Former Cardigan schoolgirl Sarah James has made it to His Majesty King Charles’ Birthday Honours list after being awarded an MBE for her services to craft.

For the past 20 years Sarah, the youngest daughter of former JJ Morris director Roddy James and his wife Pat, has championed British contemporary crafts after co-founding Craft Festival in 2003.

The not-for-profit organisation’s flagship event in Bovey Tracey, Devon, is affectionately referred to as ‘The Glastonbury of Craft’ and with a string of subsequent events in Cardiff and Cheltenham, Craft Festival provides a retail platform for hundreds of designer makers from across the UK.

Now plans are underway for Sarah to bring the Festival to her home town of Cardigan, when it becomes a national event for Wales, to be hosted in Cardigan Castle.

“I’m thrilled and overwhelmed to receive this honour as it represents my lifelong passion for craft as well as my drive to create a meaningful community and a commercial platform where professional craftspeople can thrive,” said Sarah from her home in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

“And as a former ceramics maker, I understand only too well the challenges that crafts people face in establishing and sustaining a viable creative business.”

Educated in Cardigan and subsequently Carmarthen College of Art (now known as Coleg Sir Gar), Sarah graduated with a degree in Ceramics from Glasgow School of Art in 1993, following time in the US at Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore as an exchange student.

Her early career was supported by The Princes Trust which helped nurture Sarah's confidence as well as her network which led to the establishment of Craft Festival.

Craft Festival Bovey Tracey has created a strong marketplace for craft and has grown from 2,000 to 10,000 visitors.

With the impact of lockdown Sarah was quick to spring into action creating Digital Craft Festival within weeks.

Whilst reputationally and financially risky, she overcame the challenges by providing makers with a lifeline that enabled them to earn much-needed income during a time of real hardship.

Each subsequent Digital Craft Festival, supported by the Cultural Recovery Fund via Arts Council England, quickly became a supportive, collaborative online community and retail platform for crafts business whilst live events were suspended.

During this time Sarah also founded “The Capital of Craft Podcast” where she talks with makers and thinkers about what it means to be a maker and how it can change your life.

Currently in its third season, the podcast has achieved over 20,000 downloads to date. As a non-profit, any surplus of funds from Craft Festival are ploughed back into a range of local Devon-based good causes.

Sarah also recently led, with Folksy, Heritage Crafts and Great Northern Craft Fair, the online viral national campaign “Buy Less, Buy Better, Buy Handmade” which was established to support makers during the cost-of-living crisis.

Sarah is a Trustee of Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre and a visiting lecturer at Coleg Sir Gar, Carmarthen, University Arts Plymouth, Hereford School of Art, and Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Fanatical about craft, she is currently obsessed with ceramics, chopping boards and carved, wooden spoons.