I’m so pleased to become a member of the Heritage Crafts Association and also very proud that Leather Craft Workshop Days is now included in the Heritage Crafts Association Makers Directory.
Mass manufacturing of Leather goods will always be with us in all its variable range of qualities but the Craft of Leather Working, in creating by hand pieces that will last a lifetime is something truly satisfying and to be encouraged and supported whenever you can.
Excerpt below from the Heritage Crafts Association website -
In the UK traditional crafts are not recognised as either arts nor heritage so fall outside the remit of all current support and promotion bodies. At Heritage Crafts we are doing what we can to address that situation and safeguard craft skills and knowledge for the future.
Heritage Crafts is the advocacy body for traditional heritage crafts. Working in partnership with Government and key agencies, it provides a focus for craftspeople, groups, societies and guilds, as well as individuals who care about the loss of traditional crafts skills, and works towards a healthy and sustainable framework for the future.
(I personally first came across the HCA Red List a couple of years ago, thankfully bag making etc is not on it but it makes an interesting read if only by highlighting all the wonderful hand made crafts in the UK that could be supported.)
The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts, first published in 2017, was the first report of its kind to rank traditional crafts by the likelihood they would survive to the next generation, based on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding principles, led by the Heritage Crafts Association, the only UK UNESCO-accredited NGO working primarily in the domain of traditional craftsmanship.
Keep on crafting!