Furniture and product designer-maker Richard Grimes also has a long history of both teaching craft skills, and collaborating with fellow artists and designers.
Richard initially studied as a sculptor, then began running a model-making and art/design fabrication business in London alongside related work in higher education. He holds that “craft” does not just mean “hand craft” and therefore does not exclude machine and computer controlled manufacture.
In 2016 Richard gave up teaching to set up his workshop on the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border. This workshop includes timber and metal fabrication machinery, both manual and computer-controlled. His practice is now split between art/design collaborations, and developing his own art and design practice.
Richard’s current design practice is focused towards working with and exploring the potential of glue-laminated plywood. This fascinating process was first developed in the early twentieth century; his application of contemporary computerised techniques in design and fabrication has opened up a range of possibilities.
