2022 is proclaimed by the UN as “International Year of Glass”
This in the Guardian newspaper ( May 24th ) :
Age-old crafts including the making of glass eyes, compasses and sporrans have been added to a “red list” of skills feared to be threatened with imminent extinction in the UK.
Venerable crafts that have been passed down through the generations, ranging from the building of currachs (boats made out of a wooden frame covered with canvass or an animal skin) to hand-blown sheet glass-making, are also deemed to be in danger of being lost for ever.
More than 20 extra crafts have been added to the updated red list drawn up by researchers for the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), taking the total to over 130.
The HCA said the Covid crisis had exacerbated the problems faced by many craftspeople, with lockdowns and economic issues putting many of them in jeopardy.
Crafts such as glass-eye making are defined as critically endangered, meaning they have very few practitioners, small numbers of trainees and a lack of viable routes by which the skills can be passed on.
Often they serve very niche markets, and craftspeople cannot afford to step away from production to train their successors for fear those markets will disappear.
Mary Lewis, who led the research for the HCA, said: “Covid-19 has been tough on everyone, not least the craftspeople who possess our most fundamental craft skills.
