Heritage Hands is a photographic and written record of traditional crafts at risk of disappearing, and the people quietly keeping them alive.
Created in Australia, this 92-page coffee table book brings together intimate portraits, workshop imagery and conversations with master artisans working across disciplines including umbrella making, wig making, bookbinding, antique restoration, whip making, chocolate making and natural dyeing.
More than a visual document, Heritage Hands explores themes of lineage, apprenticeship, care, and custodianship, reminding us that these skills are not owned, but held in trust and passed from one generation to the next.
Independently photographed, written, designed and published by Melissa Hoedel under Bramble Bay Books, this first volume is both a celebration and a call to attention: to slow down, to value making by hand, and to recognise the cultural knowledge embedded in objects we often take for granted.
Printed in a limited edition, Heritage Hands - Volume One is intended to be lived with, returned to, shared, and kept.