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London Craft Week

The inaugural London Craft Week saw 78 events with over 27,000 visits from collectors, buyers, as well as those interested in art, craft, and design.

Visitors were able to meet over 368 independent makers, see demonstrations, buy, collect or have a go at making through a journey of discovery programme including studios and workshops as well as shops, department stores, galleries and museums across London.

We are now planning an ambitious programme for 2016 which will run from 3 to 7 May. We look forward to seeing you next year, until then keep in touch through twitter at #LCW2016. 

Applications for the 2015 Crafted Mentoring Programme, with patron Vacheron Constantin and co-sponsored by Redman, Whitely Dixon and Fortnum & Mason, are now open.

Skilled designer makers interested in developing the commercial side of their business with the help of luxury industry leaders will have one month to apply for the programme. Now in its eighth year, the annual Walpole Crafted programme provides one-to-one mentorship and a series of developmental workshops for up to 10 individuals and businesses each year. Applications close on Monday 22nd September. For more information please contact Keri Beak at keri.beak@walpolebritishluxury.co.uk

One moment in the raftered attic workshop above a historic shop in St. James’s learning how the hundreds of small feathers gracing a hat soon to be worn at Ladies Day at Royal Ascot must each be painstakingly placed by hand and individually sewn (no glue for this remarkable national treasure of a milliner). The next at COLLECT gazing with awe into deep depths of a contemporary glass bowl so blue so serene that one could have plunged in; a truly stunning museum-quality work of art whose effortless beauty belied the sweat, technique or genius that went into its making. Or Saturday morning on the Pimlico Road learning how to play (and losing) an impromptu game of Chinese chequers on a board hand-made from Kentish oak that came down in the Great Storm of 1987.

Grayson Perry caught something of the spirit of the last few days when opening London Craft Week on Wednesday, he evoked the ‘relaxed fluidity’ of the happiness of a maker at work or the hard-to-pin down but very human relationship a craftsman has with the material he is shaping, carving or blowing.

But maybe best I leave the last words to two people I met while zigzagging across London. Ndidi, a creative from an ad agency who told me: ‘From today I am a collector. I just had no idea it was so easy or affordable to buy or commission such beautiful things from such talented artists’. And Jake, a twenty-something city-type who said wryly; ‘it’s a bit embarrassing how little I knew or thought about the difference between hyped-up high end stuff and these (cradling a pair of half-finished shoes). Never again..’

Previous Newsletters with top picks of the week
10 May 2015- Robin Wood
9 May 2015-Fashion
8 May 2015- Designers
7 May 2015- Daniel Charny
7 May 2015- Peter Bazalgette
4 May 2015- Frances Sorrell
29 April 2015- Grant Gibson
21 April 2015- Charles Saumarez Smith

Luke
Saturday began with a team catch up over some breakfast early in the morning in Farringdon before we all split up to cover our various duties for the day. Running the social media for a project like this means you’re often married to your computer and mobile phone being as reactive from a remote location as you can to all the flurry of activity across the internet. London Craft Week has been a joy to work on though as I have also been sent to events and exhibitions around the capital to report live and meet the people involved face to face, it’s been the perfect example of how the virtual world of social media and real first hand interactions meet.

My brief but enjoyable encounter for Saturday was to pop into the Crypt Gallery and take in the Make Create exhibition. A cavernous underground setting that feel like it ought to be filled with the interned bodies of noblemen of another century is instead home to an odd assortment of art such as a golden brick gleaming in a polystyrene wall and a doll being clawed at by terrifying clay hands. This exhibition was certainly one of the more left-field things I’d seen at LCW15.

The rest of my day was spent where I could get reliable WIFI and putting my self dead centre of the murmuration of tweets that were flying around the twittersphere and watching the week come to life in the words of the craftsmen and the audience London Craft Week had brought to them.

Marieke

First stop was the RSA Innovation Hub at Fab Lab London. I never knew anything like this existed, what a fantastic resource that anyone can go and use, with 3D printing machines, laser cutters and the like. I used the laser cutter to etch a glass jar, and fashioned a necklace out of old computer parts- felt very creative!

Next up was Wyvern Bindery, a gem of a shop in Clerkenwell, where we had the opportunity to gold foil and stamp our own bookmarks, much harder than it looked.

Lots of fun but had to scoot over to Knightsbridge, where I joined the Crafting London- Sloane Street tour with the lovely Penelope from Fox and Squirrel, visiting Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Smythson to learn more about the craftsmanship of their signature products.

Itala
Gemma Kay Waggett was set up on the ground floor of Heal’s with a group of London Craft Week visitors around a table who were listening eagerly and asking plenty of questions about the craft of screen-printing.  I recognised a lady I had met the previous day at Linley and she had already spent her day productively, attending a number of events and making a purchase at the Cox + Power Open House that morning.

