Design-Nation is pleased to present our latest new members, a diverting array of talent from across the country to delight in this summer. Our Professional tier is joined by over a dozen fantastic designers and craftspeople, working in clay, metal, paper, precious stones, straw, textiles and wood. (And find out about our new Associates & Graduates here.)
Five of this cohort are jewellers and smiths, demonstrating an impressive array of inspirations and techniques in metal. Anna Rennie is a contemporary silversmith based in Cornwall, and the first woman in the UK to be a professional maille maker, an amazing heritage technique that brings an intriguing point of difference to her work. Anne V Massey is based in Hove and her elegant jewellery is characterised by her mastery of the hammering technique known as anticlastic raising, which brings sinous curves to her work. Award winning designer Flora Bhattachary celebrates her ethical materials through colourful designs that reference her bohemian upbringing, art deco and radial symmetry, amongst other things. In Derbyshire former teacher Jo Pond brings her family’s love of collecting to her narrative jewellery collections, making objects that tell stories and imbue a sense of nostalgia. And London-based Sarah Warsop‘s multi-disciplinary practice includes drawing and painting, as well as sculptural jewellery that celebrates movement and moments in time, all informed by her background as a dancer and choreographer.
Like Anna Rennie, many of our new cohort are bringing fresh perspectives to heritage crafts. Fielden Atelier is a furniture-making enterprise by Richard Crossley, who has honed his former career in carpentry into something quite special, making tables, chairs and an award winning cabinet in classic English timbers such as walnut, oak, pear and sycamore. Penny Maltby is in love with straw, a heritage material which she is re-appraising in her Oxford studio, making sculptural pieces and launching a range of scarves that celebrate straw through contemporary design. In Hove, Susan Beech launched her brand A Petal Unfolds in 2016, exploring botanicals through delicate sculptural work primarily constructed from crêpe paper.
And where would Design-Nation be without experts in clay? Five gifted ceramicists join us, each making highly skilled and distinctive wares unique to that craftsperson. Barbara Gittings is based in Sussex and makes subtle, sensual vessels using the Japanese ceramic techniques of Nerikomi and smoke firing. Dorset-based Julie Massie creates assemblages of shard-like porcelain that invite touch and evoke the hues of the nearby Jurassic coast and its seas. In London Ömer Öner‘s playful hybrid forms are constructed using moulds and slip-casting from original found objects, and draw on his background as a medieval history teacher in his native Turkey. Rosa Wiland Holmes makes thoughtful sculptural pieces that explore human relationships through monochromatic compositions in porcelain and black stoneware. And our final maker Tessa Wolfe Murray photographs and draws nature and objects, hand building forms in earthernware that she decorates with subtle tones from Sussex seascapes.
We look forward to working with these talents – plans are already afoot!
