Author: Raf Malanga

Listen here first – the latest in our KEF x LCW podcast series has been released, this time the focus is on designer-maker James Shaw and his innovative use of post-consumer plastics; transforming waste material into fantastical pieces of furniture.

 

 

Designer James Shaw’s method of producing plastic is unique. The extrusion process itself
isn’t unusual in the making of plastic objects, but the machines that do it are usually room-
sized; far larger than Shaw’s own-designed “extrusion guns”, which sit comfortably on the
small work table in his shared studio in South London.

It’s a method he developed during his time at the Royal College of Art, and has been fine-
tuning since. Shaw’s machines, like many workshop machines, are noisy ones – an ambient
squeal that means ear defenders are an important tool of the trade. And thus, one of the
more common experiences of makers is born: the focus that can come from an inescapable white noise.

In 2018, he co-curated an exhibition during the London Design Festival called Plasticscene,
showing the works of 14 designers – including Shaw – challenging the perceptions of waste
plastic. Using plastic fired from his self-built extrusion gun, Shaw presented the “Plastic
Baroque Dining Table”, breathing a new lease of life into plastic waste sourced from east
London recycling centres.

 

It’s an exciting time to work with plastic, says Shaw, as – just as with oak in the Middle Ages – today there is undoubtedly an abundance with it. To find ways to reuse the material is
crucial.

 

 

Continuing our partnership with John Smedley in celebration of their 235 Year Anniversary, we are delighted to bring you the story of another one of their QEST Ambassador’s: Bee Keeper James Hamill.

Join James at John Smedley’s Jermyn Street store for a honey bee raising workshop and tasting on the 25th July 2019.

Click here for information about the workshop.

James has been keeping bees since he was five years old and beekeeping has been in my
family for the last three generations since 1924; James is now a fourth-generation
beekeeper and the director and head beekeeper for the Hive Honey Shop in London.
He has travelled around the world widening his knowledge on all things bee’s. He was
awarded his QEST scholarship to do this and study beekeeping and bee disease techniques.

James was part of an extensive bee-breeding scheme in Kent, he then moved onto travel to
Nepal and additionally collaborated with the ministry of agriculture bee units in Turkey and Egypt.

James explains that the uncertainty of nature is the hardest part about what he does. Nectar
can only be produced under strict weather conditions, if there is too much rain, too much
wind or it is too hot, too cold; this means plants will not produce nectar and bees will suffer.

Because James spends so much time with among his beehives, he gets to know the bees of each colony very well and describes them as part of his family. So, if a colony dies for any reason James says he takes this loss personally and it really hurts.

James forms part of John Smedley’s collective of British craftsmen in celebration of their 235th anniversary as the oldest manufacturing factory in the world. Together they will be showcasing their collective crafts via retail windows,
consumer workshops, special product launches and exhibitions throughout 2019 and 2020.

This year we are welcoming proposals from Brands and independent makers who would like to be part of London Craft Week.  

We aim to showcase the most outstanding and innovative contemporary making to our visitors; the curated programme of events bringing together discerning consumers with makers, designers, brands and galleries, creating a unique opportunity to build engagement and sales.  

Our team meets every two weeks to consider initial ideas. Please send a paragraph outlining your proposed activity (including information about your venue and all collaboration partners), details about your career and previous work (if applicable), plus 2 images that you feel exemplify the project to saskia@londoncraftweek.com.

Please get in touch for more details of our fees and partnership opportunities.

We are particularly keen to hear from makers and sole traders at the start of their career.
 

As the summer months have progressed our partners have been busy producing some really amazing projects and events, so we’ve brought you a small selection of what we’ve loved the most in July and beyond. These are our favourites this month!

 

 

Photo credit: Loewe

The Loewe Foundation announced Kyoto-based lacquer artisan Genta Ishizuka as the winner of the 2019 Craft Prize this June. Glossy lacquer and contemporary organic shapes were the winning combinations of this year’s edition. A Royal College of Art graduate, Ishizuka impressed the panel of judges with Surface Tactility #11, a modern take on historical Japanese lacquer techniques.

Highlights from New Designers 2019

Photo credit: New Designers 2019

Back in London, New Designers 2019 celebrated design entrepreneurship, offering support to emerging creatives and showcasing how young designers respond to current social challenges. Among the prized creatives this year, Lauren Henry’s political silk scarves and Rimal Bhatt’s technology-driven respirator mask took the spotlight, both taking home the award for New Designer Of The Year (week 1 & 2).

