There is a future for the Textile Conservation Centre

For those of us who were worried it is with relief to hear that there is going to be a future for the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) at the University of Glasgow. When the TCC formerly of the University of Southampton and placed in Winchester was shut down it was a great loss as it is was the only research and teaching facility of it's kind in the UK. Here are some snippets from the press release:

'The new centre for Textile Conservation, History and Technical Art History will focus on multidisciplinary object-based teaching and research that encompasses conservation and the physical sciences as well as art history, dress and textile history.'

'The new Centre will inherit existing library intellectual property and analytical equipment from the TCCF, so that staff and future students will be able to draw on the key physical and intellectual assets built up over more than 30 years.'

'The first student intake is planned for September 2010 offering a 2-year Masters in Textile Conservation and a 1-year Masters in Dress and Textile History as well as opportunities for doctoral research. These new courses will join the existing Masters programme in Technical Art History, Making and Meaning, as part of the Centre. '

'The TCC Foundation exists to support textile conservation research and education in the UK.'

Editorial: Welcome to the Journal and Defining Historic Crafts

By Eddie Roued-Cunliffe & Helene Agerskov Madsen

We would like to welcome you warmly to the first volume of The Journal of Historic Crafts. The Historic Crafts website was launched in January 2010 and has had a very positive response so far. It is based on a series of blog posts, how-to's and reviews by our group of faithful bloggers and we have had readers from all over the world allowing us to think ourselves truly international.
We are now in June and we are ready to launch the Journal of Historic Crafts as a supplement to the website. Where the blog-posts on the website are of a more informal character divided into series such as "learning a new craft", "Easter" or "Spinning", the Journal is aimed to be not more formal but more in-depth. It consists of articles drilling in on specific subjects such as the language of flowers or the Scythian origin of felt, complete with references and interesting images. The Journal as you will have notices is published in a traditional A4 format but as an online Journal through the publishing tool Issuu. This tool is free to use for both us and you the reading, which means that we don't have to charge a subscription fee. On the other hand it does mean that it is only available on a computer screen unless you decide to print out the articles yourself.
We hope you will enjoy the articles in this our first volume and that you will consider sending us an article of your own for publishing in a future volume. We at historic-crafts.com aim to bring the fantastic world of historic crafts to you, dear reader, and for this we need your help.

In this, our first editorial, we would like to explain what we mean by historic crafts? We think of it as crafts with a historic perspective, which basically means all crafts, from the craft of brewing beer to the craft of knitting. We aim to be inclusive not exclusive and even include modern interpretations of historic crafts.
However, in Britain, where Eddie is based at the moment, the Crafts Council differentiates between contemporary and traditional crafts and only covers the former. This is why the Heritage Crafts Association has been launched recently and invited traditional crafters for a forum on the 23rd March 2010 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. We were invited to take part in this forum and would like to give you our thoughts on the day and on the Heritage Crafts Association.
"The Heritage Craft Association was set up because of the urgent need for action to help maintain, and to continue into the future, the traditional crafts that fall outside the remit of any existing body or organisation".
The Heritage Craft Association focuses "not on craft products as such, but rather on the transfer of skills and knowledge crucial for crafts' ongoing existence. A part of preserving these skills and knowledge is supporting professional crafters as well encouraging hobby crafters".
[caption id="attachment_1910" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Heritage Craft Association Forum © Robin Wood, Heritage Craft Association"][/caption]At the forum three questions were discussed. The first question was "Why is heritage craft important?" and this lead to an interesting discussion about the use of crafts and why these skills must not disappear. There were two main arguments; one was that crafts are a part of our cultural heritage and another was focused on the therapeutic value. In a world were things move so fast and so many people suffer from Internet addiction as key note speaker Prof. Ewan Clayton reminded us. Engaging in crafts is a good way of reclaiming perspective. It teaches adults and children to focus and gives them confidence. While the first argument supports the need to keep craft skills alive by supporting professional crafters, the second supports the need to encourage people to do more crafts on a hobby level for the sole purpose of getting a better quality of life.
The next question was focused on the key challenges for the survival of heritage crafts. Unfortunately this in our view became more focused on issues faced by professional crafters today. Among other the lack of financial support to take on apprentices, which means that some crafts are at risk of dying out. We on the other hand fear that a negative attitude to this question of dying crafts will eventually be the death of them. We believe that a more positive approach of creating visibility around your craft is more likely to work in the long run.
This brings us to the last discussion point: "How can we collectively tackle these challenges?" Some of the ideas we heard at the forum made good sense, such as appearing more at craft shows and appealing to the fact that "people love to make things". Using the media would also be advantageous, if you view it in relation to how programs such as "Time Team" has influenced the public perception of archaeology. Maybe also trying to find and promote industry champions like Jamie Oliver is for food. We would suggest trying to bridge the gab between professionals and hobby crafters by encouraging more professionals who have the equipment and mentoring skills to not only have weekend courses but to allow hobby crafters access to their skills and equipment through open access studios. This would enable and encourage hobby crafters who can't or don't want to make a living of it to still develop their skills. Like a sort of part time apprenticeship where the main focus is passing on the skills.
We felt that it was a very inspiring day and we would encourage anyone with an interest in this area to become friends of the Heritage Crafts Association. Furthermore, we would love to discuss these issues with our readers so we encourage you all to comment on the website and tell us what you think.

Open Workshop - let's share and survive

In our recent report on the launch of the HCA Forum we mentioned an idea on how to tackle the challenges crafts are facing these days and ensure their survival. Our idea was for professional crafters to open up their studios / workshops to amateurs. Both by doing introductory courses and masterclasses but also by enabling  hobby crafters to come in their own time and work on their own stuff. The professional crafter could easily charge a small fee for the use of equipment and the hobby crafter would pay for their own material. But apart from the financial gains the professional crafter would be able to help the crafters get better at their craft and encourage those with the skills to take it further and thus secure the survival of endangered crafts.

