From Paris to Penang, craftsmanship is having a moment

It is being delivered to the French capital from the south of the country to join six other vintage presses at Idem, one of France's oldest printmaking studios, which specialises in lithography.

Idem was where artists such as Miro and Chagall came to work. The presses there also produced masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso and Giacometti. Lithography, it turns out, is also the modern artist's object of desire. In recent times, William Kentridge has worked there as has multi-talented American filmmaker David Lynch. When I visit, several prints by up-and-coming Japanese and Chinese artists are hanging in an antechamber of this humming studio.

Current and past collaborations between artists and printmakers can be appreciated at Idem today on studio tours. Edition pieces are available to buy.

But it's not just lithography that is having a resurgence. There is a global push to breathe new life into dying crafts. In India, Canada, Australia, Asia and Europe, practitioners are taking part in programs that hope to encourage a new generation of artisans.

Each year UNESCO identifies new crafts under threat. Last year, it was traditional glassblowing in Syria, handloom weaving in the Philippines and wooden boatbuilding in Granada. Survival of traditional crafts comes down to "use it or lose it".

Morocco has been showcasing its craftsmanship for centuries. Mosques, palaces and tombs exemplify colourful zellige work, geometric tile shapes individually chiselled and set into a plaster base. Among the grandest are the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca; the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace in Marrakech; and Bab Mansur al-'Alj in Meknes, one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco.

At Art Naji, in the industrial quarter of Ain Nokbi, near Fez, craftsmen use chisels and special hammers to create more than 300 mosaic shapes. Watch an artisan decorate a glazed black urn with threads of pewter or dip a fine brush into a lilac paint and begin decorating a tagine in an ancient pattern.

The Chouara Tannery in Fez is the largest of three tanneries in the Fes el Bali medina. It might be one of the stinkiest places on Earth, but it produces the softest leathers in colours derived from poppies, saffron, mint, roses and cedar wood. It's where specialist craftsmen magic up jackets, handbags and babouche slippers.

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is welcoming back the birch broom, sealskin boots, wriggle fences, the bodhran drum ... just some of the crafts that appeared on a Craft at Risk List compiled by Heritage NL, categorising 55 crafts from viable to critically endangered, and coming up with commercial and creative initiatives to ensure they have a future.

Recently, local workshops have focused on the wriggle fence (aka riggle, riddle or roddle), made using upright posts attached to evenly spaced horizontal logs. Smaller wooden rods, called wriggles, are woven in vertically and pushed together to make an ultra-strong barrier. The island is now dotted with wriggle fences made of spruce, alder or birch. Look out for examples if you're walking in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.

Ancient traditions are part of the warp and weft of George Town, the capital of Penang, one of 13 Malaysian states that has, over time, blended Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Indonesian and British culture and tradition. The town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008. In the restorations of temples, mosques, churches, shophouses, mansions, clan communities and government buildings that followed, authenticity became the byword.

George Town, just 2.5 square kilometres large, can be explored on foot, by bicycle, in a trishaw or via a free bus. See wooden signboard makers and tombstone engravers, along with Chinese calligraphers, Indian goldsmiths, Islamic book publishers, spice merchants and perfumers. SM Badjenid & Son (184-186 Lebuh Pantai), established in 1917, is the country's oldest manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of perfume compounds, essential oils, oud and bakhoor (woodchips soaked in jasmine and sandalwood or amber and citrus essential oils).

Perfume connoisseurs can also visit the Kalakasi Oud Factory in the town of Batu Ferringhi on Penang's northern coast. Tables are set with carafes of thick liquid that looks like sump oil, from the resin of agarwood. Buy it by the thimbleful neat (decanted into a tiny bottle with a roll-on action) or have it mixed with essential oils of rose, lavender or white musk. Leave time for lessons in batik at one of Batu Ferringhi's many studios.

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The historic coastal town of Kanazawa, in Ishikawa Prefecture, is famous for ultra-thin gold leaf made using special foil-beating paper and machine hammering. It's called the entsuke technique. Most of the country's gold leaf is produced in Kanazawa. With the average age of practitioners around 70, the education of emerging younger artisans has become pressing. Just before Christmas, Tiffany & Co announced the three-year Kanazawa Entsuke Gold Leaf Manufacturing training program in partnership with the World Monuments Foundation.

The Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum is just a few minutes' walk from the Higashi Chaya District. Founded in 1974 by gold leaf craftsman Yasue Takaaki, the centuries-old skills are on show in folded screens, hanging scrolls, ceramics, robes and lacquerware sprinkled with gold dust. See the experts at work. Shop till you drop at Kinpakuya Sakuda and Hakuza Hikarigura.

Britain's 2023 Red List of Critically Endangered Crafts included the making of glass eyes, compass and other navigation instruments, concert flutes, straw hats, pianos and the wooden-framed trug basket.

The latter, peculiar to East Sussex, is one of 52 handmade baskets that are part of a bar installation, The Baskets of Britain, at The Whitby hotel in New York, a project that owes its existence to The New Craftsmen, advocates for Britain's makers and shakers. The New Craftsmen curates, commissions and sells contemporary objects rooted in traditional craftsmanship.

Each basket in the Whitby collection has a specific purpose: to hold, for example, new potatoes, oysters, flowers, tools or the family tea-set. The trug, made from locally grown coppiced chestnut and offcuts from the willow used for cricket bats, was used by Sussex farmers to measure grain and liquids.

Approach the bar and drink it all in.