A few years back I had the pleasure of working with British artist Sue Lawty at the start of her period as artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I’ve kept in touch with Sue and what she has been doing since I left, via her blog on the V&A website (and chance encounters in corridors!)
Sue works in tapestry and in stone, and created fantastic stone drawings direct on the wall for her installation at the V&A in 2005. She and the V&A have now launched the World Beach Project, an international participatory art project, where people all over the world can make beach drawings inspired by Sue’s work and upload them to the V&A website.
From the series ‘One Beach, Fourteen Drawings, Sue Lawty’ Lannacombe, Devon, 2004. Natural stone on gesso, Width 40 cm x height 40 cm. © Sue Lawty
Stone drawing, Porth Ysgo, maker unknown
Week Two of Origin was as full of interesting makers as Week One. I went around with an eye for traditional techniques or unusual materials and found lots of British makers to tell you about.
Jennifer Collier works with paper, fabric, wax and found materials to create amazing sculptural and decorative pieces. Her paper shoes keep popping up in magazine features and they are even better in the flesh. She also makes jewellery from haberdashery and bits and pieces set into resin.
Whitby Jet is a very unusual material. Jet is a fossilised wood that is common to the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby. This amazing material was used for Victorian mourning jewellery, but Jacqueline Cullen is the only designer working Jet in a contemporary way.
I love vintage kitchenware and thought Steve Handley’s way of re-using implements as decorative elements in wood furniture was just great.
There were several fabulous milliners at the show – it was hard to pick just one to mention here. Rosy Naylor caught my eye with her vaguely vintage shapes with added twists and folds and decorative stitching.
I first saw Cleo Mussi’s mosaics on display at Hove Museum a few months ago and was totally captivated. She uses recycled materials to make whimsical and charming pieces, both small and large. I think mosaic has been a bit under-rated in recent years, and it’s great to see Cleo in this show.
As a textile designer, I am always interested in how other people extend the boundaries of thread. Betty Pepper’s stitched jewellery is delicate and pretty but has an underlying narrative which is enhanced by her use of old books to make containers for the jewellery and as constructed decorative pieces in their own right. She also had one of the nicest stands.
Sarah Thirlwell makes elegant and simple vessels from turned wood with colourful detail. Unlike most turned wood products, Sarah’s work seems very fresh and original. She also makes jewellery and other interior products using acrylic.
Explore more exhibitors yourself by looking at theExhibitors list and Springboard.
In my first post for Whip Up I thought I would tell you about some of the work I saw at Origin this year. In this and my next few posts I hope to reveal a little about traditional crafts and unusual materials, mainly by British makers. I’m a textile designer, but I trained to be a museum curator and have a long-standing interest in historical crafts. Origin is Britain’s biggest and best contemporary craft fair, so those selected by the Crafts Council are not traditional as such. Some of them use traditional techniques or materials in new and contemporary ways. I wont be covering ceramics as that is done beautifully by Karin Ericksson, and will only touch on jewellery because Abigail Percy has already picked some lovely examples.
It was a pleasure to be exhibiting alongside many wonderful makers. I was showing as part of an exhibition of emerging makers called Springboard. Two of my fellow exhibitors really caught my eye.
Jo Pond makes jewellery using unconventional materials and non-traditional jewellery shapes. She showed a quirky collection of pieces mostly made from animal skin. It was amazing how she had made this unlikely material look so delicate and exquisite.
Kate Brightman’s bold and striking pieces were a complete contrast. She works in metals, plastics and resin, but I particularly liked her wooden collection, made from turned rosewood with gilding. The simplicity of the shapes was really effective and the richness of the wood with the yellow gold was really appealing, and somehow wintery.
Among the other exhibitors, Lizzie Farey caught my eye. Her modern basketry was delightful, particularly the pieces with catkins and pussy willow still attached.
Su Blackwell makes beautiful paper sculptures from old books, with the characters or scenes literally leaping from the page.
Gesso-work is something you don’t see often. It is the application of a type of plaster onto wood or other surfaces, which is then painted and gilded. It was used as the base for medieval decorative carvings and paintings. Adam Wahby uses gesso with pewter inlay to create stunning decorative pieces.
Papier-mache deserves a revival and Magie Hollingworth is leading the way with her moulded spoons, garden implements and bowls. I loved her use of old children’s book pages as decoration and adored the glossy black mini bowls.
Maiko Dawson is an amazing shoemaker, using traditional techniques to create bespoke shoes with great style. I love the ones with circles on – one of my friends has them and swears by their comfort.
More next week from week two.
