In a narrow workshop that has occupied the same corner for three generations, a small team of artisans is racing to train apprentices before the last of the old master craftsmen retire.
The workshop specialises in a technique passed down almost entirely through hands-on apprenticeship rather than formal instruction, meaning knowledge can be lost quickly if a single generation doesn’t take it up.
“Nobody writes this down properly, it just isn’t that kind of craft,” said the current head of the workshop, who took over from his father two decades ago. “If a few more years pass without new apprentices, some of what we do disappears.”
Demand for the handmade work has actually grown in recent years, driven partly by buyers seeking alternatives to mass-produced goods, though the artisans say the training pipeline remains the biggest bottleneck.
A newly formed craft-heritage association has begun cataloguing workshops like this one across the region, with early plans for a small grant programme to support formal apprenticeships.