Gemma demonstrated how she creates her signature geometric prints and sensing all of our curiosity she invited us to each have a go at making our own printed notebooks using her design on the front cover.  Many of the guests had backgrounds in textiles and therefore particularly deft hands and printing.  Sadly, I could not say the same for myself!  Nonetheless, the passionate maker reminded us that the subtle differences between each print is what makes them special and differentiates them from mass produced objects which are often just churned out in factories and this is what London Craft Week is about.  Meeting the makers behind these carefully made crafts and experiencing the making process for ourselves, gives one the opportunity to understand the amount of skill and patience it takes to produce them and from the positive reception received, I am certain that many visitors will be considering taking up the craft themselves.

Mark
Morning started with a fascinating talk on Bleigiessen, the Heatherwick Studio installation at The Wellcome Trust by Stuart and the two glass artists who worked on the project: Max Lamb and Peter Jones. The piece at 29 metres tall and constructed from 26,732 cables under tension and 142,070 glass spheres is stunning.
On then to watch one of the masters from Dovecote Studios in Edinburgh demonstrating tapestry weaving in front of the huge Kitaj tapestry at the British Library.

Then to QEST and the Griffin Gallery’s show at the Crypt. An eerie place. The star piece in my book was Carrie Ducker’s 200+ steps. At F&M lovely to see the eponomous Michael Ruh (the subject of BBC4’s wonderful Make:Glass released last week) in Crafted’s show.

On then to CAA’s wonderful pavilion in Southwark. Bravo to the Arts Council for helping them out!
Then back north to Trunk’s welcoming store and Japanese belt master Takaharu Osako and their delightful neighbours, the jewellers Cox & Power.

Home for a couple of hours to The New Craftsmen to sing the praises of the stunning Made of Mayfair collection and then down to our amazing installation with Floris in “The Mine”. Quite the coolest place I’ve been to at Craft Week! Well done Floris and Katharine May.

Finally off to Sarah and Gerard Griffin for what was THE evening of Craft Week. Their home contained the who’s who of all the best of British Craft – in form and in person. Lovely to meet up with Sam and Valerio from Gallery Fumi and to catch up with Marthe Armitage and Julian Stair to name just a few. Sarah, Gerard you are stars!

Marieke
Made in Clerkenwell at Craft Central, and Cockpit Arts Open Studios both provided plenty of great opportunities for the photo shoot today.

Saw the talented Helen Beard doing her ceramic decoration demonstration, and managed to control my urges to buy everything, and came away with just a vase, bowl and earrings!

Marieke
‘My day started at Vacheron Constantin, where I had the great pleasure of watching their master watchmakers at work, including Selynn Blanchet, who taught me how to carefully handle the tiny screws using tweezers and a screwdriver. Next stop was Mulberry on Bond Street, where there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air, as I saw hoardes of tourists walking the street clutching their LCW guides. Mulberry was buzzing, with a queue of people waiting to have a go at making their own persoanlised leather bracelets. I made one for everyone in the team! I jumped in a cab and headed over the Rachel Vosper, where we had a wonderful time making scented candles. I met Karen and Karen from David Collins Studio, who told me all about how their team were experiencing all the LCW events, and meeting up at the end of the day to share their experiences, inspirational. Karen says ‘You guys are doing great work for London Craft Week, and the studio is buzzing with excitement.’ I also met Matthew, who just handily happened to be a photographer, and bought his camera along to capture him making a candle for his daughter Ella Rose. He choose the Rose and Magnolia scent- very fitting’

Itala
‘Lock and Co’s event was really informative, I met their milliner Sylvia Fletcher, who explained the intricacies of hand stiching each hat, I loved the floral black hat with petals. Next up was Ormonde Jayne, where Linda Pilkington was on hand to greet her guests with Nyetimber and chocolates. Guests were sampling the scents, and passer bys were desperate to join in, but unfortunatly the event was fully booked! They all hopped into taxis and sped off to Ormonde Jaynes workshop, to start making their very own perfume. Linley’s event had a queue lining up outside, to see the live demonstartion of marquetry by Bethan Englefield. A Canadian couple had come over for 2 days just to attend London Craft Week, and were commisioning a piece at Linley.’

