Call out to all Romani and Traveller cultural and heritage craft-makers!

13 January 2025
Call out to all Romani and Traveller cultural and heritage craft-makers!

Heritage Crafts needs your help to support cultural Gypsy, Romani and Traveller Crafts on the 2025 Red List of Endangered Crafts;

In 2023, Gypsy, Romani, Traveller, plus Showmen and Boater cultural crafts were added to the landmark Red List of Endangered Crafts, which helps identify UK-wide crafts practices and makers who are keeping traditions alive. Every two years, the list is reviewed and updated. 

The current listings are under the following headings, and include all materials and skills associated with the forms, such as wood carving, painting and metalsmithing;

•    Vardo Art and Living Waggon Crafts
•    Tinsmithing
•    Fairground Art
•    Canal Art and Boat Painting
•    Horn and Antler Working
•    + New Listing for 2025; Floristry Crafts

If you are a cultural craft maker and would like to add your voice to the 2025 Red List of Endangered Crafts, please get in touch with Heritage Crafts member, Romani craft maker Imogen Bright Moon, who will be supporting the writing of new and updated listings. Your personal information can be kept confidential, so please consider sharing your wisdom in a safe way. The Red List of Endangered Crafts is an important document because it shows where traditional makers are preserving cultural arts and crafts heritage and skills for the future. 

Endangered crafts
Canal art by Kerrie Williams. Photo by Bela Varadi for the Travellers' Times

For 2025, we particularly want to make a new listing for traditional Traveller floristry crafts, in any material, including wooden flower making, seasonal wreath making, wax and paper flower crafts, fabric flower making, and any others. 

Get in touch via email to imogen@heritagecrafts.org.uk to arrange a call to talk about the project and share your thoughts on your cultural crafts practice and how it fits onto The Red List. Imogen can also send the online forms to fill in for your crafts on request (direct craft survey form links included below) and also support with filling in the forms on your behalf.


Links; 

2023 Red List of Endangered Crafts online; https://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/skills/redlist/

Craft Survey Forms;

•    Canal Art and Boat Painting
•    Fairground Art
•    Vardo and Living Waggon Crafts
•    Tinsmithing
•    Horn, Bone and Antler Working

Work by tinsmiths James Collins and Tom McDonnell (c) Melissa Gunasena
Work by tinsmiths James Collins and Tom McDonnell (c) Melissa Gunasena

Press release/TT News

(Lead photograph: Jowett wagon builders. Photograph by Bela Varadi for the Travellers Times)