Across Europe, many traditional crafts face the same challenge: ensuring that specialised knowledge is successfully transmitted to new generations. While technical skills can be documented, much of craftsmanship depends on tacit knowledge acquired through observation, practice and interaction with experienced practitioners. Understanding how this transmission takes place is therefore essential for safeguarding both cultural heritage and future professional skills.
What does it really take to learn a craft?
The answer goes far beyond mastering tools or techniques. To better understand how craftspeople themselves perceive learning and transmission, we invited the Mad’in Europe craft community, which brings together thousands of craft professionals across Europe, to share their perspectives. Among the respondents were Mad’in Europe members, experienced craft educators and young artisans from a wide range of countries and disciplines.
We asked two simple questions:
To teachers: What advice would you give to a young person entering your craft?
To young professionals: How would you encourage young people to discover this profession?
Despite the diversity of backgrounds and experiences, the responses converged around a shared understanding of craftsmanship, one rooted in curiosity, observation, practice and patience. Many also highlighted the same practical lessons: learning begins by watching experienced craftspeople at work, spending time in workshops, asking questions, experimenting with materials and accepting that mastery is achieved only through regular, long-term practice.
Each contributor took a different path into their profession, yet their answers converged in surprising ways. Regardless of where they were based or which craft they practised, the same starting point kept coming up: observation. Roger Cockram, a ceramicist and teacher from the United Kingdom, summarises this approach in just a few words: “Observe the world closely… practice, practice… ask for advice.” Spanish woodworking teacher Manuel Navarrete Moreno expands on the same idea, encouraging learners to “look before acting,” because watching an experienced craftsperson often reveals details that never appear in manuals.
Observation, however, extends far beyond the workshop. Young engraver Pierre Gressier encourages aspiring artisans to visit workshops, museums and exhibitions while also embracing the opportunities offered by the digital world: “Internet can also be a wonderful way to discover extraordinary practices from around the world and spark curiosity.
More than skills
Technical mastery alone does not make a craftsperson. Across the responses we received, three qualities kept coming back: curiosity, patience and authenticity. Far from being personal virtues, these conditions allow technical qualities to endure over time.
Curiosity keeps a craftsperson exploring, long after the basics are learned. As Marina Bourgault, an embroidery teacher, puts it: “Be curious, listen, analyse and have the courage to explore.”
Patience is what makes real progress possible. Eduardo Brun Irisarri, a spanish blacksmith, sums it up simply: “Patience and poise.”
Authenticity enables craftspeople to develop their own creative identity while respecting inherited traditions. For Helen Slater Stokes, glass artist , skill alone isn’t enough: “Believe in what you do… be authentic, determined and resilient.”
Three qualities, one message: craftsmanship is learned by staying proactive.
A craft, passed from hand to hand
One aspect stands out across all the responses: the continuity between generations. Young artisans often describe encounters with experienced craftspeople, family members or teachers that shaped their vocation. As they develop their own practice, they are already carrying forward the lessons they received.
This continuity matters because much of craft knowledge remains unspoken. Gestures, material sensitivity, problem-solving strategies and workshop routines are rarely fully captured in manuals or technical specifications. They are acquired through shared practice and repeated interaction with experienced craftspeople, watching, repeating, adjusting, until the knowledge becomes one’s own. This explains why mentorship and non-formal learning continue to play such a central role in craft education: some things can only be taught hand to hand.
Georgian ceramist Teona Gorgiashvili, a recent new member of Mad’in Europe, perhaps captures this spirit best:
“Do not be afraid of mistakes. Every cracked piece, every failed firing, and every imperfect attempt is part of your education. In a world that moves faster every day, craftsmanship teaches us something precious: how to slow down, listen, and create with intention. Stay curious, learn from different cultures, and never compare your journey to anyone else’s. Your hands will eventually find their own voice, and that voice is what makes your work truly valuable.”
And Daniel López-Obrero Carmona, also member of Mad’in Europe, also adds: “If you are passionate about a profession, fight for it. When we truly love what we do, we are capable of creating beautiful, unique and extraordinary products.”
These reflections strongly echo the findings of the BRICKS project on non-formal craft education. Through research carried out across Belgium, Italy, Poland and Georgia, BRICKS explored how traditional craft knowledge is transmitted outside formal education systems, examining workshops, apprenticeships, mentorship and other practice-based learning environments. Rather than opposing formal education, the project highlights the complementary role of non-formal learning. While formal education provides structured knowledge, recognised qualifications and theoretical foundations, non-formal education enables learners to acquire the embodied, tacit and experience-based knowledge that can only develop through direct practice alongside experienced craftspeople. Observation, repetition, experimentation and interaction within the workshop remain essential to developing both technical competence and professional judgement. The testimonies gathered here give a human voice to these findings, illustrating how these complementary learning pathways work together to prepare the next generation of craftspeople.
Together, these testimonies remind us that learning a craft is not simply about acquiring technical competence. It is a process of developing judgement, confidence and professional identity through experience, knowledge that comes from hands-on practice, conversation and shared time in the workshop. The BRICKS project demonstrates that non-formal craft education is an essential complement to formal education, helping to transmit practical know-how, tacit knowledge and cultural values that are difficult to acquire in any other way. Building on these findings, the project also developed policy recommendations calling for greater recognition and support for non-formal craft education, including improved validation of skills acquired outside formal education systems and stronger recognition of the role played by craftspeople as educators and mentors.
As Europe seeks new ways to safeguard traditional skills and attract future generations to the craft sector, recognising and valuing these complementary learning pathways will be essential.
Caterina Crespi and Naya Tribert