Luke
‘My role mainly involves coordinating all the social media activity, so I spent the day in the HQ receiving the teams images and hearing their stories, which really brought the event to life. Happily I was released from the PC in the afternoon to visit Nortons, Carre Ducker, Dashing Tweeds and Caroline Groves which were all busy with people and there was the feeling that somthing special happening at each venue. Speaking to caroline Groves she was really happy that her change of direction into bag making was getting a positive reception. One Cleeve case she had on display took 50 man hours alone just to do the gold tool. Dashing Tweed were in mid demonstration explaining the patterns used to produce different weaves. One lady was purchasing cloth from them, whilst the rest of the crowd watched in delight at the demo. At Nortons I got speaking to one of the
customers, a young lady who had been to loads of events already, and was trying to go to as many events as possible over the coming days. In the late afternoon I spent the time in Fenwicks Bond Sreet, where I reported live on a discussion between milliners Stephen Jones and Noel Stewart as they discussed the importance of hat making in the fashion industry and how as a milliner you need more tenacity and less ego than other designers. Stephen Jones also made the salient point of how hats are the most important accessory, as they do more to
affect mood and also frame your face than anything else. My final visit of the day was to take part in a twitter conversation during the Scents of Occasion event. Odette Toilette and Sarah McCartney played with their
audiences sense of smell, building up perfumes using ingrediants such as strawberry, orange and rose. We learnt some fasciating insights into the perfume industry such as 90% of perfumes are synthetic due to
availability of ingrediants. Everyone left with a lovely bottle of perfume.’

Mark
‘I spent most of the day at The New Craftsmen which had a big surge in visitors. The Courtesan’s bed is a masterpiece! Good reports from St James church and Floris where TNC are also running events. In the evening I headed to the Collect Preview (bravo for the Crafts Council!) which was buzzing. Then to Jonathan Reed’s
supper at Collect with Grant Gibson hosting a discussion – Sarah Myerscough, Corrine Julius, Sam Walton and others contributing to a lively and optimistic discussion.’

Vanessa
‘The Cockpit team had the chance to attend the opening evening private view at Collect to see some of our wonderful designer makers that are exhibiting there. I was so pleased to see Cockpit Arts’ jeweller Mariko Sumioka (exhibiting with Katie Jones Gallery) named as ‘Winner of Jewellery of the year’. As part of ‘Collect Open’ on the top floor – fantastic installations by Katrin Spranger and Rita Parniczky.  Rita at last having the room to display her pieces so the scale and drama of her innovative weaving technique can be fully appreciated.  Katrin’s conceptual ‘edible’ piece will be part of the gallery talks on Monday and will bring a whole new dimension to enjoying your jewellery.’

Last night, Wednesday 6th May 2015, Grayson Perry opened London Craft Week at the V&A Museum. Makers rubbed shoulders with leading creatives, influencers, Captains of industry, editors and directors from the art, design, culture, food, luxury, fashion, media and government, whilst admiring maker demonstrations from London Craft Week’s public programme that started today.

Zoe Bradley from Walpole British Luxury’s Crafted programme, Vacheron Constantin’s watch engraver, Emma Yeo from Cockpit Arts and Davide Taub (bespoke tailor and Head Cutter) at Gieves & Hawkes, demonstrated their expert skills in paper sculpting, watchmaking, millinery and contemporary tailoring (hand sewing and pattern making) respectively and guests also enjoyed a private view of the V&A’s ‘What is Luxury?’ exhibition.

Grayson Perry opened the evening saying, ‘I am officially this evening’s liability but in all seriousness it is my enormous pleasure to be invited to launch London Craft Week. This is a great moment acknowledging that craft is woven into many parts of our lives. It is the place where we connect with the materials all around us. Craftsman working with their hands are relevant to modern life and encompass so many businesses from tailors and jewellers to car manufacturers and joiners, ensuring that Craft isn’t some sort of nostalgic thing’.

Key artists, designers and chefs who attended the evening included Grayson Perry (artist), Tom Dixon (designer), Mark Hix (chef), Rupert Sanderson (fashion designer), Edmund de Waal (artist), Jay Osgerby (designer), Richard Wilson (artist), Valentine Warner (chef), Kirstie Allsop (presenter), Ozwald Boateng OBE (designer) and Roja Dove (perfumer). Notable names from the fashion, art, cultural, media and luxury disciplines as well as famous faces, who celebrated the week’s opening and enjoyed the demonstrations ranged from Sol Campbell (footballer), Sir Peter Bazalgette (Chair of Arts Council England), Charles Saumarez Smith (Royal Academy), Penelope Wilton (actress), Amanda Berry (CEO Bafta), Kate Hobhouse (Chairman of Fortnum & Mason), Lady Carole Bamford (Daylesford), Jo Malone (entrepreneur), Kit Kemp (Firmdale Hotels), Enrique Loewe Lynch (President Loewe), Peter Williams (founder Jack Wills), Peter York (commentator) and Stephen Bayley (commentator).