Makers whose work relies on energy-intensive processes, including glassmakers, ceramicists and metalworkers, are among those seriously affected by rising electricity and gas prices.
'It isn't really an option for us to turn off the forges,' said James Ross-Harris, a blademaker at Blenheim Forge in Peckham, London. 'Without our forges we cannot make knives.'
'The energy prices are especially serious for people working in blown glass,' said glass art duo Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg. 'Both the gas increases and the electrical increases affect us directly.'
Baldwin and Guggisberg are prioritising the energy reduction at their remote rural studio in Powys, Wales. 'Our previous relaxed attitude toward energy use has given way to a whole new regime,' they said. By reorganising their way of working to be more efficient, they run their furnace for fewer months of the year. 'It is our goal to get our gas fees annually down to where they were before the increases,' added Baldwin and Guggisberg.
But there are limits to the efficiencies that can be made. Well aware of the energy-intensive nature of their work, the Peckham-based steelworks said it has already taken every step they can to reduce its energy consumption. 'There is very little more we can do to economise,' explained Ross-Harris.