Making craft visible

I was at the Crafts Council's annual conference last week, Assemble. where there was an interesting line up of speakers, including one of my favourites, Martin Raymond from trend forecasters Future Laboratory. Raymond was there to offer insight into the consumer market for craft, which apparently is doing quite well considering the economic recession.

However, he made a rallying cry to makers everywhere that they need to become much more visible with their skills and expertise. He noted that he had recently been to see global fashion brand Louis Vuitton, who are planning on having craftspeople working in their shop on Bond Street, making bespoke products. Craft and authenticity have been the words used to describe a new 'luxury' for a while now, but it's not enough anymore for consumers to know something has been made by hand and with great skill - they want to actually see it being made in front of them.

He made a plea to makers to try to win this territory and to see this as a unique opportunity to work with brands and retailers. As Guardian journalist Libby Brooks describes it in her review of the conference, this is where brands are 'appropriating the operative language of craft'. Of course, this is not to everyone's taste, and I sensed a note of dismay from certain makers who would never dream of getting involved with luxury brands, let alone have the marketing skills that would get them noticed.

However, I get excited about new opportunities for promoting and valuing craft skill, whatever context it may be in.

The other main theme to emerge from the day was this idea of story and narrative. Craftspeople have so many stories to tell, which they mainly communicate through their tacit knowledge of materials and techniques, but these stories were not being told loud enough, or visibly enough. This was an interesting point in light of the recent lecture that writer Richard Sennet gave on the importance of narrative in society - that without shared rituals and narratives, society has no purpose.

Maybe it is not enough anymore for a maker to just show their finished product - as a designer/maker I am interested in the other things I can offer that could run alongside my products and help to share my story - by running and facilitating workshops, and by applying my 'making' knowledge to communities and people. As our current mantra at bricolage is - " crafting products and crafting experiences...".