London Craft Week
13- 19 May, 2024
View the full programme online here.
Celebrating outstanding British and international creativity, the London Craft Week festival brings together over 750 established and emerging makers, designers, brands and galleries from around the world. A curated selection based not on price or fame, but underlying substance. Plus, that essential dash of magic and inspiration that separates great from good.
London Craft Week is a city-wide festival celebrating exceptional craftsmanship, across multiple sectors and disciplines, from around the world. Through our curated programme of events, we shine a light on the creative talent behind some of the world’s most beautiful objects, telling stories of their inspiration, process and materials. 2024 will be the tenth anniversary edition of London Craft Week.
Since its inception in 2015, the festival has grown significantly in scale and prominence with nearly quarter of a million visitors enjoying the work of more than 700 makers at events put on by over 200 partners from 40 countries in 2023. The festival encourages those who attend to discover hidden workshops, independent makers, heritage craftsmen and jewel-like shops alongside great luxury houses, famous artists and designers, leading department stores, national museums and contemporary galleries. Visitors can embrace the sheer reach, diversity and serendipity that London offers as the world’s great creative capital.
The festival takes place across the city at over 200 separate locations – independent shops, studios, pop-ups, national museums, contemporary galleries, department stores and luxury boutiques – with digital content hosted on londoncraftweek.com
Textile-related event highlights include:
Tablecloth Tapestries
19 May 2024, 12:00 – 14:30, 15:30 – 18:00
NOW Gallery
Register here
The tablecloth serves as a common grounding thread where people come together, share and converse over food or drink, resulting in a patchwork of stories. This workshop provides participants with a safe space to share their stories and weave them into a handcrafted, quilted tapestry.
The act of embroidery is a therapeutic shared activity. This practice is reminiscent of Dorcas Clubs and Societies, embedded into Caribbean communities since the 19th century and intended to bring women together through textiles as a network for social and economic change.
Participants are encouraged to embrace any mistakes that may occur and steer away from perfection. The event is intended as a haven away from the added pressures of everyday life that women and those of the global majority are often subject to.
Learn to Knit with Wool and the Gang and the Design Museum
18 May 2024, 10:00 – 16:00
The Design Museum
Register here
Get to grips with the wonderful world of knitting with this beginner course and start making Wool and the Gang’s ‘Obsessed’ blanket. Designed specifically for those with little or no experience, master the basics of the craft while making your very own quilt-style blanket.
The course allows you to get to grips with the foundations of knitting. Square at a time, learn three core techniques and how to stitch them together to form the beginnings of your blanket.
Wool and the Gang are experts in getting people hooked on crafting, and there are lots of handy helpers on the day to assist. They’re on a mission to get the whole world knitting, so join the Gang for a lovely day of soothing stitching.
Passementerie: Cotton Key Tassels Workshop
18 May 2024 – 19 May 2024, 11:00 – 17:00
West Dean College
Register here
Learn the traditional techniques for making tassels, but with distinctly contemporary, decorative features to give your work an individual touch.
Working with wooden tassel moulds and fine cotton and rayon yarns in a glorious colour range, techniques include how to cover the tassel mould vertically with yarn, or roll the mould horizontally with cord, make a plain cut skirt and trial a ruff or embroidered ‘waist’. Techniques for making twisting cord using a special four-hook cord-winding tool are also explored.