In the same sort of way Martena Duss and Sissi Holleis opened their Sweat Shop cafe in Paris. Like at an Internet cafe people come there and rent a sewing machine on an hourly basis. Coffee and cake is available together with evening classes that can help you better your technique. The Sweat Shop is described as a "cafe couture" and is a new concept in the creative world. I wish them the best of luck and sincerely hope that others will try the same (maybe in London!)

The Therapy of Crafts

Having just spotted this article in the Guardian about "Working with your Hands : The secret to Happiness?" It got me thinking about a little anecdote that I think it was Robin Wood who told at the HCA Forum (I apologize if it was indeed someone else). He told a story of having to dig out and/or lay down a path. People would come by and say things like "that looks like hard work". Well I am sure that it was hard work but his point as I understood it was that people seemed to feel sorry for him, that he should have to do this hard work.

Coming from a family where hard work is just a given I don't feel sorry for people who have to engage in it. It's great and you get a sense of achievement from working with your body. Whether it is working in the garden, repairing bikes or engaging in a craft. It also made me think back to the forum and the discussion about the point of doing crafts. On my table we agreed that one of the great things about crafts is that it can work as therapy for the people who engage in it. It can help people to focus and concentrate. It works for children, people with psychological issues and just about anyone else too.

And talking about Robin Wood - just wanted to point you all to the Robin Hood movie coming out this week. Take note of the wooden bowls - made by Robin Wood.

Launch of Heritage Craft Association

Last week the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) launched itself and called together traditional crafters for a forum. Yours truly were present at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for the occasion.

HCA describes them self as following:

"The Heritage Craft Association was set up because of the urgent need for action to help maintain, and to continue into the future, the traditional crafts that fall outside the remit of any existing body or organisation".

and their focus is:

"...not on craft products as such, but rather on the transfer of skills and knowledge crucial for crafts' ongoing existence...".

A part of preserving these skills and knowledge is supporting professional crafters as well encouraging hobby crafters.

At the forum three questions were discussed: The first question was why are crafts important and this lead to an interesting discussion about the use of crafts and why these skills must not disappear. There were two main arguments; one was that crafts are a part of our cultural heritage, and another was focused on the therapeutic value. In a world were things move so fast and so many people suffer from Internet addiction as keynote speaker Prof. Ewan Clayton reminded us. Engaging in crafts is a good way of reclaiming perspective. It teaches adults and children to focus and gives them confidence. While the first argument supports the need to keep craft skills alive by supporting professional crafters, the second supports the need to encourage people to do more crafts on a hobby level. Simply for the sole purpose of getting a better quality of life.

The next question was focused on the key challenges for the survival of heritage crafts. Unfortunately this in our view became more focused on issues faced by professional crafters today. Among others the lack of financial support to take on apprentices, which means that some crafts are at risk of dying out. We on the other hand fear that a negative attitude to this question of dying crafts will eventually be the death of them. We believe that a more positive approach of creating visibility around your craft is more likely to work.

This brings us to the last discussion point: how can we collectively tackle these challenges? Some of the ideas we heard at the forum made good sense, such as appearing more at craft shows and appealing to the fact that "people love to make things". Using the media will probably also help a lot, in view of what programs such as Time Team has done to the public perception of archaeology. Maybe trying to find and promote industry champions in a way that Jamie Oliver is to food would help. We would suggest trying to bridge the gab between professionals and hobby crafters by encouraging the professionals who have the equipment and mentoring skills to not only have weekend courses but to allow hobby crafters access to these skills and equipment through an open access studio principle. This would enable and encourage hobby crafters who can't or don't want to make a living of their craft to still develop their skills. Like a sort of part time apprenticeship with the main focus on passing on the skills and not on making money.

The event was a wonderful chance to meet a lot of very enthusiastic British crafters and we truly enjoyed engaging in the many lively discussions over the day. By the end of the day there was no one solution on how to safe crafts for the future, but we definitely had a more detailed view of the perspectives involved and most importantly, we felt inspired. Not bad for a day spent in London.

One of the topics at the forum was how HCA define heritage crafts. Chair Robin Wood has answered this question by writing a blogpost on the history and definition of crafts, traditional crafts and heritage crafts. Finally HCA has also released a press release about the launch!

Yours truly,

Eddie and Helene

Morning of the HCA Forum

While waiting to go to the Heritage Crafts Association forum and launch today in London I read an article by Jon Henley about heritage crafts at risk. I was quite surprised to find that (in his view at least) Britain does so little to aid crafts people.

"Modern Britain, it seems, is not much fussed about the skills and knowledge that exist only in the minds, eyes and hands of people who make things – our living vernacular heritage. We like them, in a rose-tinted, nostalgic kind of way, but we don't do much to support them."

With this view in mind it will be very interesting to see what the HCA can offer today in terms of proposing a solution to this problem.

"My real vision," says Wood, "is of a country that understands how much a part of us these crafts are. Where schoolchildren in Nottingham learn how to make lace, and in Northampton, a shoe. Pots in Stoke, willow baskets in Taunton, cutlery in Sheffield, chairs in High Wycombe. In Sweden they do that. They know how these skills helped make us."

Well yes it doesn't seem that school children in Britain get much in terms of craft education. Perhaps the Craft Club initiative setup by the UK hand knitters and the Crafts Council will be able to rectify this in some way. As for Sweden we will have to put it to our Swedish correspondent Ane.

Read more from Eddie or give your opinion below!