Students from the Netherlands, Spain and Bulgaria will receive training this week on crafts that are still being practised in Bulgaria. The training will be supervised by Eileen Blackmore from House of Design and teacher Frank Kroondijk from Friesland College.
Value of crafts and local skills
The students will experience the value of crafts and gain insight into local skills. This knowledge and these skills, combined with new digital techniques and preferably renewable raw materials, will be used for making utensils.
‘After a visit to the Art Academy in Tryavna, the students Interior design from Leeuwarden and Valencia were wildly enthusiastic. They wanted to stay longer to learn the skills that we have already forgotten here.’– Eileen Blackmore.
Added value
The students will learn to make products that do not end up in the trash after a few uses. If you design and create something properly, it will have more value than mass products from China. These are punched out of a mold, transported around the world in container ships and then, following a short lifespan, end up on the rubbish dump via the gray container.
Crafts in today’s economy
The training week coincides with a large international Craft Congress. During the congress, artisans will not only show their products, but especially their skills, and they will discuss the role of crafts in the current economy. We will bring this knowledge and inspiration back to the Netherlands.
Craft your Future
Craft Your Future is an educational European project in which Friesland College, House of Design and Learning Hub Friesland, together with partners from Spain and Bulgaria, combine old crafts with new techniques and connect them to the circular economy. The aim of this project is to set up a training programme in which these three aspects are connected. How can we learn from the craftsmanship of the time for the issues we now face?