During consultations for the Labrador Craft Study a number of common issues emerged. Many of the issues we faced in the past remain the same. Producers still struggle with:
- Obtaining affordable raw materials
- Need for effective training and mentoring, especially in traditional crafts
- Demands for new product development
- Need for entrepreneurial training including pricing, display and marketing.
The Labrador Craft Study Working Group has developed a strategy to be carried out over several years to respond to these issues, including:
- Developing a Labrador-wide management and communications structure to support the production of high quality crafts throughout Labrador,
- Research & test trial to provide affordable raw materials through a bulk purchasing strategy,
- Developing and carrying out the first phase of a craft training strategy in traditional skills, new product development and entrepreneurial skills.
All photos by Labrador Craft Marketing Agency
The Craft Labrador Project Team will be rolling out the initial phase of the strategy in March 2015. Future plans include the delivery of training in all regions of Labrador.
Surveys have been developed so that we can consult with the Labrador Craft community to determine which traditional skill should be offered for the first set of training, and which raw material should be tried in the bulk purchasing experiment.
During the first phase of the Craft Labrador Project, our team is preparing the training materials an planning for workshops in Traditional Skills, Cultural Product Development and Entrepreneurial Skills. These workshops will take place in the next phase of the project.
By March 31, 2015, we will have developed and tested one module for Entrepreneurial Skills. The resource materials for that training module will be available in the Resources section of this website. The information will also be incorporated into other workshops we develop, including the Cultural Product Development workshop and Traditional Skills workshops.
In our initial research we have found there is a very strong interest among the Labrador Craft Community in learning how to make traditional crafts. Our survey listed twelve crafts to choose from and people suggested more during the research.
One traditional skill will be chosen for training in 2015. A training module will be developed and plans made to deliver the training in each region of Labrador.
