Your Hands Never Forget Discovering the Love of Craft
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Do you remember when you were seven, the delightful feeling of pressing your hands in red coloured paint? Even though you knew it was allowed, it almost felt wrong, and just a little bit naughty. You didn’t need a paintbrush because your hands were your tools; in that moment, you were a craftsperson. In celebration of all things craft, we explore what’s going on at Craft Week. Find out more in Your Hands Never Forget Discovering the Love of Craft
Image on left hand side from Secret Ceramics
It’s a luxury to find the time to make something with your hands, and it’s a luxury to be able to buy something made directly from another’s hand. No matter how big or small, creating something with your bare hands builds a strong bond with what you create, for you and for those who end up owning it. These items become gifts for our families or necessities in our daily lives.
Image Secret Ceramics
For people who love to let their hands take the reins, London Craft Week returns for its 11th year of celebrating our most precious tools and the artists not afraid to use them. This year, lovers of craftsmanship and creation are able to get inspired by over 200 events, including around 100 demonstrations and workshops from May 12th to 18th.
This allows visitors to be even more captivated by the different methods of creation. From wig making and silk painting at the English National Opera, to a “Secret Ceramics” exhibit and charitable initiative at Christie’s in Covent Garden.
Image by Andre Pattenden of Emily Gibbard
Emerging craftspeople will be at the forefront this year. City & Guilds of London Art School invites the public to view Conservation Demonstrations from their BA Honours students on May 16th and 17th.
Additionally, the brand Toast will be presenting the work of finalists from their New Makers programme from the 12th to the 18th. Giving a select few craftspeople the platform to show and sell their work.
Future Icons Selects will be moving to Shoreditch for their third year at London Craft Week. Giving around 50 emerging creatives, like Emily Gibbard (photographed above) and Willow Bloomfield, the opportunity to display their work to this vibrant part of London.
Fear not, food and drink lovers. The Future Icons Selects fair will be offering curated food and beverages. Other events like “Meet the Makers Breakfast” at Taylor Howes Designs on May 13th, “Ground Works” with County Hall Pottery on May 15th, and “Goûter …At Sloane” on May 12th will offer meals and afternoon teas for those expecting to feel peckish. Find out more in Your Hands Never Forget Discovering the Love of Craft
Images County Hall Pottery and Royal Thai Embassy
Ready to join London’s finest craftspeople in using your most trusted tools? On the 15th of May, William Morris Gallery asks that you bring your clothes that need some care and be ready to learn how to mend them.
On May 13th, Helena Lacy is eager to share her clay working skills as you recreate your favourite objects at “Objects Narratives” at the Sarabande Foundation.
Kids won’t be left out of London Craft Week workshops. There will be a “Family Fun: Creating Ceramics” workshop on 17 May at Leighton House. And if you enjoy learning about other cultures, the Chinese Embassy in the UK, the Royal Thai Embassy, and the Treasures of Brazil Shop will also be hosting workshops during London Craft Week.
There’s truly something for everyone. For book lovers, bookbinding workshops like “Ink, Paper, and Pattern: The Timeless Beauty of Turkish Book Arts” will be held at the Yunus Emre Institute from the 12th to the 17th, and an “Introduction to Bookbinding” class will be offered at West Dean on the 16th. Find out more in Your Hands Never Forget Discovering the Love of Craft
London Craft Week’s Headline Sponsor, Homo Faber by the Michelangelo Foundation, will be bringing two of their makers for a book binding demonstration at the Victoria and Albert Museum on the 13th.
Image Homo Faber
And just for clarification, “Homo Faber” means “Man the Maker”. The belief that human beings can control their fate using tools. The foundation is based in Switzerland and considers itself to be a cultural movement supporting artists through their different educational programs and showcasing their work.
A major partner of London Craft Week is Heritage Crafts. They are a UK charity for traditional crafts, supporting traditional craft makers and skills. They have been updating their famous “Red List of Endangered Crafts” since 2017.
This year, when the “Red List of Endangered Crafts: 2025 Edition” is revealed on May 13th at Furniture Makers Hall, they will be including a “Resurgent Crafts” category for the first time. Their initiative is reviving crafts that we almost lost.
Image Ownever
Outside of this reunion of craftspeople, a brand called Ownever grasps the connection between mother and daughter through a handbag. Last year, the brand invited local children to design a handbag for Mother’s Day. They couldn’t have imagined that the Amoré bag could come from the imagination of an 8-year-old named Maria. They could feel that it wasn’t just a bag. The founder, Eliana, shared,
“It’s proof that the purest ideas often come from the smallest hearts. Maria reminded us of what truly matters: authenticity, innocence, and the courage to dream.”
Eliana Barros from Ownever
All craftspeople, participating in London Crafts Week or not, carry century-old traditions and personal stories with every hand placed on paper, wood, fabric, and metal. It is believed that craftsmanship, opposed to art, solely relies on learned skill and technique. But you remember how paint feels on your hands because of that memory of pressing it to paper, like how a mother will never forget receiving a handmade gift from her daughter. A machine can’t replicate that; it can’t feel. It can’t hold the memories of learning a new craft or teaching someone else. It is the human hands that learn and remember.
Despite the long history, many of the crafts struggle to survive, and so events like this enable them to show their artisan skills to many people. Our hands, our most reliable tool, carry traditions.
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