Category: News

Summer is almost over – here are the things we loved most from our partners in August and beyond!

Michelangelo Foundation x City & Guilds of London Art School Summer Programme

Four summer courses at City & Guilds of London Art School were chosen to be part of the Michelangelo Foundation’s inaugural Summer School Programme this year. The foundation funds eight young European artisans and designers to attend the renowned craft institutions each year, expanding their skills beyond their usual specialisation. The courses promote cross-disciplinary exchange, exploring etching, woodcarving, gilding and stone carving.

Cécile, a participant in the programme said: “Reuniting different arts and crafts professions can only make each other stronger. By communicating and exchanging our knowledge, we can generate new ideas and build a community to make a better tomorrow.”

The electrifying live music programme returns this year at Coal Drops Yard with some of the finest artists programmed by London opera-company Tête à Tête, Kings Place and Anthony Whitworth-Jones. A wonderful musical selection that features the likes of Ayanna Witter-Johnson, flamenco guitarist Paco Peña and young talents from the English National Opera. Plus don’t miss the Family Sundays of world music and street culture. A free and inclusive event that celebrates the unconfined nature of music.

Jennifer Lee: The Potter’s Space

Image credit: Le Chuck Studio

Kettle’s Yard, with the support of the LOEWE Foundation, is hosting an in-depth solo presentation of the renowned ceramicist Jennifer Lee. The winner of the 2018 LOEWE Craft Prize is showcasing 40 works made in different periods of her career as well as new pots especially commissioned for the exhibition. Visit Cambridge to see first-hand the potter’s refined process, her unglazed stoneware pots characterised by their smooth surfaces and rich colours. On until 22 September 2019.

Celebrating 30 Years of the Design Museum

Image credit: Design Museum (Shad Thames building in 1989)

This July marked 30 years since the founding of the Design Museum. Opening its doors in 1989 and established by Sir Terence Conran to promote awareness of design in education, industry, commerce and culture, it was the world’s first museum devoted to contemporary design. To celebrate its anniversary, the free exhibition Made in 1989 will revisit, through archival material on display, the birth of the institution thirty years ago. On until January 2020.

Marina Rinaldi by Roksanda

Image credit: Marina Rinaldi

In an exciting move, London Fashion Week favourite Roksanda Ilincic, has collaborated with the size-inclusive Italian brand Marina Rinaldi in a new capsule collection. The collaboration unveils strong and fluid silhouettes with the Serbian designer’s signature elegant colour combinations, taking inspiration from the works of artist Frank Stella in the Collezione Maramotti. Looking up to the powerful matriarch behind the Italian brand’s name, Roksanda has worked alongside plus-size specialists to deliver tailored outerwear for sizes 12 to 28, believing that no woman should be limited in her choices because of her body shape.

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.