// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Meet the people keeping endangered skills alive
Letterpress printer Nick Hand warns once traditional craftmanship is gone, "it's gone forever"
Some skills have survived for centuries, passed carefully from one pair of hands to the next using historic techniques that have changed little over time.
But many traditional crafts are now on the brink of extinction, as advances in technology render them obsolete and valuable knowledge fades into the past.
Heritage Crafts' red list reveals those with limited training opportunities and low financial viability are at "serious risk" of disappearing within a generation or two.
While artificial intelligence (AI) and mass production take over, artisans across the west of England are determined to prevent these skills from disappearing forever.
Heritage Crafts is the national charity dedicated to safeguarding and supporting traditional craft skills and knowledge.
Those on its endangered list currently have enough craftspeople to pass their skills to the next generation, but "there are serious concerns about its ongoing viability".
Among those featured is letterpress printing, which first began in the 15th century.
Letterpress printed commissions include album covers, menus, wedding invites, and event posters
The technique has only survived through private collectors and artisan printers like Nick Hand, who runs the Department of Small Works in Bristol.