What a privilege it was to join Heritage Crafts and The Royal Mint last week at Somerset House in London for their Symposium on Precious Metal Crafts.

Changes in technology, education, the economy and retail trends all have an impact on craft based skills in the UK and for the most part not a positive one. The future of many of these skills is at risk and some have already become extinct.Heritage Crafts, along with The Royal Mint & Pilgrim Trust research and publish the Red List of Endangered Crafts every 2 years. You can view the full list here.

The symposium was designed to bring together crafts people, educators and others in precious metal crafts to discuss the future of endangered crafts and how to ensure those currently not on the endangered list remain viable.

The routes into precious metal crafts were discussed at length, and there is a general consensus that both routes through higher education and apprenticeships have become more and more challenging for both those seeking access to skills and those delivering them.

Rishi Sunak’s recent attack on degrees which do not directly result in a paid role within 15 months of graduation and which result in individuals making a specific financial contribution to the economy within this period, can do little to raise optimism in any of the craft based industries. The frustration in the room was palpable.

We are somewhat blessed by comparison to our English neighbours, in that, the Scottish Government has a more enlightened approach to the craft industries and to supporting creative entrepreneurship, however we are certainly not immune to these challenges in Scotland and it is essential that we continue to lend our voice to this debate.

Why is it important to continue to pass on traditional craft skills?

Of 259 Crafts in the 2023 Red List of Endangered Crafts, 62 were listed as Critically Endangered, 84 were listed as Endangered, and 112 as Currently Viable with 1, Mouth Blown Sheet Glass Making the only one since 2021 to become extinct in the UK. (The Red List of Endangered Crafts 2023, Heritage Crafts ).

For centuries the UK has been known for its excellence in craftsmanship from silverware to musical instruments, from goldsmithing to sailmaking, the term “made in the UK” has been synonymous with quality. There is an intrinsic link between many of the crafts practised in the UK, which mean that the loss of one craft or the diminishment of practitioners often means higher risk and far more challenges for other coexisting crafts. We heard about the impact this has had and the need to source skills abroad, and the further potentially catastrophic consequences of Brexit.

According to the Craft Council

“Craft generates £3.4 billion for the UK economy each year, with the contribution of the wider creative industries now growing at twice the rate of the UK economy. British craft has never been so sought-after and craft skills are revolutionising industries from aerospace to architecture.”

Craft skills are not only an essential part of our economy, cultural heritage and identity, nationally and locally but essential to innovation and development in so many other industries. And yet we seem to be moving backwards. With contradictions in policy between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education.

We discussed the need for private companies, individual crafts people and third sector organisations to have a collective voice to lobby the government and to hold them accountable in the sustainability of our craft industries.

There will inevitably be differences of opinion in these situations. As a CIC and independent jewellery school committed to bringing access to making to all, we find ourselves in what may to others seem like a conundrum. How do we continue to support excellence in precious metal crafts while supporting access for all. We have seen a proliferation of independent jewellers over the past 10 years. During the pandemic many who have not had exposure to the traditional training routes, including myself, found we had more time to spend honing our skills in home studios and workshops.

So is this a good or a bad thing? Our ethos is EDUCATE | INSPIRE | EMPOWER, while we are absolutely passionate about quality and maintaining high levels of skill in the industry, we fear for the industry if only the traditional routes to these crafts are available.

The debate swung from the challenges of apprenticeships and learning to both hone the skill of the crafts, but also to learn the business from the inside, to the benefits and pitfalls of a university of art school degree, which offers broad access to a number of skills but does not necessarily prepare graduates for industry.

By providing opportunities outside of traditional centres like London, Birmingham and Sheffield, and Edinburgh we will cast the net wide enough to give the greatest opportunity to finding the right talent. I strongly believe that that talent will not just be found in apprentices and graduates, but also in our wider communities, and that our industry will be richer for it. Providing the right access to training and routes into the industry is the challenge, and one we are committed to at Vanilla Ink.

There was some discussion about neurodiversity in our industries and this is something that is also very close to our hearts at Vanilla Ink. However it is one of the many challenges in diversity that we face, with a lack of understanding and prejudices still existing in many quarters, of the traditional skills. Education is not just about teaching skills it needs to be wider than that in order for our skills to survive, we need to teach tolerance and to continue to advocate for diversity. We need to appeal to and support diversity within our traditional metal crafts.

There were a number of thoughts I came away with.

We need to work together to ensure that there are accessible routes into our crafts for a wider range of entrants.

Business skills and entrepreneurship are essential skills for those in our industry who want to practise their craft as independent artisans, or small businesses, and there is not enough access or support for this.

Traditional routes have both huge value and challenges for those pursuing a future in this industry. There is both room and a need for other routes into these crafts, and by supporting these routes we have an opportunity to find and encourage more talent to take up the mantle. It is in the hands of our current master craftsmen and women to support this.

These traditional crafts are essential to our cultural identity, but the traditional routes and the traditional participants in these crafts are no longer enough to keep them alive and that new approaches and new routes to identifying talent are needed to both maintain and preserve these crafts for the future.

There are a number of challenges

We very much hope that the incredible creative minds facing these challenges can bring a dynamic and lateral thought process to overcoming the issues and continuing to add value for our future generations of craftspeople.

The Future of Precious Metal Crafts in the UK