
Enabling young people to develop fine hand skills with leading, international specialists.
The Creative Dimension Trust offers workshops and work experience opportunities designed to give talented young people the skills and confidence to pursue a career in which core hand skills – i.e. a high degree of manual dexterity, draftsmanship and the ability to understand and (re)construct 3-Dimensional structures – are prerequisite.
Workshops are taught by craft specialists who are acknowledged leaders in their professions. These are not kid’s art courses – the goal is to learn, experiment, gain confidence, take inspiration from the best, and have exposure to career opportunities. Students gain an awareness of what is possible, and how to achieve it.
Participation in arts subjects is on the decline in both secondary and higher education. Data suggests a move away from material and equipment intensive teaching, and thus a reduction in the focus on 3D learning. The decline in uptake of arts subjects in schools has been associated with the introduction of educational performance frameworks, perceptions of the value of arts education among pupils and parents, and a political emphasis on STEM.
Crafts promote precise hand-eye co-ordination, and the ability to understand and construct 3-dimensional shapes – core skills for any young person considering a career in architecture, design, surgery or the engineering and construction industries.
Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical. He warns that medical students “might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew.”
In November 2019, the Crafts Council project ‘Supporting Diversity and Expertise Development in the Contemporary Craft Economy’ reported barriers for people in minority groups to become professional makers which are social, cultural, and economic. It concludes that “For those who are not from a relatively privileged background or with the necessary networks and educational level, it is particularly difficult to make a career and be adequately recognised in the sector.”
While extra-curricular courses and networks support and nurture talent in activities such as music or sport, there is no equivalent for crafts. Industry professionals recognise there is a particular gap in the school curriculum for two of the core skills taught on TCDT workshops – hand skills and visual sensitivity. Other skills such as organisation and planning, focus and concentration, and teamwork apply to professional practice in general.
Our work is entirely dependent on the generosity of others. Everything we do requires collaboration, partnership and goodwill.
If you would like to help us in any way, please contact us.
TCDT's First Decade
2015
TCDT launches with two pilot workshops, sponsored by The Eranda Rothschild Foundation, held at The King's Foundation School of Traditional Arts. 12 students learn gilding, while another 12 are taught marquetry.
2016
TCDT runs five summer workshops, including the first with The Royal Household at Buckingham Palace.
TCDT becomes a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and is formally launched by TCDT Patron Sir Christopher Frayling at a reception at Carpenters' Hall.
2017
TCDT runs 11 summer workshops, including the first with The Goldsmiths' Centre.
2018
TCDT launches the work experience programme, placing two students with Grimshaw Architects.
TCDT holds its first annual event at Bonhams Auction House, where alumni showcase their work and skills. A triptych created by 27 students is unveiled to commemorate the Great War centenary. The triptych then moves to Somerset House's Seaman's Hall.
2019
TCDT launches My Creative Career, a Q&A series featuring leading makers and designers, including Roksanda Ilincic, Lyn Harris, and Robert Storey, who respond to questions from TCDT students and alumni.
The TCDT Alumni Committee forms, comprising individuals with unique TCDT journeys.
TCDT assembles an expert committee of educators and employers to explore accreditation. After several meetings, the group defines the purpose, requirements, administration, and grading of a credential designed to assess a student's ability to transform 2D concepts into 3D outcomes. The committee includes:
- Gary Elliott, CEO and Founder, Elliott Wood
- TCDT tutor and figurative painter Sarah Hocombe
- Penny Milsom, Deputy Chief Executive: Products & Services, ABRSM
- Peter Morris, Managing Director, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
- Tamiko O'Brien, former Principal, City & Guilds of London Art School
- TCDT's Peter Eisenhardt
- TCDT's Penny Bendall
TCDT is invited to showcase its work at the Garfield Weston Foundation's 60th anniversary held at Banqueting House, London.
2020
TCDT alumnus and 2019 Annual Achievement Award winner, Jay, speaks to young people at The Southbank Centre Creative Careers Day.
TCDT launches the Transferrable Skills interview series, demonstrating how workshop skills translate into diverse careers. Featured contributors include:
- Peter Morris, Managing Director, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
- Dr Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education, Imperial College London
- Carol Gamble, Head of Science, Maria Fidelis FCJ Catholic School
TCDT pilots its accreditation scheme, using tutor-completed tick-box evaluation forms.
