The Crafts Council Development Award

When it comes to crafts, many people instantly think of knitting or some form of origami, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Many people in the UK have set up successful businesses based on a particular craft, such as product design, jewellery making or textiles.

The Craft Councils Development Award

The Crafts Council Development Award, established in the early 1970’s, was introduced to help these individuals create and, in most cases, profit from their individual craft. The award gives makers financial assistance during the early days of their careers to, for example, purchase specialised equipment.

The actual award is broken down into two parts, equipment and maintenance. In the first instance, the maker will receive the equipment grant – which can be a maximum of £5,000. The maker is then required to match this amount and the total can then be spent on equipment and tools – although the Crafts Council do also allow for a third of this amount to be put towards the marketing of the products.

The second part of the award, the maintenance grant, is £2,500, which is given to individuals to help pay for the ongoing costs associated with the initial set-up process. However, this part of the award does have a clause in that applicants aren’t allowed to be in receipt of any other financial aid from a government scheme that assists new businesses.

Other benefits available, separate from the financial aspect, include business training courses, promotional postcards, one-to-one support from a Crafts Council officer and a presence on the Crafts Councils website for the following four years.

Who is Eligible?

There are quite a few conditions that applicants have to adhere to in order to be deemed eligible for financial assistance from the Crafts Council Development Award. Although it isn’t a requirement to have attended any educational institutes, those that have must have completed all of their studies before they apply for funding. It is important that you also don’t exceed the ‘practicing time limit’, which is set at no more than three years from the date that you registered with the Tax Office.

As part of the application process (which is outlined later in this article) you must submit images of your work, but it is important that part of this has been completed less that 12 months ago and that you bear in mind that any work produced as part of your education can’t be used.

It is important that your products are produced from certain materials that are covered by the Crafts Council. These include, glass, wood, metal, ceramics, textiles, plastic, leather and stone.

The Application Process

As long as you remain eligible, you are able to apply for the development awards as many times as you feel necessary – although you will have to justify this each time and should wait for a six month period between each award being granted. Applications for the award are only considered four times each year and thus there are four separate deadlines – 1 March, 1 June, 1 September, 1 December.

The first stage of the process is carried out through a panel of judges who observe the slides or images that are provided with the application by each individual. Obviously, because this is the only visual available to the judges it is in your own interest to make sure that the images are of the highest quality and show off your material to the best ability.

If you are successful at this stage, then you will then have to attend an interview where you can show actual examples of your product to the Crafts Council – if you pass this stage then you will receive the funding required to start your new business.