Established in 2012, the Heritage Crafts Awards celebrate and highlight the traditional living crafts made in the UK that contribute to our national heritage, such as silversmithing, dressmaking and tailoring, upholstery, weaving, leatherworking, metalworking, stained glass, green woodworking, embroidery and similar crafts where there is a significant degree of hand skill at the point of manufacture.

We are indebted to our partner organisations for providing funding to allow us to present a unique suite of awards and bursaries specifically for traditional crafts.

2026 Awards:

• Patron’s Award for Endangered Crafts
• Maker of the Year (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and UK)
• Precious Metalworker of the Year
• Fashion Textile Maker of the Year
• Woodworker of the Year
• Emerging Leatherworker of the Year
• Emerging Upholsterer of the Year
• Emerging Weaver of the Year
• Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year
• Emerging Stained Glass Maker of the Year
• Emerging Embroiderer of the Year
• Emerging Metalworker of the Year
• Trainer of the Year
• Trainee of the Year
• Community Catalyst of the Year
• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Environmental Sustainability Awards (to follow)

How to nominate

You can nominate by filling out the form below. Applicants may nominate themselves, or can be nominated by others (unless applying for the Patron's Award). Nominating for a Heritage Crafts Award is free. Nominees can be any age.  

The deadline for nominations is 5pm on Friday 21 August 2026

To help plan your nomination in advance of submitting you can download a list of all award questions here.

If you wish to submit a nomination by video or audio format, please answer these questions and email the file to rae@heritagecrafts.org.uk (the length should be no more than 15 minutes).

Please note: 

• If you are making multiple nominations in this form, we require full details to be provided for each category question, as different shortlisting teams will be assessing different parts of the form. Please don't assume shortlisters will have read your responses to sections of the form that relate to other awards.
• We do require images of the nominee's work. If you do not have access to images, then we will accept screen-shot images from social media or websites. Please highlight where these have come from in the 'photographer credits' section. If individuals are shortlisted, we can ask them for different images for promotional purposes.

If you have any questions or need assistance with the nomination process, please email Rae Weaver at rae@heritagecrafts.org.uk.

You and/or your nominee do not have to be a members in order to nominate. However, please do consider joining and helping Heritage Crafts to support and promote traditional craft skills. Individual membership costs from just £25 per year and includes a profile (if you wish) on our Makers Directory. Click here to join

The above details will be used to correspond with you about the award(s).

You may also wish to keep informed about funding updates and opportunities, events and updates about the heritage crafts sector. If so then please do sign up to our fan newsletter.

* We will only use this information to keep you updated about the work of Heritage Crafts, in accordance with our privacy policy. Heritage Crafts does not pass on contact details to any other individual or organisation.

These Heritage Crafts Awards are to recognise heritage craftspeople who have made an outstanding contribution to their specific craft within the previous 12 months (since 1 March 2025). These awards will recognise a contribution that is far beyond the ordinary, either in pushing their craft to new levels, contributing to its promotion or continuation in an exceptional way.

The winner will be someone who demonstrates the highest level of craft skill and is held in high regard amongst their peers, but it need not be the most glamorous or high-end craft; we promote the simple, humble crafts too. 

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘maker’ please answer the questions about yourself.

Would you like your maker to be considered for one or more of the below awards?

• England Maker of the Year
• Northern Ireland Maker of the Year
• Scotland Maker of the Year
• Wales Maker of the Year
• Precious Metalworker of the Year
• Fashion Textiles Maker of the Year
• Woodworker of the Year

These awards celebrate early-career heritage craftspeople (in the first five years of their professional practice) who have made an outstanding start to their craft career. The award winners will be highly skilled amongst their peers, whilst raising the perceived value of their craft through sharing and awareness raising. They will have given themselves a fantastic chance of achieving long-term success, perhaps overcoming disadvantage or setbacks along the way.

If you are completing this form on your own behalf, where it refers to ‘maker’ please answer the questions about yourself.

Would you like your maker to be considered for one or more of the following awards?

• Emerging Leatherworker of the Year
• Emerging Upholsterer of the Year
• Emerging Weaver of the Year
• Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year
• Emerging Stained Glass Maker of the Year
• Emerging Embroiderer of the Year
• Emerging Metalworker of the Year

One of Heritage Crafts’ key aims is to ensure that traditional crafts skills of the highest standard are passed from one generation to the next. The enthusiasm, knowledge and experience of key individuals can really influence the number and quality of skilled craftspeople in the UK.

Broadly classified as ‘trainer’, the award winner could be anything from a teacher, tutor, workshop leader, master or simply a craftsperson who offers one-to-one advice. The trainer might give anything from taster sessions for beginners to masterclasses for professionals.

