Design-Nation is very pleased to announce that our team will be at Collect 2024, the Crafts Council’s premier event. Celebrating 20 years, Collect is the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design, and yet again will be at Somerset House in the heart of London.
This will be Design-Nation’s fifth showcase as part of Collect, and it promises to be a strong and exciting display of exceptional contempoary craft. Our ten exhibitors are all pushing the forms they make, exploring the limits of their materials, and telling compelling stories for our times through their work.
Our ambition is always to present a diverse showcase at Collect and 2024 is no exception. In textiles Karina Thompson will show new and moving digital embroideries on Japanese printed cloth, while Ella McIntosh has been researching and developing new decorative vessels in pewter, an intriguing and under-appreciated material with a long history. Glassmakers Susan Kinley and Scott Benefield are both bringing new work, kiln formed and hand blown respectively, that builds on their impressive careers and previous successes, and which takes their practices into new areas.
In jewellery Mark Newman will present beautifully crafted rings whose complex geometric settings and gleaming gemstones are informed by his unusual neurological condition, aphantasia. Our second jeweller is Daphne Krinos, a maker of elegant and minimal pieces that are as much sculptures as wearables, monochromatic and meticulously conceived.
Collect is always a great event for ceramics and Design-Nation is delighted to be showing four very different and fascinating makers in clay. Adele Howitt‘s detailed hand-built and moulded vessels speak of her deep research into botanic and organic forms. Claire Ireland also hand-builds, but her assemblage pieces reflect a very different inspiration – the structures and industrial detritus that surounds her studio, which is located in a historical steam museum.
Ceramicist Chris Turrell uses a wide range of processes on his chosen stoneware, to create narrative-based wall-hung work that celebrates his love of repeat patterns and mark making. Our tenth exhibitor, Tone Von Krogh is pushing herself to make substantially larger vessels than her previous tableware, thrown on the potter’s wheel, and using pale glazes that evoke winter skies.
In addition to the Design-Nation stand at E7 in the East Wing, two further Design-Nation members have been selected for the Collect Open – Botanica Textiles, which is the brand of Natalie McCormack and glass artist Andrea Spencer (who is the partner of Scott Benefield).
Come to see our fabulous exhibitors at Somerset House between 1-3 March 2024 – more information here.
