The museum’s weavers were delighted to be featured in a new article from the prestigious House & Garden magazine. The feature celebrates the artistry and dedication of craftspeople across the UK and Ireland, spotlighting individuals who are reviving traditional techniques and redefining modern craft. These makers are producing beautiful objects and preserving cultural heritage.
Among the stories highlighted is that of a woodworker who found solace from depression through the tactile and meditative process of carving spoons and vessels. His journey illustrates how craft can be deeply therapeutic, reconnecting individuals with nature and their own sense of purpose.
In Yorkshire, a team is breathing new life into the endangered art of narrow-loom carpet weaving, and contemporary ceramicists who challenge conventions—some incorporating provocative themes like catcalling slogans into their work—showing how traditional forms can be used to make bold, modern statements. Other features include a shell artist on the Norfolk coast, a metalworker crafting ethereal lighting in Wales, and a Hampshire workshop dedicated to the painstaking restoration of gilded furniture.
Irish makers are also celebrated, with ten standout pieces curated in honour of St Patrick’s Day. These artisans, it is claimed, exemplify the blend of heritage and innovation that defines today’s craft movement. This include the museum’s Weaving Workshop, with the author, Aida Amoako, kindly writing:
If individuals are the heart of locally based heritage crafts, institutions might perhaps be the lungs. Take the Irish Linen Centre at Lisburn Museum in Northern Ireland: Lisburn was once the damask linen capital of the world, supplying the courts of royals and tsars. Today, damask weaving survives on a handful of practitioners, two of whom–Donna Campbell and Alison McNamee– work from the museum. ‘We don’t want the craft suffering, we want to encourage people to be interested and to own it because if you’re from the Lisburn area, this is your heritage,’ says Dr Ciaran Toal, researcher and keeper of collections at the museum.
The centre has teamed up with the Art Fund on a five-year programme to tour exhibitions and encourage 16-25 year olds to engage with damask weaving. That communal ownership is the point: crafts survive when communities care.
