leaf detailing
- Stone carving – Zoe Wilson sets a task to create a stone carved leaf
- Pargeting – Johanna Welsh’s task for the crafters is to create a pargeted panel of leaves and acorns
- Grand final
The final episode will see the crafters visit Dumfries House, home to The Prince’s Foundation, to seek inspiration for their showcase pieces. They’ll then take part in a graduation like no other as they present their individual pieces to His Royal Highness himself at his private residence, Highgrove House. All the showcase pieces are then displayed at The Prince’s Foundation’s new training base at Highgrove.
Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, commented:
“Over the last two years many of us have taken up artistic pursuits and more people are getting into crafts – from stained glass to woodcarving and everything in between. The Prince of Wales has championed those traditional crafts for many years, so it feels like there’s no better time to showcase the brilliant skills of this cohort of crafters. And with Jim Moir at the helm guiding us through the show it promises to be an entertaining and enlightening delight.”