In response to COVID-19, TCDT launches online workshops within the first two weeks of lockdown. 58 workshops are run online during the pandemic, with materials packages posted out to students.
2021
TCDT runs a hybrid programme of online and in-person workshops.
Student work is displayed for two weeks in Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly store corner window. Designed by TCDT Trustee Simon Costin, A SURREALIST DINNER features pieces from marbling, silhouette, enamel, silver, and sugar paste workshops.
TCDT holds its third annual event at Bonhams. Philippa Charles, Director of the Garfield Weston Foundation, is guest speaker and presents the Annual Achievement Award.
2022
TCDT students return to Fortnum & Mason with a second display, WONDERS OF THE UNDERSEA WORLD, featuring architectural models, fused glass deep-sea fish and coral lace, enamelled sea creatures, and a painted backdrop.
TCDT holds its annual event at Leathersellers' Hall, launching the TCDT Shop where guests can purchase student work to support future workshops. Bertrand Michaud, Managing Director of Hermès, is the guest speaker and presents the Annual Achievement Award. 10 TCDT alumni exhibit their work.
TCDT pilots school workshops at Maria Fidelis School in Camden, sending tutors directly into classrooms with the goal of expanding to other London schools.
2023
The work experience programme restarts post-COVID, placing 24 students aged 18–23 with leading creative companies.
TCDT's third Fortnum & Mason window display, ANOTHER WORLD, features architectural models, glass planets and stars, enamel comets, and spaceman puppets. TCDT also installs Parfum Glorieux!, a permanent mural on the second floor of Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly store, inspired by the style of Eric Ravilious. The mural is officially launched at TCDT's champagne reception kindly hosted by Fortnum & Mason. TCDT trustee Simon Costin presents the Annual Achievement Award.
TCDT hosts its first fundraising lecture, Ceremony and Splendour: A History of Coronation Dress and Jewels, presented by Caroline de Guitaut, Deputy Surveyor of The King's Works of Art, at Clothworkers' Hall.
Following the successful pilot, TCDT expands its schools programme to other schools across London.
2024
TCDT runs London's first Manufacto workshop for Hermès.
The Giant Tassel is created at jewellery, enamelling, tassel making, embroidery, and gilding workshops.
2025
TCDT publishes a landmark report: Transforming 2D to 3D: The Need for Visual Sensitivity and Manual Dexterity Skills Development Across Industries. The report highlights how TCDT's core workshop skills – visual sensitivity and manual dexterity – are essential for transforming 2D ideas into 3D outcomes. It draws on insights from 76 industry leaders across 19 sectors, including surgical education, fashion, architecture, civil and chemical engineering, design, dentistry, radiology, textiles, and jewellery. The report reveals a significant gap between skill development and career opportunity.
TCDT celebrates its 10th Anniversary at The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Tim Knox, Director of the Royal Collection, presents the Annual Achievement Award.
The fifth Fortnum & Mason window display features a celebratory sugar paste chandelier, copper droplets, enamel candles, and an embroidered banner.
Our People
Staff
Administrator

I am currently a student at the Hampstead School of Art, on the Fine Art Advanced Course, and a recent UCL graduate of History. I am working towards a MA course in Fine Art and hopefully a budding career as an artist and painter! I obviously spend most of my time working and making, but I also still enjoy a bit of history reading around the topics which interest me most!
My first workshop with The Creative Dimension Trust was the Marquetry and Gilding course at Buckingham Palace. Trying out a traditional practice, used for hundreds of years, was such a unique opportunity that was vital for the breadth of experimentation within my A-Level portfolio as well as being more widely inspired by art history and the history of objects. Although I ended up studying history instead of accepting my Art Foundation Year offer, my connections to The Creative Dimension Trust allowed me to remain engaged with my artistic side, taking part in other workshops such as: mural painting, etching, geometric drawing and signwriting. As part of the alumni community, I am still able to access all these diverse experiences which continue to help me develop my portfolio again for MA applications. Overall, I have learnt and continue to learn so much about a wide variety of skills and ways of making from The Creative Dimension Trust, opening up the possibilities of how I can apply and evolve my artistic practice!
