Creative Dimension project to help nurture skills

Photograph shows Penny Bendall at work on the smashed Fitzwilliam Museum Qing vases in 2006

One of the country’s leading ceramic conservators, Penny Bendall, has launched ‘The Creative Dimension’ – a project aimed at getting professional craftsmen and women to provide teenagers with hands-on crafts skills.

Penny Bendall holds a Royal Warrant and has 25 years’ experience of working with ceramics in national and international collections, including those at Buckingham Palace.

She launched The Creative Dimension with a five-day course at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in East London, and more courses will follow soon around the country.

The courses cover specialist crafts areas – such as decorative drawing, gilding (applying gold leaf or powder to wood or metal) and parquetry (creating mosaics of wood).

The aim is to give talented young students who show a particular aptitude with hands-on skills the opportunity to learn from world-class professionals.

At the first course, gilding was taught by Tim Ritson, a specialist working with Royal Collection Trust, parquetry techniques by internationally acclaimed Tom Bree, and drawing by the Royal School of Drawing.

To reinforce the techniques taught on each course, the skills are being filmed and uploaded to YouTube. Students attending The Creative Dimension courses will be eligible for an Arts Award, monitored by the Crafts Council.

The Creative Dimension is supported by the Eranda Foundation, The Princes School of Traditional Arts, The Royal Drawing School, the Crafts Council, the Arts Awards and the Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

Penny Bendall says: “My target is to have a national network of approved Master Craftsmen and women who will give tuition to students in groups of one to five on a weekly basis in the same way as piano lessons or tennis coaching.

“We hope this will improve the perception of craft within society and enable students to see craft as an exhilarating career.

“I have been overwhelmed by the response from talented and renowned individuals who have enthusiastically come on board to inspire students from all backgrounds.”

Visit The Creative Project website for more details of the courses.