Craft Business Magazine Jun/Jul 18 Back Issue

Craft is cool – some might not think so but I think it is now an unavoidable fact.

Thousands of people visited the hundreds of sites from Peckham to Walthamstow, Brixton to Mayfair, during London Craft Week. Visitors met makes face to face as all things craft were celebrated.

And one of the generations that is pushing craft forward are the so-called millennials. According to some statistics there are now as many younger crafters as there are from older generations.

And the touch of a younger generation could be seen as Liberty helped launch London Craft Week by announcing the winners of their social media Instagram-based talent search #LibertyOpenCall.

The winners were sculptural designer Alex Chinneck, and ceramicist Katch Skinner and Rūta Bartkevičiūtė.

The recent Hobbycraft report stated that the crafting movement is a growing trend with almost two thirds of UK adults describing crafts as ‘fashionable’ and those aged 25-34 are the age group who think it the most (67 per cent).

And it also millennials who are helping to push the mindfullness and wellbeing aspects of arts and craft – helping to take away the taboo of mental illness.

When it comes to switching off from hectic lives 54 per cent of the nation use craft to relax and 28 per cent of people use craft to help with their mental health. And this can only be a good thing.

Social media has seen an explosion of crafters showing of their makes on platforms such as Instagram and Pintrest. This shows the pride in, and popularity, of arts and crafts.

So crafting is cool and we should all embrace it.

Enjoy this month's edition of Craft Business.