Inspiring Makers 2025: championing the future of furniture making

More than 100 people from the design and furniture making industry gathered on Thursday 8 May at the Guildhall in Bath for Inspiring Makers. Hosted by Artichoke, the Somerset-based luxury interiors brand, and The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry, this well-established conference — now in its fourth year —brought together leading voices and emerging talent from the South West and beyond.

With the number of master furniture makers in the UK having declined from 90,000 to just 1,000 over the past 150 years, this not-for-profit event offers a unique platform to inspire future generations of craftspeople. It promotes hand skills and preserves the legacy of craft through the sharing of ideas, industry connection and the championing of making.

A line-up of thought-provoking talks and panel discussions engaged the audience on key topics including the advent of AI, gender inclusion, diversity and sustainability. Influential speakers came from Artichoke, Matthew Cox, Benchmark, The Building Crafts College, Woodland Heritage, Anti Copying in Design (ACID), Sylva Foundation and Ergochair.

Bruce Hodgson, Founder & Creative Director of Artichoke, commented: “As heritage makers for the world’s finest interiors, we're committed to nurturing talent and preserving traditional handcrafting techniques for the future. Artistry and technical skill at our level can take decades to develop, which is why it’s so important to encourage young people into the craft. Alongside our other educational initiatives, such as apprenticeships, Inspiring Makers helps to encourage, train and sustain the masters of the future. This year’s event was hugely inspiring, and we're already looking forward to planning next year.”

David Dewing, Chairman of The Furniture Makers’ Company, South West Region, added: “Inspiring Makers has become a cornerstone of our regional activity, and we’re proud to help organise an event that plays such an important role in safeguarding the future of British craftsmanship. It brings together makers, thinkers and doers from across the industry to exchange ideas, celebrate skill and inspire the next generation. We're incredibly grateful to the speakers and panellists for sharing their knowledge and experience — and most of all, to everyone who attended and made the day such a success. We hope to see many of them return for next year’s conference.”

You can register your interest for Inspiring Makers 2026 here: https://artichoke.co.uk/inspiring-makers.

Inspiring Makers is generously supported by Artichoke, The Furniture Makers’ Company, Axminster Tools, Halstock, Sykes Timber, Ergochair and Castelan Group. For further information, see www.furnituremakers.org.uk.