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘trainer’ please answer the questions about yourself.

Heritage Crafts aims to ensure that traditional craft skills survive into the future, and this requires a regular intake of enthusiastic and dedicated new entrants. Identifying and recruiting the right trainee can make the difference to the continuation of heritage craft businesses and in some cases crafts themselves.

Broadly classified as ‘trainee’, the award winner could be on a formal apprenticeship scheme, a less formal traineeship, an institution-based course with a high degree of practical training, or even be pursuing ‘portfolio-style’ training comprising of short-courses and workshops, as long as training has formed a significant part of at least twelve months prior to applying.

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘trainee’ please answer the questions about yourself.

The Community Catalyst of the Year award is awarded to someone who goes above-and-beyond to promote the benefits of craft within their community, whether that be a local community or a community of interest. Typically, they will be committed to widening participation, and their way of working will create a groundswell of enthusiasm that brings others along with them.

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘nominee’ please answer the questions about yourself.

This award is to recognise a heritage craftsperson who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to their specific craft over 25 years or more.

It will recognise a lifetime’s dedication to a particular traditional skill, resulting in a practitioner operating at the highest level, having made a significant impact on the continued high-esteem in which their craft is held. We expect this to be someone who makes excellent work and has done for a long time, as well as being held in the highest regard amongst their craft peers, but it need not be the most glamorous or high-end craft; we promote the simple, humble crafts too.

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘maker’ please answer the questions about yourself.

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) and Heritage Crafts will award two £2,000 prizes as part of their Environmental Sustainability Awards, open to any craftsperson or micro-business, working with traditional craft skills or materials, who has improved their environmental sustainability within the last 12 months.

The two prizes will each honour a distinct aspect of environmental stewardship. One will be given to a craftsperson or microbusiness demonstrating an innovative approach to environmental sustainability, rarely before seen, that can act as inspiration for others to explore new ways of thinking and working. The recipient of this prize will have pioneered a truly innovative solution, technique, or process that challenges conventional wisdom and inspires others to explore new horizons in sustainable craftsmanship.

The other prize recognises the achievements of a craftsperson or microbusiness that has made substantial and measurable progress in transforming the environmental impact of their craft business through a series of incremental changes and improvements. The recipient of this prize will have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to sustainability by implementing practical initiatives that reduce waste, conserve resources, and mitigate environmental harm over time.

If you are nominating yourself, where it refers to ‘maker’ please answer the questions about yourself.

If you selected both A and B above, then please make sure to include clear and specific examples below that highlight both A (an innovative approach to environmental sustainability) and B (incremental changes and improvements).

This grant of £3,000, supported by Heritage Crafts’ Patron His Majesty The King, will be awarded to an esteemed practitioner of endangered crafts whose proposal makes the best use of the funds to secure the survival of that craft. 

Eligible crafts are those categorised as 'endangered' and 'critically endangered' in the The Red List of Endangered Crafts 2025 edition. Please note that for the purposes of this grant, the only eligible crafts are those listed. The list of eligible crafts may be amended in future years in the light of more research.

Eligible applications will be carefully assessed and scored by a high profile, specially selected judging panel, made up of sector and specialists in their craft. The three applications with the highest combined scores will be put forward for consideration by HM The King who will select the winner. 

This category can only be completed by the maker themselves; you cannot nominate someone else.

Please give details of a referee in support of this proposal.

Referees can be the head of a relevant organisation, chair of the appropriate craft society, an eminent craftsperson, a member or employee of the nominee’s organisation, or apprentices/trainees or people who have benefited from the nominee’s work.

The referee may be contacted as part of the assessment of applications.

• Please send up to four images.
• At least one of these images needs to be of you making/ taking part in your craft, and others of your work/ or the project that you want to fund.
• Please provide these images as .jpeg files (no larger than 10MB per image.)
• You may also upload business plans or wider documents to support your application.
• Please clearly label the images or documents with your full name and numbered 1 to 5 (ie. JoeBloggs1.jpg).
• Note: We will also accept screen-shot images from social media or websites if helpful, but please highlight where these have come from below in the Photographer Credits. In this case, the images are for shortlisting purposes only. (If individuals are shortlisted, we can ask them for different images for promotional purposes.)

If you have any difficulties uploading images, you can send them to Rae: rae@heritagecrafts.org.uk

Permission

I own the copyright (or have authorisation from the copyright owner) and give permission for Heritage Crafts and the awards funder to use the attached images in print and online.

By clicking the box below you are bound by these terms.