David Canter Memorial Fund: 2026 Awardees
GRANTS FOR CRAFT
The David Canter Memorial Fund (DCMF) offers awards to give financial assistance to those working in craft. The fund is open to those who have finished their formal training and are working full-time or part-time but need money for specific projects, e.g., setting up a workshop, buying equipment, educational work, or for research and travel. Awards made are usually up to a maximum of £500 and are made every other year, each time focusing on different craft disciplines.
Awards are available to those who have finished their formal training and are working full or part-time anywhere within the UK but need money for special projects such as setting up a workshop, buying materials and equipment, or for research and travel.
Applications to support work with community groups is not the focus of this fund. Grants are not available to students.
Awards are not usually made to cover the cost of buying consumables i.e. raw materials
In 2026, working with our Green Maker Initiative, the fund is supporting makers in reducing their environmental impact within their craft practice. We had 29 applicants, and many extremely strong applications. It was a tough decision, but the worthy awardees are…
Jessica Cutler | Textiles
Jessica Cutler is a handwoven textile designer and maker. She produces all of her work on traditional hand looms using leftover yarn from the UK Mill industry or wool sourced from local farmers and spinners. Sustainability is at the heart of her brand: everything she produces is handmade to order.
Jessica recently relocated to a small studio on a farm on the edge of Exmoor. The farm is home to a flock of Exmoor Horn sheep and is surrounded by neighbouring farms with a variety of other traditional sheep breeds. Through conversations with local farmers, she has become acutely aware of an ongoing issue within the wool industry: despite a recent increase in wool prices the first in many years, farmers are still paid less than £2 per kilo for raw fleece. As a result, much of this valuable natural fibre is given away, stockpiled, or even discarded.
Jessica will use her DCMF grant to embark on her own ‘Land to Loom’ project, which will transform locally sourced wool into high-quality, usable yarn for her weaving practice.
This is a new direction for her work and represents a meaningful shift towards a fully local, land-based making process. To date, she has been processing wool that has been generously given to her by local farmers by hand: washing fleeces, carding fibres, and spinning yarn. While this has been an invaluable learning experience, it is an extremely time-consuming process.
This grant enables Jessica to send locally sourced fleece to a nearby spinning mill to be professionally processed. This yarn will be hand-dyed by Jessica and woven into finished pieces in her studio. Importantly, every stage of the process from fleece to finished textile will reduce waste and remain rooted in the South West.
Tom Martin | Printmaking
Printmaking has been at the core of Tom Martin’s life as an artist and educator. Recently, he has focused on improving the environmental sustainability of his practice: he now forages his own plants and minerals to make natural screen-printing inks and mediums, paints, pastels, airbrush inks, and handmade paper.
Tom’s work takes the form of small box works of screen-prints, paintings and collages, and larger abstract screen-prints relying on the overlay of contrasting lines to create unpredictable Moiré patterns.
Tom will use his DCMF grant to develop his relief printing. It is particularly hard to hand make natural relief inks, as the pigment particle sizes need to be extremely small.
He will purchase equipment, including a scientific sieve, a glass muller, graining slab, and a small relief printing press for his home workshop, which will revolutionise his ink production methods and make him independent. His process will bypass the normal commercial products, which are mostly produced using petrochemical processes, opting instead for his foraged pigments and linseed oil to make environmentally friendly inks.
Sara Garth | Polymer Clay
Sara runs Sculpt Happy Studio in East Devon. She handcrafts polymer clay sculptures, silver clay jewellery, and clay artwork. She also delivers inclusive workshops under Little Light Art, and has partnered with Community Waffle House in Axminster to deliver 'Clay & Connect' sessions for people referred via social prescribing. Sara’s DCMF grant will subsidise access and expand her reach, ensuring a creative sanctuary remains available for anyone facing isolation or difficult life transitions.
Sara works predominantly in polymer clay, a material that, while synthetic, offers unique accessibility benefits. Polymer clay needs only a domestic oven, is pre‑coloured and tactile, and offers a sensory experience traditional clay can limit. For neurodivergent learners, socially prescribed participants, and those in care settings, polymer clay offers a gentler entry point and reduces intimidation.
Sara’s approach is rooted in kindness, empowerment, and celebrating small steps. Her ethos is embodied in Mim, a gentle character, who symbolises mental and social health. Through reels and symbolic clay work, Mim offers moments of reflection and encouragement.
As a member of the British Polymer Clay Guild, Sara promotes polymer clay as a true art and craft medium, broadening perceptions and highlighting its versatility and accessibility.
Sara’s DCMF grant will enable her to extend the longevity of her community clay programme, ensuring socially prescribed and vulnerable participants continue to benefit. She will also invest in reusable resources and create samples and digital assets to document outcomes, raising awareness of accessible craft and its role in mental and social health.
Emmy Palmer | Glass
Glass maker Emmy Palmer won a scholarship with Teign Valley Glass while at college in 2006 and has continued a working relationship with them ever since. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Applied Arts in 2007 specialising in glass. During her degree, she started to combine knitting with glass in different ways. She was taken by the combination of knitted metals with blown glass and has been refining the technique ever since.
Emmy has taken over the management of Ian Hankey's Upcycled Glass Company (UGC) hot glass studio on Brimpts Farm in Dartmeet. She is continuing the great work that Ian has been doing and has started a cooperative of local glass makers working from this studio, using the waste industrial glass from Teign Valley Glass studios in Bovey Tracey.
Emmy’s DCMF grant will allow her to carry out repairs on UGC’s furnace that has stopped working after three years. A gas engineer will resolve the problem and certify the gas system, enabling the eco hot glass studio to get up and running again.
About the Fund
The establishment of the fund in 1988 was made possible by generous support from David Canter’s friends and colleagues, wishing to show their appreciation of his great contribution to the Crafts, following the initial proposal and funding from the Craft Potters Association in 1984. The fund also acknowledges with thanks the help and support of MAKE Southwest.
David Canter’s love and enthusiasm for the Arts and Crafts was a deep inspiration to all who knew him. His vision of the highest aesthetic standards uncompromised by commercial considerations was expressed in his creation of Cranks restaurants, which he founded and designed, and Craftwork shops in which he brought together an unrivalled collection of crafts from all over Britain.
David was Honorary Secretary of the Craft Potters Association for over 20 years, and during this time he pioneered the setting up of the Association’s first retail outlet in London. In his work as Chairman of the Crafts Council Grants Committee, and co-founder of the Dartington Pottery Training Workshop, he showed his commitment to helping and advising young craftspersons.