[ad_1]
This spring marks the return of London Craft Week (11-17 May 2026), taking over the city to celebrate makers and their diverse work. In an age of digital and AI overload, the need for the human touch feels greater than ever. Across exhibitions and workshops, visitors can closely engage with handmade pieces spanning Indonesian batik to Scottish silversmithing.
2026 marks London Craft Week’s 12th edition. That this year, big names like Sotheby’s have got in on the action – sponsoring the event and hosting auctions and displays – points to a broader shift in which previously overlooked craft works are being reframed and valued as high art and design worthy of collecting.
There continues to be a focus on keeping heritage crafts alive at London Craft Week, as well as empowering the next generation of makers to thrive, taking the many disciplines of craft practice in new directions.
Among the myriad events around the capital, here are some highlights.
London Craft Week 2026
‘The Invisible Made Visible’ by Blackdot
(Image credit: Courtesy Blackdot)
Blackdot, a gallery founded by Sara Chyan centred on contemporary art, design and jewellery, brings together young and emerging makers for a presentation exploring the ‘hidden layers’ of craft. From subtle gestures to personal stories, the works on show invite viewers to reflect on the meaning and methods behind crafted works that might not immediately be obvious.
(Image credit: Courtesy Blackdot)
Among the talent present, Cindy Liu makes delightfully delicate silver fork pendants and necklaces that transform into instruments of sculpture, presented on a 3D-printed resin frame. Each silver piece in Liu’s ‘Metal Veil’ series starts with a fragment of antique lace, sourced from Malta and Belgium, sealed in molten wax, and hand-carved into cutlery forms.
(Image credit: Courtesy Blackdot)
Shivangi Vasudeva’s wooden furniture, meanwhile, emerges fro
m conversations with Naga communities in northeast India, where objects are communal, and rooted in land and folklore. Her seats are upholstered in textiles developed by Jaipur-based upcycling studio Iro Iro, naturally dyed and handwoven from the fashion industry’s offcuts and deadstock.
14-15-16 May
Blackdot Gallery, 9 Caledonian Rd, 1 9DX
Them Outdoors x Garden Museum
Sheep Benches by Fred Clark
(Image credit: Sarah Frances Kelly)
The Garden Museum in Lambeth hosts a special exhibition in its courtyard garden focused on the role that sculpture can play in gardens and outdoor spaces. Presented by Them Outdoors, an online gallery and platform dedicated to design-led garden furniture and decor, the exhibition features pieces that emerge from craft practices including metalwork, lost-wax casting and ceramics.
(Image credit: Edmund Dabney)
There are waxed steel birdhouses from furniture designer Jaclyn Pappalardo, made using an innovative method of inflating metal using water and resulting in organic shapes, and hand-carved solid oak spheres from sculptor Matt Kendall, using storm-fallen wood. From artist Julia Clarke, there is a playful ceramic sculpture with white ‘ears’, and from furniture designer Tom Hatfield, an iroko wood bench with integrated terracotta planter.
11-17 May
Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 7LB
‘Seven Crafted Stories’ by Emma Louise Payne
Silver Boxes by Monica Findlay
(Image credit: Courtesy Monica Findlay)
Last year, British ceramicist Emma Louise Payne opened an atelier-meets-exhibition-space in a west London townhouse: Atelier Seventy-Six. This May, she opens it again to the public for her latest curated exhibition of craft, ‘Seven Crafted Stories’, showcasing seven makers spanning the disciplines of leather working, glassmaking, woodworking, weaving, quilting, silversmithing and ceramics.
Celadon Root Vase by Jochen Holz
(Image credit: Courtesy Jochen Holz)
Payne gives each of the artisans a dedicated room in the (still lived-in) home, meaning visitors get an immersive experience of the varied crafts across seven domestic spaces. Open for the entirety of London Craft Week, ‘Seven Crafted Stories’ will give a particular focus to one maker per day, with live demonstrations and intimate classes.
Candle holders by Jochen Holz
(Image credit: courtesy Jochen Holz)
Makers include Glasgow-based silversmith Monica Findlay, whose boxes and jewellery are made with methods and motifs rooted in Scottish landscapes and history, and glass designer Jochen Holz, who crafts delightfully characterful homeware and decorative objects from colourful glass.
11-17 May
Atelier Seventy-Six, 76 Sussex Square, W2 2SS
‘Batik: Recolouring Tradition’ by Lisa King
(Image credit: Courtesy Lisa King)
British textile artist and designer Lisa King interrogates the traditions, stories and potential of batik, a dyeing technique using wax resist that results in colourful, patterned fabrics. King was inspired by her late mother Farida King’s rich textile archive and Indonesian heritage, mining these personal and cross-cultural references to explore batik for the contemporary moment.
(Image credit: Courtesy Lisa King)
Indonesia is an important centre of the craft, and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia has partnered on this London event to bring batik into the spotlight. King worked with artisan communities in Indonesia, colour specialists in the UK, and experts in Southeast Asian textiles to develop a body of work that positions batik as a living, evolving craft bridging heritage and innovation.
12-17 May
Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street, St James’s, SW1Y 6BN
‘Our Common Ground’ by Slow Ways Studio
Lorna Singleton Workshop, Lake District
(Image credit: Courtesy Slow Ways)
The founders of Slow Ways Studio – an initiative documenting heritage crafts in the UK – undertook a 1,300-mile walk across the length of Britain to meet makers, finding out about their endangered practices and mapping their locations. From Land’s End to John O’Groats, navigating footpaths and bridleways, the adventure took three months. Now that project, and the work of those makers, will be displayed at a fascinating exhibition.
Jessica Watson Brown Tannery
(Image credit: Courtesy Slow Ways)
From tanning, turning and weaving to printing, engraving and stitching, the crafts in ‘Our Common Ground’ paint a picture of handmade creativity across Britain today, which faces an increasingly fragile future, and the deep, often historical relationship between making and place.
Makers include The Marchmont Workshop, which produces rush-seated chairs in the Scottish Borders, and Jessica Watson Brown, who runs a tannery in an old stone barn in Dartmoor, teaching workshops in tanning and ancestral skills.
5-30 May
art’otel London Hoxton, 1–3 Rivington St, EC2A 3DT
For full listings and details, see londoncraftweek.com
[ad_2]
Source link