School Workshop Coordinator
Social Media
Trustees
Simon Costin is an international art director and recently curator. Simon’s sets are as diverse as his client list which includes Lanvin, Coach, Tiffany, Swarovski, Hermes, H&M, Valentino, Givenchy, Gucci, Stella McCartney, YSL, Chloe, Bulgari, and Faberge. Simon has shown his work solo and in group exhibitions in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the ICA in London, and the Galerie Patricia Dorfmann. He is the Director of the Museum of British Folklore.
Peter Eisenhardt (Treasurer) is Secretary General of the International Council of Securities Associations. Previously, he worked for Bank of America and J.P. Morgan for over thirty years in New York, Tokyo, and London.
Theo Fennell is a renowned British jewellery and silverware designer, often referred to as the “King of Bling” for his extravagant designs favoured by celebrity clients – including Elton John, Madonna and Lady Gaga! In 1982, he founded his company, Theo Fennell, opening his first store in Chelsea, London. His designs are characterised by originality, drawing inspiration from various sources, including music halls, pop art, and Greek classicism.
Theo’s commitment to craftsmanship has earned him several honours: he is a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths, an ambassador for The Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council, a liveryman of the Goldsmiths’ Company, and an honorary fellow of the University of the Arts London.
Tuesday Riddell is an award winning, London based artist working with European Lacquer. Following obtaining a First Class Degree in Fine Art, Tuesday was taken on by Messums Art Gallery in Cork St, London. She has since exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, a Biennale in Venice and numerous times in London. She is currently preparing for a solo show in New York.
Fiona Rushton is a Freelance Brand Communications Consultant creating strategies that have a natural fit to the ethos of a company and grow awareness and change perceptions by working across all platforms and mediums. She served as Communications Director at Hermes GB and Group PR Manager-Europe and Press Officer for Habitat.
Annie Warburton is Chief Executive and Clerk at the Goldsmiths’ Company and a writer specialising in contemporary craft, art and design. She was previously CEO at Cockpit, an award-winning charity and a UK top 100 social enterprise, and Creative Director at the Crafts Council where she directed research and innovation, education and a portfolio of UK and international exhibitions. In 2024, Annie was awarded the Fellowship of the City & Guilds Institute of London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, council member at Creative UK, Associate of the Artworkers Guild, and honorary Associate of Newnham College, Cambridge.
Patrons
Thomas Demand is a sculptor and photographer who lives in Berlin and Los Angeles and teaches at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg. Demand is best known for photographs that look like real rooms and spaces but are, in fact, three-dimensional life-sized models. He has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and represented Germany at the Bienal de São Paulo.
Sir Christopher Frayling is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture. He is Rector of the Royal College of Art, Trustee of the V&A, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, past Chairman of Arts Council England, and past Chairman of the Design Council.
Hugh Petter is an architect and master-planner with a specialist knowledge of traditional architecture and contextual urban design. Hugh became a director of ADAM Architecture in 1997 and enjoys worldwide recognition for his diverse project portfolio which includes new town and country houses of all scales: conversion, renovation, and extensions to listed buildings of all grades; commercial, retail, sports venue and tertiary education projects, and masterplans for mixed use developments for private, institutional, and local authority landowners. Beyond securing the planning consents, Hugh has extensive experience of acting as the coordinating architect, working with the development team to deliver these master-planned developments to a very high standard. For over twenty years he has been both the master-planner and coordinating architect for Nansledan, a major urban extension to Newquay, for the Duchy of Cornwall. Other recent award winning projects include a new entrance and forecourt at The Oval for Surrey County Cricket Club; the restoration of the Grade I Listed Chettle House in Dorset; a major new country house in Guernsey, and the new Levine Building at Trinity College in Oxford.
Hugh graduated with Distinction from Portsmouth School of Architecture in 1990 and won Rome Scholarships in 1990 and 1991. The following year he helped establish the Foundation Course at The Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture, where he served as Senior Tutor for six years. Hugh has sat on the Executive Committee and served as vice chairman of the Georgian Group; been a member of the RIBA Planning Group; is an elected brother of the Art Workers’ Guild and past Chairman of the Trustees; a trustee of The Prince’s Foundation, and the external examiner for the Master’s course in Conservation at the College of Estate Management in Reading.
Hugh has published numerous articles and essays on architectural and urban subjects and is a visiting tutor to several colleges across the UK and overseas. A monograph, Living Tradition, The Architecture and Urbanism of Hugh Petter, celebrating his unusually broad experience, is published by Triglyph Books.