Petersham Nurseries 15 Year Anniversary

Until September 2019, Richmond

Photo credit: Petersham Nurseries

Petersham Nurseries have been celebrating their 15th year anniversary with a series of events, competitions and initiatives that encapsulate their unique style, core philosophies and passion for a sustainable living. This year’s celebration turns its attention to the honeybee and its essential contribution to the environment, bringing us an immersive masterclass coupled with tasting sessions, gardening lessons and a lunch specifically tailored to this anniversary’s theme. Join them in their beautiful grounds and get in touch with nature’s most benevolent insect.

Tate Edit & TNA Design Studio – The Geometrist

10 & 17 August 2019 (Various Times), Tate Edit

Photo credit: ©The Geometrist

For all origami lovers’ bliss, Tate Edit is bringing us this summer a paper workshop led by Tomoko Azumi and her TNA Design Studio team. Participants will have the chance to experiment with The Geometrist, a paper DIY kit produced in collaboration with Japanese paper expert TAKEO. The kit provides all necessary materials and is designed to make increasingly complex 3D geometric structures. Places are free but advance booking is recommended.

Honey & Co: The Food Talks at the V&A

Until August 2019, Cromwell Road, Kinghtsbridge

Photo credit: Honey & Co 

Honey & Co: The Food Talks have launched in partnership with the V&A, a two-part mini-series to celebrate their latest exhibition, FOOD: Bigger than the Plate. This 29th July, a live recording of the podcast will bring together artists from the exhibition to debate over the reinvention and future of the food industry and whether we can find more sustainable solutions in unexpected ways. This second part of the series will take guests on a journey through the food cycle: from composting and farming, to trading and eating.

We bring you a selection of what June has to offer to spark your love for craft, art and design. These are our favourites this month!

Dulwich Pavilion 2019: The Colour Palace – Yinka Ilori
12 Jun – 22 Sep 2019, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Full of playfulness and vibrant energy, the Dulwich Pavilion is back this summer with The Coloured Palace – a colourful collaboration between designer Yinka Ilori and Pricegore Architects. The bold, geometric installation is a fusion of West African and European influences, transporting visitors to the bustling fabric markets of Lagos from 12 Jun 2019 – 22 Sep 2019. Free and open to all, part of the London Festival of Architecture.

Image credit: Dulwich Picture Gallery

Sarah Myerscough Gallery Opening
From June 2019, Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Leading curator Sarah Myerscough inaugurates a new permanent gallery space championing unique art, design and craft pieces at The Old Boathouse in Barnes. The gallery opens with the Scorched exhibition – a poetic exploration of the scorched wood art of shou-sugi-ban, first showcased at the Fitzrovia Chapel for LCW 2019. Sarah Myerscough Gallery represents international artist-designer-makers that aim to blend together tradition and contemporary innovation.

Image credit: James Harris, Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Jerwood Makers Open 2019
19 Jun – 18 Aug 2019, Jerwood Space

This year’s Jerwood Makers Open showcases five new commissions from great makers like Forest+Found, Tana West and Lucie Gledhill. The biennial exhibition, running from late June until late August, pushes the significance of making and materials within the visual arts practice. Visit Jerwood Arts’ gallery space in Southwark to witness the work of highly talented artists and be inspired by their imagination.

Image credit: Art Fund 2019

London Festival of Architecture: The Wooden Parliament
3 – 30 June 2019, Granary Square

Coal Drops Yard is home to yet another incredible installation for this year’s edition of the London Festival of Architecture. Spanish, quirky design studio AMID.cero9 brings us The Wooden Parliament, their thought-provoking take on the festival’s brief on the breaking down of boundaries. A massive, wooden structure reaching to the sky, the parliament brings a usually private interior to a public space, aiming to promote debate and the sharing of ideas. The pavilion will be free and open to the public for the whole month of June.

Image credit: AMID.cero9, Coal Drops Yard

 

Ermenegildo Zegna S/S 2020 Milan Fashion Week

Sustainability was at the forefront in Ermenegildo Zegna’s latest collection at Spring 2020 Milan Fashion Week. Slim silhouettes walked in a dystopian-esque show under the industrial roof of the Falck iron mill. Sartori’s upcycled collection encompasses the current debate and the changing face of the fashion industry – renewal, reuse and reinvention.

Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Making – whether it’s a Rolls-Royce, a sterling silver pen, or extruded plastic furniture pieces – is a multisensory experience. The Sound of Craftsmanship explores the sonic cues, inspirations and wares of expert makers.

Over the following months, ten podcast focusing on ten skilled expert makers will be featured by LCW in collaboration with KEF, launching with the David Monks from Rolls Royce, Metal Worker Adi Toch and Artist Yinka Ilori. Hear their craftsmanship stories below and to read more about the project go to soundsoflife.com.

The Sound of Silence: Rolls Royce 

Stepping into a Rolls-Royce is to enter a world unto itself, with its distinctly opulent design and more than century’s worth of engineering expertise. And where many car companies work hard to articulate a brawny roar, the signature sound of a Rolls-Royce bucks the trend.

