Fibre, textiles & apparel
Fibre preparation, spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, felting, printing, patternmaking, tailoring, millinery and industrial textiles.
Find the skill.
See the system.
The national public field for Australian craft practices, practitioners, conservators, cultural practitioners, enterprises, Centres and productive capability.
Practice / field / people / capability
02.1What Which Craft? is
A directory of practice and place.
Which Craft? answers four practical questions: what capability exists, who holds it, where it is active and how it can be reached. It brings together fields that are currently scattered across arts, trades, manufacturing, heritage, food, fashion, design and research classifications.
Which Craft? provides public discovery of fields and active places; the provenance registry holds the supporting practitioner and product records.
Current service portal. The established searchable directory remains available through the Secretariat while its records and search functions are migrated into ACA’s independent system.
02.2Fields of practice
What is made, repaired, conserved and transmitted.
Fields are organised around material, process and productive capability—not taste or hobby categories. This makes equipment, specialist knowledge, production gaps, training pathways and collaboration opportunities visible.
The list can expand as evidence is gathered. A practitioner may appear across more than one field where their work genuinely crosses materials or production stages.
Timber, furniture & boatbuilding
Forestry knowledge, milling, joinery, furniture, carving, turning, structural work and wooden boatbuilding.
Metal, tools & industrial fabrication
Forging, machining, casting, welding, toolmaking, architectural hardware and specialist finishing.
Ceramics, glass, stone & mineral
Kiln and furnace practice, glasswork, masonry, carving, brickmaking, glaze, tableware and architectural production.
Leather, saddlery & footwear
Material preparation, saddlery, harness, whipmaking, footwear, bags, casework, upholstery and leather goods.
Jewellery, silversmithing & precision objects
Gold and silversmithing, setting, enamelling, hollowware, scientific glass and small-scale precision making.
Food & beverage production
Cheesemaking, baking, brewing, distilling, preserving and other skilled transformation of ingredients through learned judgement.
Conservation & repair
Conservation and repair across stone, timber, metal, plaster, glass, textiles, books, objects, instruments and long-lived products.
Digital fabrication & advanced manufacture
Computer-controlled production, scanning, modelling, sensing and automation combined with material knowledge and human judgement.
Living cultural practice
Making and transmission in which consent, attribution, access and use remain governed by the relevant cultural authorities and knowledge holders.
02.3Who appears in the field
Four records. Four distinct functions.
The Mapping report uses precise terms so the directory can recognise the full range of productive work across the sector.
Each record serves a distinct function and connects to the appropriate assessment, provenance or legal pathway.
Craft Practitioners
People actively engaged in making, modifying, repairing, conserving, consequential production work or transmitting knowledge and skills grounded in practical capability. Commercial status, income or formal qualification does not alone determine inclusion.
Artisan Producers
Practitioner-led small-scale producers operating within field-specific thresholds while retaining control at consequential production stages.
Craft Conservators & repairers
Practitioners who assess, maintain, repair or conserve objects, buildings, tools and working material systems—and the specialist knowledge required to keep them in use.
Craft & cultural practitioners
Knowledge holders and practitioners working within living cultural traditions. Any record must respect community authority, consent, ICIP, restrictions and decisions about what may remain private.
Put Australian capability on the map.
Practitioners, producers, conservators, cultural organisations and active Centres are building the first connected national view of the field.
Participation pathways