Crafts

Meet the French designer already working on Christmas wrapping 2024

We go behind the scenes to find out how gift wrap designers predict trends, colours and patterns in advance - just like fashion

Silk workers weave a spell on Lyon’s shoppers and tourists

We talk to the current generation running one of Lyon’s oldest silk workshops

Hop to it! The inexorable French rise in IPA beer consumption

IPA drinking is a quiet French revolution that has been slowly building over the last few years

'Patience and creativity' needed to create stonemason art from France

Marlie Kentish Barnes has been a stonemason, lettercutter, and stone-carver for 30 years and now mostly creates personalised funeral memorials and individual jobs to order

Skills of making pastel blue dye in Tarn added to French heritage list

The practices used date to the Middle Ages and the natural blue pigment was used to colour the first French flags

'We are proud to continue the craft of traditional straw brooms'

Marie-Laure and Arnaud Gabriel from Normandy have revived a dying craft, and become one of only two makers of traditional straw brooms in France

Fish leather maker pays homage to ‘lost’ tribes of Siberia

Kristof Mascher is a leather worker in the Dordogne with a unique style incorporating fish leather into each of his individually created pieces

Stocking Christmas markets’ stalls is a year-round business

Muriel Schumacher and her team make typical Alsace Christmas decorations and it takes all year to prep for the Christmas period

Crafts in focus: meet French weathervane-maker Thierry Soret

‘Every weathervane I make has a personal story to tell’ says weathervane-maker Thierry Soret.

French crafts in focus: clock and lock-maker

Locks, clocks and a busy time for one French horloger / serrurier

French hospital shares homemade mask instructions

A French hospital has published instructions on how to make homemade face masks that can be worn outside the home, as many people may have no symptoms but could spread the virus unknowingly.

Craftspeople in France: Cabinetmaker/Carpenter

Renovating furniture and creating objects with wood is what David Mournard loves doing – and his wands have been a surprise success.

Craftspeople in France - ski maker

The artisans keeping alive proud French ski traditions

Architecture of France: Périgord Noir

Hammering home beauty

France's crafts in focus - November 2019

Inside magical world of a self-taught ceramic artist

France's crafts in focus - April 2019

I loved hats so much I learnt how to create them

France's crafts in focus - June 2019

Life and loves of an ‘accidental’ glass blower

France's crafts in focus - September 2019

Modern-day careers in the age-old art of bookbinding

86-year-old is France’s artisan winner

A woman who took up embroidery at the age of 80 has won a best craftswoman of France award (Meilleur Ouvrier de France ).

The return of baby-foot

Classic French bar game is enjoying an unlikely renaissance

How romantic movie inspired successful brolly business

Jane Hanks discovers the myriad possibilities presented by a quality, handmade parapluie from a man whose father was inspired to start making umbrellas by a well-known Sixties French musical

Full-time art of running a thriving florist’s shop

Crafts in focus: Florist Eric Délibie tells Jane Hanks about the work involved building a thriving business

Co-working: it’s a money maker

They have names such as atelier de fabrication (fablab) , bricothèque , café associatif or relais Amap but these makerspaces or co-working places could create thousands of jobs - many in hard-hit rural areas.

60 weavers left in once textile-rich France

Crafts in focus: Life as a tisserand or weaver is ideal for some but it has drawbacks and now only a few are left

Craft fair is still open to welcome newcomers

Many members of EuroMayenne Association are putting finishing touches to work for the annual craft fair on October 28 but there is still time for others to sign up and exhibit.

Meet Cyril Genet: a French silk-maker from Lyon

Jane Hanks talks to Lyon silk-maker Cyril Genet about the city’s heritage in the print industry and the skills required to make luxury goods

Trending now: arm knitting

Dedicated trichotillomaniac Jane Hanks tries the latest online fad

Bronze casters show mettle in physically tough craft

CRAFTS IN FOCUS: Strength and artistic sensibility are prerequisites for any fondeur d’art

Crafts in focus: artificial flowers

Delicacy, intricacy and a love of nature are key to the work of a fabricant de fleurs artificielles

Gold-beaters: trade so rare there is just one left

Crafts in focus: Apprenticeship with last business standing is the only way to get into this once so popular trade

Gold-beaters: trade so rare there is just one left

Crafts in focus: Apprenticeship with last business standing is the only way to get into this once so popular trade

Wooden 2CV joins online museum

Citroën pay tribute to woodworker’s six-year labour of love

Traditional Calais lace can help women after breast cancer

Innovative technique allows new cells to grow and reconstruct ‘natural’ breast

Needle knowledge brings gold standard to delicate old craft

SYLVIE DESCHAMPS fell in love with the art of gold embroidery when still a teenager. Now the holder of a prestigious Mâitre d’Art title, her needlework impresses Gary Lee Kraut who visits her at Le Bégonia d’Or, her workshop in Rochefort

Try your hand in weekend festival of artistic crafts

Knitting needles help revive French city

Volunteers needed for ‘yarn bombing’ project in Normandy – and last chance to see Hollywood recreated in wool