private view

Desire in Chelsea


I nipped along to Chelsea Old Town Hall the other evening for the private view of ‘Desire‘, the jewellery and silversmithing fair. A fair showing work in just one medium can be problematic, but there are such diverse tastes in jewellery that there was a wide range of work which did not overlap too much.


We were there to see Lynne Bartlett, who had invited us, and I loved her new work developed during her stint as artist in residence at the University of Creative Arts in Farnham. She had experimented with digital engraving into the anodised aluminium and heat coloured titanium that has become her signature style. I left with a gorgeous black and silver bangle engraved with a subtle snakeskin pattern.


I was also rather taken with Rebecca Lawley‘s beautiful silver bowls engraved by hand with different decorative patterns. And I couldn’t help but notice Heather Stowell‘s quirky display which made use of gnarled wooden shelves and old glass bottles to show off her silver jewellery based on calligraphic letters and vintage buttons.

Cutting Edge Craft

Designed-Crafted-Window

For the last two weeks the Society of Designer Craftsmen has been transformed into a space bursting with cutting edge craft. We filled it with a collection of work handpicked by us from twelve artists and it made for an arresting show.

We had a stunning spread of work priced from from £25 to £25,000. Alongside the main work, we had also asked some artists to create a limited edition of 25 pieces priced at a more affordable £50. Whenever curating these shows, we are always surprised how well a diverse group of work sits together and we start to see threads of similarity that can be drawn between pieces.

It’s a process that I love and it gives one an interesting insight into the exhibiting process that one doesn’t necessarily have as a maker. Taking the overview of the curator can only strengthen one’s own practice, though the inevitable usually happens which is that one promotes everyone else’s work and forgets about one’s own work!

We held a packed private view sponsored by Grolsch and supported by the London Design Festival. A fabulous craft-driven crowd spilled out of the space into the street, which made for a buzzy evening. The three of us who organised – Alex R, Brett Manley and Lucy Batt – were really happy with the quality of the show.

Alex-Brett-and-Lucy

Aside

Party dressing

Photo: Nick Reynolds Photography
Photo: Nick Reynolds Photography

I went to a party in Islington last Friday night for the launch of a new space on Essex Road. It is the office and showroom for Reis, a new interior design and architecture consultancy, and our glass was used to dress the space with a longer term view to be held on show for clients coming into the office.

 

The mayoress of Islington came to launch the store with a ribbon cutting and lots of photographs. She and her husband stayed for a few drinks and before going off to their next launch (apparently they do 300 events a year!). There was the most unbelievable feast of canapes which we barely dented, despite feeling like we were constantly picking at it.The photographers were snapping away while we quaffed, dined and mingled to our heart’s content until the late closing and stumbled back to Kings Cross for the last train home.