That sound is silence. But, not just any silence, the very right kind of silence. In this episode of The Sound of Craftsmanship, we meet Dave Monks, engineer for Rolls-Royce – a man who’s preferred ‘tuning fork’ for the sonic experience of the cars is none other than Metallica. (You’ll find out why.) Thanks to a Rolls-Royce’s double-paned windows, its specially-designed sound-dampening tyres, and so much more, Monks gets to choose what sounds to leave out, and importantly, which to let. The result is the quietest car in the world, but equally one where anything from a whispered conversation to cranked-up heavy metal music is heard exactly as they should be.

Rolls-Royce Motorcars has been in the game since 1906 when the company was formed and launched the six-cylinder Silver Ghost. That model, hailed within a year as being ‘the best car in the world’, set Rolls-Royce on its course to become a brand inextricably linked to luxury and prestige.

Read more about the podcast on Sounds of Life

The Musicality of Metal: Adi Toch 

We meet Adi Toch, a maker in metal whose work regularly exposes, creates or plays with the relationship between her chosen material and sound, in a series of vessels that sit somewhere between domestic object and artwork.

Right from the very start or making, she’s listens – the rhythmic planishing by hammer, the caressing tones of sanding. Not only do theses noises guide her process, as they do for any metalsmith, she’s also captured them to act as a soundtrack to the exhibition of finished pieces, playing alongside them the recorded tracks of their production.

Her work also at times acts as instrument, and in others as active audience member. Her soothing Whispering Vessels are near-instruments, with stones or beads inextricably, but visibly, placed within them, singing to you as the object is rolled around in your hands. Her playful Vessels on Stilts are metal pots sat atop delicate tripods – so delicate that when sung to, the pots quiver from the vibrations, becoming more concertgoer than passive object.

From her studio in North London, a former parachute and ammunitions factory from the Second World War, she marries millennia-old traditions with contemporary forms that elevate metal’s innate musical qualities. “Craft,” she says “teaches you about the past and history, but it’s also the future.

Read more about the podcast on Sounds of Life

Afrobeat into Art: Yinka Ilori 

Yinka Ilori’s work is unmistakably bright and optimistic, not least because of his palette (a swathe of pastels and intensely punchy primary colours). Whether a public pavilion or pop-up playground, the message is clear: enjoy yourself.

Born in Britain to Nigerian parents, Yinka’s workshop is filled with references picked up in Lagos and his late grandmother’s village – fabrics, paintings… and music. Deeply inspired by Nigerian afrobeat pioneers such as Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and Ebenezer Obey, you can feel those rhythms even in static objects that he produces.

Yinka’s process, he says “is in making mistakes,” playing around and allowing himself to recognise when something unplanned or unusual in fact deserves to become the final product. An example of this is a series of uncycled (or “pre-loved” as Yinka says) chairs, which were sawed, painted and upholstered to create bold, kaleidoscopic pieces for a show called If Chairs Could Talk. A cross between useable chairs and sculptures, a more pragmatic series was then produced in support of social enterprise Restoration Station.

In June 2019, he unveils two new projects in London: the Dulwich Picture Gallery pavilion, in collaboration with Pricegore architects, and another called “Happy Street”, an art installation on the Thessaly Road Railway Bridge, in Battersea.

Read more about the podcast on Sounds of Life

Tom Sands is known for building some of the responsive custom-made acoustic guitars available in the world today, all built within his studio in North Yorkshire, England.

Originally from Ripon, Tom Sands currently lives in Bristol, graduating from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in product design, he then went on to train as a Cabinet Maker under the stewardship of master cabinet maker Wynn Bishop at Rupert Mcbain furniture in County Durham.

Working predominantly with hand tools, Thomas made pieces to the highest standards for the most discerning clients. This classic training set him up well for a lifetime of working with timber. A keen player himself, Thomas decided he wanted to take the plunge and combine his love of the guitar with his love for his craft. After traveling to Oakland, California in April 2014 to undergo an extensive two-week interview process, Thomas was accepted as apprentice to world renowned luthier, Ervin Somogyi.

Describing guitar making as extremely stressful, Tom says that sometimes you must drill through a finished guitar to install something like a pickup; explaining it can be absolutely terrifying because it would only take one wrong move and the entire build will be ruined. Additionally, there is always competition and keeping above this and striving for more can be a challenge, although, this is what keeps you going each day.

Tom forms part of John Smedley’s collective of British craftsmen in celebration of their 235th anniversary as the oldest manufacturing factory in the world. Together they will be showcasing their collective crafts via retail windows, consumer workshops, special product launches and exhibitions throughout 2019 and 2020.

Read more about Tom’s journey here.