Issue 132 Legacy (pre-order)

The craft community is preoccupied with the idea of preservation, but what happens to heritage skills when they are no longer relevant? Preserving textile traditions is a profound act of cultural conservation. Crafts are tactile records of human history, offering sustainable blueprints and wisdom that industry often ignores. To lose a technique is to silence a language and discard centuries of knowledge. However, we must avoid treating makers as museum exhibits. Promoting manual labour for the sake of “authenticity” can be exploitative if it ignores economic reality. True preservation focuses on empowerment–allowing craft to evolve, protecting intellectual property and integrating ancient skills into modern markets, to ensure traditions remain living legacies.

Polly Leonard, founder