A well-respected glass engraver was recently installed as Master of the Art Workers’ Guild.

Tracey Sheppard has had engraved glass panels in Winchester Cathedral and St Lawrence Church, as well as the Hyde Abbey panel at the entrance to Hyde Abbey Garden.

Tracey will be responsible for choosing and inviting speakers for the year – 17 evenings in total as well as her own night, Master’s Night.

She said: “I will have to chair meetings and represent the Guild at various events. It is the job of the Past Masters to choose the next in line and it is a huge honour to be asked. I am extremely proud and humbled by the opportunity to serve the Guild in this capacity.”

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Also, on February 2, Tracey won Maker of the Year at the Heritage Craft Awards. The reception, hosted by The Rt Hon the Baroness Garden of Frognal PC and The Rt Hon The Lord Cormack, vice presidents of Heritage Crafts, was held at the House of Lords.

The award was sponsored by the Marsh Charitable Trust and was presented by Nick Carter from the Trust.

Hampshire Chronicle: Tracey being presented with the Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year Award 2021

The Guild, which is housed in a Bloomsbury building described by Tracey as ‘rather splendid’, was founded in 1884 by young architects and designers who wanted to create a meeting place for the fine arts and the applied arts on an equal footing.

Many of the prominent figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement were active in the first fifty years. The Guild has represented traditional skills when they might have disappeared, but it has always maintained a dialogue with modern design.

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Its values include collaboration between artists and designers in different fields, especially in the embellishment of buildings, and fostering and maintaining high standards of design and craftsmanship in all branches of the visual arts.

Representing over 60 creative disciplines, the Guild’s main charitable aim is to support the visual arts and crafts in any way that may be beneficial to the community.

The point is made by the group that, in the UK, traditional crafts are not recognised as either arts nor heritage so fall outside the remit of all current support and promotion bodies. Heritage Crafts say they are doing what they can to address that situation and safeguard craft skills and knowledge for the future.

Tracey’s work has achieved widespread acclaim, and her many and varied commissions include a piece for Historic Royal Palaces to present to Her Majesty the Queen, carafes and glasses forming part of the 10 Downing Street Collection of engraved glass, and engraved doors and screens for churches and buildings up and down the country.

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