Today, I launch The British Cræft Prize.
A new £60,000 national award for maverick and misfit makers, technologists, designers, and engineers seeking inventions that fuse the deep wisdom of heritage crafts of the past with cutting-edge technologies of the future.
Robots are reviving classical stonemasonry. Origami shapes materials to make clothes that grow. The arts of the past are sculpting AI ceramics.
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞?
The British Cræft Prize will find out.
Technology need not be soulless; craft and beauty must not be killed by AI slop. The ancient power of cræft can save us all.
To learn more, read the launch post. Then share it with the world.
It’s time to cræft.
Thank you to Tyler Cowen and Emergent Ventures at Mercatus Center at George Mason University — as well as Andrew Bennett and Julia Willemyns at the Centre for British Progress for unleashing cræft upon the world. I’m also delighted to be supported by @heritagecrafts — a wonderful organisation dedicated to sustain craft traditions.
Shoemakers of Northamptonshire is the debut short film from Nation of Artisans — a new project exploring Britain and making.
In an age of AI slop, culture wars, and an atomised economy that feels detached from anything real, Nation of Artisans seeks to challenge the doom loop of nostalgia and conflict.
We want to forge a new story of Britain rooted in something good, true, and beautiful.
While the flux is relentless, there are some things that remain true.
Britain is still a land of ingenious makers, both stewards of tradition and architects of the future.
Nation of Artisans is dedicated to exploring and celebrating their ideas, crafts, and worlds.
To begin, we are delighted to partner with Gaziano & Girling, a business that masterfully straddles both heritage and innovation, the aristocratic and the punk.
Rejecting the slow death of the welted shoe industry, Gaziano & Girling was the first new factory to open in Northamptonshire in over 100 years. In just two decades it has quietly become one of the most revered shoemakers in the world.
Whether it is a pair of brogues for the King or some alligator loafers washed in 24-karat gold, Gaziano & Girling embodies the essence of what Nation of Artisans stands for.
Not worshipping the ashes but passing on the fire.
Created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Christian Cargill, the film offers an intimate portrait of an extraordinary workshop and craft.
Thank you to Tony Gaziano, Dean Girling, Michael Symons, the entire team on Balfour Street — and, of course, David Ludlow — for letting us tell your stories.
Follow Nation of Artisans on Substack and Instagram for more.
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Created & Exec Produced by @louiselton
Directed & Cinematography by @christiancargill
Produced by @dalmatianfilms
Post House – @attheshop
Featuring @gazianogirling
Today, I am delighted to share 'Papermakers of the Lake District' — a new film, dispatch, and labour of love.
I first discovered James Cropper Plc (@jamescropperpaper ) and the Paper Foundation (@paper.foundation ) in 2024. After meeting Mark Cropper (@paper.maker ), the mill’s 6th-generation proprietor, I was utterly enthralled by its story.
Indeed, the interplay between craft, industry, and innovation is the foundational idea behind the launch of Nation of Artisans.
Yet, my love for the mill only grew after finally visiting. Indeed, it was on the treacherous, rainy drive back down to London from Burneside last December, as I ruminated on the interlooping, creative power of craft and cutting edge that the idea for The British Cræft Prize started to clarify in my mind.
To work with Christian Cargill (@christiancargill ) bringing this to life has been a total joy. Further, I am utterly in debt to Mark, Tom Frith-Powell, Mandy Clement and everyone at James Cropper Plc and the Paper Foundation for letting me into their world so I can tell their story.
Now, the wonder of Cropper is immortalised in this film and the dispatch essay.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
— Louis Elton, founder of Nation of Artisans
Premiere. I have been transfixed by Vanessa Hogge’s hypnotically ornate porcelain flowers ever since I first saw her work last December.
Today, as part of London Craft Week’s takeover of Sotheby’s, Vanessa has kindly donated a diptych — Daphne and Daffodils — to be auctioned off to raise funds for the charity FiredUp4.
Founded by Kate Malone in response to cuts to art and crafts school curricula, an epidemic of youth loneliness, and screen addiction, FiredUp4 introduces young people to clay, in specially designed ceramic classes called Clay Clubs.
They fund, install pottery equipment, and run Clay Clubs in state-of-the-art youth centres built in the UK’s most economically disadvantaged areas that give young people a safe, inspiring place to try different activities.
Fired Up 4 is creating opportunities for young people who would otherwise be lonely and scrolling themselves to oblivion — and some are already becoming successful artisans as a result. Wonderful stuff.
If you would like to bid for Vanessa’s piece at Sotheby’s tonight, it is estimated to go for £3,000-5,000. If you happen to be the sort of person with a few grand to spare to buy a wonderful piece and to support young people getting into clay, then it’s a no-brainer.
You can read much more about our conversation with Vanessa on our newsletter.
Coming soon. Tomorrow, we will share our new profile of Vanessa Hogge, a ceramicist based in Deptford, London who specialises in crafting flowers out of porcelain.
The films is time to coincide with Vanessa’s sale at the @firedup4clay auction at @sothebys for @londoncraftweek on Thursday 14th May.
Coming soon. As part of our @londoncraftweek celebrations, I am delighted that we are profiling Vanessa Hogge, the Porcelainier of Deptford.
Vanessa is one Britain's finest ceramicist crafting hypnotically ornate flowerheads in her studio at @cockpitstudios in Deptford.
Some of her works are for sale at Sotheby's raising funds for @firedup4clay .
Follow along and subscribe to the Nation of Artisans newsletter to be first to see the full profile.
On Saturday 16th May, you have the opportunity to witness actually existing cræft in the flesh.
The aesthetes of Sotheby’s have been foolish enough to let me loose at their London Craft Week festival of craft.
I will be on a panel entitled The Future of Craft: How do we keep vital skills alive?
I’m delighted to be speaking alongside friend of Nation of Artisans, Daniel Carpenter, the Executive Director of Heritage Crafts, as well as Lucy Browne, CEO of the Hugo Burge Foundation.
Expect big talk on craft, conservation vs revolution, AI, robots, and the mystery of culture.
The panel is being hosted by James Haldane, Editor of Sotheby’s Magazine.
If you want to come, ping me and I can help with tickets. Or you can just book online.
In addition, Sotheby’s are hosting a special day of interactive craft — or indeed cræft — including needlework, leatherwork, roof thatching and much more.
Starting with an old shed at the back of his house, @paper.maker launched the @paper.foundation in 2016. He had acquired the equipment of Griffin Mill in Ireland — a Royal Warrant-holding handmade paper mill that was closing without a successor.
Soon after he enlisted Tom Frith-Powell, a former employee of Damien Hirst as the Foundation’s first apprentice.
Tom moved to Burneside in 2019 and learned traditional techniques from retiring master papermakers in Ireland. Then as Covid-19 struck, he continued his apprenticeship over Zoom, spending each day making paper and posting samples to Ireland for critique, improving batch by batch. It was the only way to learn a craft for which no formal apprenticeships exist.
Coming soon. Episode 2 — ‘Papermakers of The Lake District’ explores the art of fine paper through the eyes of the @paper.foundation and @jamescropperpaper .
🎥 Full film out this Thursday.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @nationofartisans to see it first.
Created by Louis Elton (@louiselton )
Directed by Christian Cargill (@christiancargill and @dalmatianfilms )
Featuring Mark Cropper (@paper.maker ), Mandy Clement, and Tom Frith Powell.
