PROFESSIONAL craftsmen and women who fear the boom in craft fairs has peaked have formed their own co-operative or 'trade union'.

Crowmarsh potter Lucienne de Mauny, whose bespoke slipware pottery dinner services can sell for £3,000-£4,000, said the newly-formed 'Designer Craft Federation' would organise its own craft fairs and be concerned with setting out standards, particularly in the marketing of craftwork.

She said: "Members are still in the process of forming the federation as a co-operative on a non-profit making basis to promote the rare skills and products of its members.

"The aims of the group whose members are from across the country are excellence and integrity in the creation of products and in customer service."

Behind the move to form their own group are divisions among craft workers, particularly over the way they are treated by organisers of craft fairs, and worries that the public is not getting a fair deal.

Ms de Mauny, a member of the federation's provisional committee, said the situation had come to a head when attendances at popular weekend craft fairs were showing signs of declining, and professional craft workers were finding it more difficult to make ends meet.

For 20 years or more, craft fairs have become an increasingly popular family day-out at the weekend.

"Consequently, organisers of the fairs have tended to charge more and more for craft workers to take a stall and have tried to pack more and more stalls into a fair," she said. "The effect has been to dilute public interest to some extent."

Ms de Mauny said she was often expected to pay up to £500 for a stall to display her pottery at a three-day fair, and was competing for business against some stallholders who "buy-in" goods from Third World countries.

"The effect for a craftsman or woman who has to invest a large part of their time in making their products is that it can be uneconomic to attend fairs.

"I am not saying craftspeople are 'ripped off' by the organisers of craft fairs," said Ms de Mauny. "But we feel a need to get together and organise our own marketing."

The result is the new Designer Craft Federation's first craft market at the George Hotel, Dorchester on Thames, on Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7 from 10am-5pm, when more than 50 people will be displaying their products.

Story date: Friday 29 October

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