Marsh Award for Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year

The Maker of the Year Award recognises a craftsperson who is amongst the most skilled in their craft and has demonstrated excellence in their craft over the past 12 months. The winner is also be a craftsperson who helps the safeguard the endangered skills related to their craft.

Nominations can be made via the Heritage Crafts website. Entries are judged by a panel of experts in heritage crafts and representatives of the MCT.

Hannah McAndrew 2022

Hannah has a degree in Three-Dimensional Design and, using this, moved to Scotland to undertake an apprenticeship with a highly regarded slipware potter where her skills were honed to an extent that she became the mainstay of the workshops production. Since 2009, Hannah has won an array of Awards in ceramics and design and was selected as a Fellow of the Craft Potters’ Association.  In 2003, she started her own workshop to give demonstrations to students both in person and online. She was invited to deliver a six-month programme to four young apprentices by their regional arts association. In 2021, she was invited to produce a film for the Ceramics Congress where professionals demonstrate their skills and teach their techniques to an audience across the world. This year she is exhibiting at Contemporary Ceramics in London which is the gallery of the Craft Potters’ Association and has also been invited to be part of an international ceramic makers Auction House. Hannah has also had her piece ‘This is England’ accepted into the permanent collection of Centre of Ceramic Art in the York Art Gallery. Hannah’s work references classical form and uses traditional techniques while also being produced with her own ‘accent’.  

Previous Winners

Tracey Sheppard

Tracey is a glass engraver and current President of the Guild of Glass Engravers. She has exhibited in all Guild National Exhibitions since 1983 and has won numerous Awards and prizes. She originally took up glass engraving at evening classes while studying in 1980. Tracey teaches at a number of colleges and creates demonstration videos on behalf of the Guild of Glass Engravers. During the past 12 months, Tracey has done all she can to maintain her teaching, keeping in touch with her students and bringing people together online for interactive sessions. She has fulfilled several commissioned works and participated in London Craft Week where she was one of only two glass engravers who were involved in that event. Her work has been presented in royal collections, the parliamentary collection and other prestigious collections across the country. Tracey is always approachable, welcoming and curious, she has carried the light forward to inspire and nurture future glass engravers to help ensure the future of the craft.