Alex Langlands and traditional crafts

Alex Langlands is a patron of the Heritage Crafts Association and presenter of the successful BBC programs Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm.

He is also one of the main speakers at the V&A crafts conference organised by HCA, see the full line up here.

 

Heritage is so forward looking.

Last November leaders of the worlds fashion industry met at the Intercontinental Hotel Park Lane. This annual conference looks forward to the next big thing in the industry. So what do you think the likes of Paul Smith, Karl Lagerfeld, Tommy Hilfiger, Patrizio di Marco,  CEO of Gucci, Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry and the rest were there to discuss?

Entitled Heritage Luxury, the conference "explored how luxury brands are created, nurtured and maintained. It addressed the need to sustain founding principals or create a heritage, while adapting to consumers’ changing habits and connecting with them through traditional and digital channels." Does that sound backward looking?

If you wanted to sell this leather belt for £395 how would you brand it?

Stewart Linford chairmaker

Stewart Linford is a bit of a legend in furniture making circles. He started making Windsor chairs in High Wycombe home of the English furniture trade 35 years ago when there were 40 other businesses employing over a thousand makers. Whilst that trade has declined drastically in the face of cheap imports Stewart has built a world wide reputation and a business employing 40. He does it through an emphasis on quality, craftsmanship and making the buying experience a pleasurable one for the customer. He is a simply a genius at marketing quality craftwork in the 21st century. An early picture.

Gail McGarva a remarkable boatbuilder

Gail McGarva will be speaking at the Heritage Crafts Association spring conference at the V&A in March and the next few blog posts will be profiling some of the excellent speakers you'll get a chance to hear if you are coming and to whet the appetite of those who are yet to book. I blogged about Gail's work with the Lyme Lerret before here
This is the moment her new Lyme Lerret was launched.

Trevor Austen rakemaker

This for me is a very sad video, my friend Trevor Austen rakemaker filmed after the onset of motor nurone disease. Sad too because this viable business died and the workshop was broken up when he could no longer work. Trevor finally passed away on Christmas day.



Here are a few more articles about Trevor's work.

Telegraph 2001

Museum of English Rural Life video

Trevor's work was also recorded using a  Local Heritage Initiative grant. How sad that there was no money available to help pass the skills on to someone as a going concern.

Save our skills NFU support traditional crafts

A nice start to the year, an article from the NFU countryside magazine click on the image for an image that is hopefully big enough to read.

what will 2011 bring for the traditional crafts?

2011 may look like being a year of austerity but for the traditional crafts it may prove to be the most exciting year for a long time. I believe this year will see an explosion of traditional crafts in the media and by the end of 2011 the profile and status of traditional craftspeople will be raised and their skills recognised.

In January 2009 I wrote about the need for a traditional crafts organisation which became the Heritage Crafts Association. Last year I predicted 2010 would be the year traditional crafts became recognised as part of our heritage and we finished with the Heritage minister stating exactly that.

This year I believe we need to redefine what "heritage" is. Heritage in the dictionary is defined as everything that is passed down from one generation to the next which we value including material objects and skills, knowledge and customs. This is not backward looking it is our inheritance and it is our duty to keep it alive and pass it on.

Unfortunately "Heritage" in the UK has had a very narrow meaning, on the DCMS website we find "The historic environment is the physical legacy of thousands of years of human activity in this country, in the form of buildings, monuments, sites and landscapes." but no mention of living heritage or cultural traditions. We need to change that situation so that everyone from government ministers and Whitehall advisers to newspaper editors and ordinary people in the street recognise that heritage means everything that we have inherited, all those things from our regional accent to folk songs, traditional craft skills to favourite recipes passed from one generation to the next. UNESCO recognise this as do 126 countries signed up to the 2003 convention on intangible cultural heritage.

Things are changing. For the first time we have a high profile conference for all the traditional crafts at the V&A, this will be an exciting event with many crafts represented and some fantastic inspirational speakers, tickets are limited so book soon to be sure of a place, be there and be a part of the change that is coming in the traditional crafts.

HCA have some great work in progress that will be in the press in the spring. 2 major surveys, the first surveying crafts of the metal trades of Sheffield, the second a major survey of all the councils of England finding out which are doing things to promote traditional crafts and have a named person responsible in the way they do for the arts or for the built heritage. Early results show this is going to be a very dramatic piece of research when we publish.

HCA continue our high level advocacy work. We have been promised a meeting with John Hayes the skills minister who recently called for a new arts and crafts movement and in February we have a meeting called by Lord Patrick Cormack of influential people from the world of heritage to discuss the position of traditional crafts.

We are involved in several very interesting media projects which will see traditional crafts in the limelight with opportunities starting in just a couple of weeks time though we can not give out details yet.

If you want to be involved and to support us in our work sign up as a friend, join the facebook group and book for the spring conference. Hope to see you there.