We made it
joe.muggs
One of the lessons we consistently learn from the makers and creators featured in We Made It is that necessity truly is the mother of invention. By negotiating their way around unfamiliar media and techniques, fighting against their limitations, and expressing creative urges by any means necessary, our subjects have as often as not pushed through into unexplored territories and found unique modes outside of standard categories.This certainly goes for Tiff McGinnis, aka Grande Dame. Formerly the electro-rock one-woman-band Crazy Girl, her methods of expression have expanded into print, Read more ...
Heather Neill
Over the past few months of We Made It, we've explored some very traditional crafts, but few that have such a direct link to the distant past as this. Malcolm Rees is one of a handful of people in South Wales keeping the culture of coracle building and fishing alive, having grown up around generations who built and used the unique boats, which were once admired by Julius Caesar. Read his story and that of his fellow coraclers over on the Bruichladdich site.Read other articles in We Made It, our series on craft in partnership with Bruichladdich
bella.todd
If you’ve read any of the glowing reviews for the current revival of Caryl Churchill’s cloning play A Number, you’ll know all about the extraordinary set. Produced at the Nuffield in Southampton last year and transferred to the Young Vic this week, the intense production places father-and-son performers John and Lex Shrapnel inside a mirrored box where their every move is reflected infinitely. The audience is split into four around its edges, and watches the action through one-way glass. In between scenes, the mirror effect is reversed and the audience sees itself reflected. How the hell do Read more ...
Marianka Swain
Zurich, London, New York…Somerset. It may seem unlikely, but an 18th-century farm in the West Country is the new place to be for contemporary art aficionados. Last year, renovations were completed on the 10 buildings of Durslade Farm, left to fall into disrepair over decades. Now, the world-class arts centre boasts five gallery spaces, the Roth Bar & Grill – where locally sourced produce meets bold, eclectic installations – shop, guest house, library and learning room, backed by Piet Oudolf’s sumptuous 1.5-acre perennial meadow. But how did Hauser & Wirth’s creators make the intuitive Read more ...
Simon Munk
Jonathan Thomas helped set up Thomas Heatherwick Studios, having met the man behind the Olympic Cauldron, new double-decker bus and potentially the controversial new Garden Bridge at university. Along the way, Thomas left to form Make Ltd and now Maker. He mixes modern materials and techniques with traditional craftsmanship to create bespoke and handmade furniture and installations.SIMON MUNK: What attracted you to making things with your hands?JONATHAN THOMAS: I grew up on a farm where if something broke you fixed it, or if there was something you needed, you made it. I was surrounded by Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
The English abstract artist Rebecca Salter has definitely made it. A major retrospective of her work in 2011 at the Yale Center for British Art, "Into the light of things: works 1981-2010”, included more than 150 works. She was elected a Royal Academician earlier this year. And her long involvement with Japanese art has produced two books which are the standard works in English: Japanese Woodblock Printing (2001) and Japanese Popular Prints (2006), both published by A&C Black. Here she talks about her extensive work in Japan interviewing craftsman involved in the woodblock process, and Read more ...
joe.muggs
Joseph Popper is probably, so far, the We Made It interviewee operating most squarely within the world of fine art: his work is weighty with concept and highly immersive, and he operates within the world of galleries and commissions. But he very certainly belongs in this section. His stage sets for "speculative scenarios and fictional experiences" are intricately crafted, meticulously constructed, based on the design principles and techniques of the set builders of 20th century cinema. Recent work has included One Way Ticket (shown as part of The Baltic's They Used To Call Read more ...
Heather Neill
The arts will always rely on craft – and that goes a hundredfold when period detail is important. The atmosphere of Sam Wanamaker's recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Southwark is dependent on, among many other things, the candles that light the productions. Over on the Bruichladdich site, we meet the man who creates those candles by techniques as old as the dramas that play out in the Globe.
Heather Neill
Hand knitting has had a bit of a moment recently. Making your very own jumper was suddenly fashionable, but the knitter still had to follow, stitch by stitch, a pattern invented by someone else. And then, in 2013, along came Knyttan. Here was something quite different: the individual now contributed to the design rather than the making and the resulting garment had a professional finish.Knyttan was started by three Royal College of Art graduates, all still in their twenties, Ben Alun-Jones, Hal Watts and Kirsty Emery. Their original idea had been to develop products by the most up-to-date Read more ...
joe.muggs
The Garudio Studiage collective could scarcely be more archetypal of London's current generation of makers. Their work – more often than not produced for ordinary consumers as jewellery, accessories or home decor, using found objects as subject matter and often as materials – blurs the lines between pop art, documentary, comedy and occasionally political commentary.Over on the Bruichladdich Site, we meet them and find out about their work and how location inspires them.
Katherine McLaughlin
Lauren O' Farrell is the founder of the UK’s largest craft community, a pioneer in the world of graffiti knitting, and a published author. She battled with cancer for three years and came out the other side with a new found passion for life, craft and art. Katherine McLaughlin spoke to her about her creative process, her evolution from knitter to street artist, the way in which she has used social media to her advantage, her mini knitted Sarah Lund and her art work for Emma Freud. Katherine McLaughlin: Why did you start knitting?Lauren O'Farrell: I’ve always been creative. I wanted to tell Read more ...
Simon Munk
Anna Skodbo's route to designing her ethical, environmental and "crosstown" fashion brand Phannatiq has hardly been ordinary. From teaching martial arts, to living on rice and ketchup, to stints playing cello in a Norwegian black metal band, Skodbo has had what you might term a "portfolio career".She brings that eclectic approach, as well as a deep commitment to a more sustainable and less narrow approach to fashion, and a passion for her home in Walthamstow, eastLondonto Phannatiq – her clothing label.Phannatiq has recently moved from a traditional "high fashion" approach, to using Read more ...