Philip Treacy OBE is an award–winning Irish hat-designer based in London, who has been described by Vogue as “perhaps the greatest living milliner”. In 2000, he became the first milliner in 80 years to be invited to exhibit at the Paris haute couture shows. He has been associated with some of the largest fashion houses and particularly Chanel and Givenchy.
Accreditation Committee
Penny Bendall is a conservator of ceramics with 25 years of experience and a Royal Warrant. She works nationally and internationally for private clients and institutions including The Fitzwilliam Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Historic Royal Palaces, Burghley House, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s.
A high-profile example of her work is the restoration of the smashed Qing vases at The Fitzwilliam Museum in 2006. Another is her evaluation of miniature terracotta warriors in China for safe transport to The Fitzwilliam Museum for a major exhibition in 2012.
Penny lectures, teaches, and organizes conferences on conservation ethics and art education for art businesses, art history and art law postgraduates, financial institutions, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s.
Penny is a former trustee of The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST), and was Development Director during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee campaign which doubled the amount of annual scholarship awards.
Penny is a trustee of The Institute of Conservation (Icon) and The Plowden Medal, development consultant for the Zibby Garnett Travel Fellowship, and on the board for the Lord Mayor of the City of London Cultural Scholarship.
Peter Eisenhardt (Treasurer) is Secretary General of the International Council of Securities Associations. Previously, he worked for Bank of America and J.P. Morgan for over thirty years in New York, Tokyo, and London.
Gary Elliott is CEO and Founder of Elliott Wood, a structural and civil engineering practice providing services for all engineering aspects of the built environment. Founded in 1994, the practice has 140 staff in South West London, Central London and Nottingham. Work includes large scale residential developments, commercial, healthcare, hotels, education, leisure / cultural buildings, regeneration, and retail schemes throughout the UK and overseas. The practice has experience in the conservation of historic buildings and remedial and refurbishment work. Complex and structurally demanding specialist projects have included sculptures and glass structures. Elliott Wood has worked on many projects which have received architectural and industry awards.
Sarah Hocombe specialises in figurative painting. Most of Sarah’s work is painted to commission and varies in subject matter and scale, from miniatures to large frescoes. Clients have included the Royal Warrant Holders Association and the Royal Collection Trust. Her paintings appear in public and private collections and buildings in the U.K., Europe, and North America. Sarah is a Chelsea College of Art and Design graduate (where she went on to teach) and a Churchill Fellow and Queen Elizabeth Trust Scholar.
Penny Milsom is Executive Director: Products & Services at ABRSM, the UK’s largest music education body, one of its largest music publishers, and the world’s leading provider of music exams. As part of the Strategic Leadership Team, she has specific responsibility for leading the development of ABRSM’s products and services to meet the developing needs of learners and teachers. Previously, she held ABRSM leadership positions in Business Development, UK Operations, and UK & Ireland Examinations.
Peter Morris is Managing Director at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, an architecture practice based in London with offices in Bristol and Oklahoma. Set up in 1989, the practice employs over five hundred people working on projects in Education, Healthcare, Housing, Arts, and Offices. Peter’s main focus is on the design and management of the practice itself, while as an architect he maintains a close working relationship with its work through critical review of all projects. Peter oversees staff development, training and recruitment, financial management, practice infrastructure, communications, and risk management. His commitments outside the practice include acting as a member of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Architecture Appraisal Panel and Chair of the Old Street District voluntary business-led partnership.
Tamiko O’Brien is the former Principal of City & Guilds of London Art School. Prior to this, she spent 28 years of working in Higher Arts Education in a number of institutions, including the University of the Arts London. She has worked as a Fine Art tutor, course leader and head of school as well as more senior positions as associate dean and associate professor. Tamiko has been involved in pedagogic research projects, including pro-bono work with the European League of Institutes of the Arts and as the founding chair of the Fine Art European Forum.
Accreditation Scheme
At the end of each workshop, students are assessed by experienced tutors and practitioners and awarded a grade reflecting the student’s level of attainment in the relevant transferable skills.
For more information on The Trust’s accreditation scheme, please click here.
Charity Information

The Creative Dimension Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registration no. 1166443).
Copyright
The content, logo, and photos on this site are copyright of The Creative Dimension Trust – and can only be reproduced with the written permission of the Trust.

