About
the national charity for heritage crafts
What we do
Heritage Crafts is the national charity for traditional heritage crafts. Working in partnership with Government and key agencies, we provide a focus for craftspeople, groups, societies and guilds, as well as individuals who care about the loss of traditional crafts skills, and work towards a healthy and sustainable framework for the future.
We are a UNESCO accredited NGO for Intangible Cultural Heritage and an official Community Support Hub for the UK Governments’ Living Heritage in the UK inventory, having advocated for UK ratification of the UNESCO Convention of the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2010.
Our Mission
To support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage.
We do this through:
- Knowledge – researching the status of heritage crafts and identifying those crafts in decline or in imminent danger of being lost.
- Advocacy – communicating the vital importance of heritage craft skills to the public, Government, key agencies and organisations.
- Safeguarding – ensuring that the highest standard of heritage craft skills are passed from one generation to the next and are recorded for posterity where necessary.
- Support – supporting heritage craftspeople to continue to practice, nurture and pass on their craft.
- Engagement – actively raising awareness and interest in heritage craft skills with the wider public and offering opportunities to engage.
Our Values
Equity and inclusivity
Removing barriers to participation and fostering appreciation of heritage crafts across diverse communities
Credibility and authority
Reflecting the extensive expertise of our heritage craft communities
Collaboration and cooperation
Facilitating connection between makers, supporters and partner organisations
Sustainability and stewardship
Being mindful of the cultural, social, economic and environmental impacts of heritage crafts
Integrity and honesty
Operating openly, accountably and fairly
Continual learning and development
Safeguarding heritage skills by adapting to changing social, cultural and economic contexts
Craft inspiration direct to your inbox
Become a Heritage Crafts Fan and receive a free monthly newsletter about craft announcements, events and opportunities.
SubscribeFollow us on Instagram
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
David Bimudu Scott @bimu_woodcrafts, from Brighton, has a background in law and education, currently completing the first year of fine furniture making at the @buildingcraftscollege. His bursary will fund tuition and essential hand tools for his second year of study on the Level 3 Fine Furniture Making programme.
David’s bursary is supported by the @cityandguildsfoundation.
David said: “This funding will help me grow as a furniture maker, giving me the space and time to explore creatively and develop my skills.”
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Laura Kriefman @laurakriefman, from Devon, is an established leaded stained glass artist who is expanding her practice into glass blowing and bending. Her bursary will fund intensive workshops and mentoring with four neon specialists, including Amy Zachariah and Bill Horwood @southwalesneon, @hoarp and @vivid.neon.sweden, reviving neon sign making in the South West.
Laura’s bursary is supported by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation.
Laura said: “I am humbled to receive this support. This funding will make a dramatic difference to my ability to learn how to make neons, and to explore combining it with my stained glass work. Without this funding I would not be able to pursue such a focused and deliberate period of learning and mentorship. I can’t wait to see how my skills develop.”
📷 @sylvaindeleuphotographer
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
John Allison, from Hertfordshire, has spent over two decades in the British Army and public service and has developed self-taught leatherworking and repair skills. His bursary will fund his place on the Worshipful Company of Saddlers Level 1 programme at @capelmanor and one-to-one training with Jacquie Lawson at the @autointerioracademy.
John’s bursary is supported by the Royal British Legion.
John said: “This bursary means an awful lot to me. It will give me the opportunity to develop the traditional leatherworking and restoration skills I need to turn a long-standing passion for preserving historic objects into a sustainable craft practice and, in time, pass those skills on to others.”
📷 @walsallleatherskillscentre
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Alex Hawes @alexhawes_embroidery, from Surrey, combines fashion, embroidery and costume making. She has a long-term vision to establish a unique costume house that foregrounds embellishment and embroidery, and will mentor future craftspeople. Her bursary will fund an intensive costume making course at the @themanchesterschoolofcostume.
Alex’s bursary is supported by the Capri Holdings Corporate Foundation.
Alex said: “With the support of a Heritage Crafts, I am training as a costume maker at the Manchester School of Costume. This, in addition to my existing practice as a hand-embroidery artist, will give me the confidence and connections to work in the UK film and TV industry as an embellisher/maker.”
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Lee Gordon, from London, is a self-taught maker in vitreous enamelling, metalwork and watch assembly. His bursary will fund a comprehensive training programme in watch dial enamelling and metalwork, including weekly studio tuition with Paul and Tamika Ravn, classes with @janemoorejewellery at @theforgespace, portrait enamelling with Gillie Hoyte Byrom and hand engraving with @handengravers.
Lee’s bursary is supported by the Capri Holdings Corporate Foundation.
Lee said: “This funding turns an endangered craft from something I frequent in borrowed workshops into a practice I can sustain, innovate in and share with others.
“It gives me the chance to innovate and refine ideas that would otherwise stay as rough experiments …and to work in a way that respects the limits and strengths of my mental health whilst keeping an endangered practice alive.”
📷 @lgstudio_
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Jasmine Harper-Jones @jasmineharperjones, from East Sussex, has a background in ceramics and glass and currently works as an FE college art and design technician. Her bursary will fund a series of intensive one-to-one training visits with prestige artist Lee Price at @duchesschina1888 in Stoke-on-Trent, focusing on traditional on-glaze painting, raised paste and enamel jewelling.
Jasmine’s bursary is supported by the Dulverton Trust.
Jasmine said: “I am so pleased and feel very fortunate to have received a Heritage Crafts training bursary. This will enable me to continue working with historical Duchess China 1888 works, in the heart of The Potteries, with Prestige Artist Lee Price. I will be able to combine my painting skills with the craft of onglaze decoration and develop our collaborative work.”
📷 @robertwadephotography
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Matthew James @friend_of_lime, from Swansea, runs Gower Limework and is an SPAB Fellow with experience in heritage plastering and traditional building conservation. His bursary will fund an intensive one-week Level 1 course in lead welding and bossing at the @leadsheettrainingacademy, along with essential leadworking toolkits.
Matthew’s bursary is supported by the @ashley_family_foundation_4321.
Matthew said: “It’s an opportunity to turn working with your hands to the next level… with guidance and practice comes confidence.”
Over 35 posts we are profiling the recipients of our latest round of training bursaries.
Henrietta Lawrence Van Pooss @_hlvp, from Kent, has gained extensive volunteering experience in heritage conservation with the National Trust and completed an intensive marble sculpting internship in Athens. Her bursary will contribute towards tuition fees for the two-year combined Level 2 and Level 3 Stonemasonry course at the @buildingcraftscollege in London.
Henrietta’s bursary is supported by the @cityandguildsfoundation.
Henrietta said: “Securing this funding is an exciting and meaningful step in helping me continue my journey into stonemasonry and heritage conservation. Through volunteering, unpaid placements and travelling long distances, I have worked hard to build hands-on experience, and this funding will give me the chance to gain a specialist qualification and progress my career.
"Representation is also so important in heritage craft, and as a woman of Black and mixed heritage entering a traditionally male-dominated field, I hope my journey can help inspire greater visibility and show others that heritage craft is an achievable and rewarding career path.”
