Leah Faulks is an interdisciplinary maker and researcher of Scottish Heritage Crafts, and Licentiate of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. She seeks to bring contemporary relevance to heritage objects as an alternative method of preservation.
Leah’s practice through the MA Craft has focused on the Sgian Dubh, a small knife worn with Scottish Highland Dress and shrouded in a complex military and civilian history.
The culturally distinctive craft of Sgian Dubh making is endangered, with mass-produced products blurring the history and identity of the practice over time. Romanticism for Scottish culture in the Victorian Era fuelled widespread Invented Tradition; a largely fictitious implied continuity with ancient Scottish traditions reinforced over generations through behavioural repetition and ritual.
This project presents an interpretation of the Sgian Dubh that challenges Invented Tradition. It achieves this by combining Thinking-Through-Making, techniques of Experimental Preservation and historical research.
To survive beyond static preservation, the Reinvented Sgian Dubh reflects the context of a contemporary Scotland. It is informed by heritage yet explores beyond traditional aesthetic limitations from a post-craft perspective. This collection targets wider audiences, offering expanded perspectives beyond the masculine biases prevalent within the Sgian Dubh’s history.
Primarily, the Reinvented Sgian Dubh explores what endangered heritage craft could become when released from societal traditions and allowed to evolve.
