The calligraphy design above is by Jane Lappage of Calligraphy Arts and is subject to copyright

The weather in May is always a little unpredictable and so when we visit the Living Crafts Festival, we have had some pretty extreme weather, from an almost constant deluge of rain, to glorious sunshine as we did when we attended this year’s festival. Held in the beautiful parkland of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, returning to Living Crafts is always a little special for us and we enjoy the festival very much. This year however, was even more special, especially for the organisers, as the festival was 50 years old and we were very proud to be part of the community of artists and craftspeople that came together not only for this celebratory year, but every year for this prestigious annual craft event.

We are relatively new to Living Crafts, joining the event in 2021, which was when even covid could not get in its way! Not knowing what to expect, we attended the show and have not looked back since. The warm and friendly welcome from the organisers, and the great sense of community instilled in the event, are what makes Living Crafts special for us. We look forward each year to making new friends and seeing old ones, not only those amongst the artists and craftspeople, but also from the visitors who come to visit us; the show is not just a fun day out for the visitors, but also for us too.

Here are some highlights of this year’s event, starting with the gift set we designed in collaboration with our friend Jane Lappage of Calligraphy Arts, especially to celebrate 50 years of Living Crafts (see figure1).



Figure 1: The Limited Special Edition Gift Set especially designed in celebration of 50 years of Living Crafts

In order to celebrate the first Living Crafts Festival, we were asked to dress the same way people dressed in 1974, so to enter into the spirit of the event, Andrew wore a very colourful shirt and clashing tie, with an exceptionally eye-catching tank top (figure 2).  



Figure 2: Andrew looking “dapper” in his 1974 outfit.

The first day started very early, many visitors came to our stand (see figure 3) before 10 o’clock to see and select the expertly handmade watercolours in person.



Figure 3: A J Ludlow Colours stand, displaying a large selection of Professional Watercolours and all the other products made and sold by us.

I once again, took watercolour painting workshops, which are always fully booked and was very happy to see some returning “students” (figure 4 and 5).



Figure 4: My watercolour painting workshops are always well attended and allows visitors to paint with our Professional Watercolours with a range of high quality artesian made Asian brushes on to top notch watercolour paper.