Old Crafts, New Energy

Young makers are breathing life into ancient traditions, forging a promising future for handmade arts

- Fiona McCarthy

Last year, when the cutting-edge Frieze London art fair included a special section dedicated to female weavers in its programme, one thing was clear: craft, long dismissed by the art world as folksy and inferior, was finally in a league of its own. Certainly investment in craft is now big business – in its recent report The Market for Craft, the Crafts Council estimated it to be worth £3 billion in the UK.

What’s surprising, perhaps, about this boom in old techniques is the demographic attracted to them. ‘The biggest growth in the craft-buying market is the under 35s. As their tastes and incomes expand, they’re going to be investing more frequently and at higher levels, which bodes very well for the future,’ says Natalie Melton, the Craft Council’s creative director. And it’s not just younger consumers flocking to the area. There is also host of young designers discovering and reinventing artisanship, bringing with them an energy that craft hasn’t seen in years.

Take Sophie Graney, a 25-year-old textile artist and Royal College of Art master’s graduate, who makes candy-hued wall hangings, cushions and rugs. Her palette and materials are modern – rubber-coated yarns, electric cable tubing, patterns inspired by ‘urban wanderings’ – but her techniques are old, combining lace-making and embroidery with handweaving on a traditional loom. ‘I use methods that can only be done by hand, not mass produced, but the loom is like a canvas for my work. I don’t let it limit me.’