Eleven makers and designers have been selected by Craft Scotland to showcase their work at Collect: the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design running this week.
Beautiful furniture, luxurious textiles, stunning jewellery and works in silver and gold, ceramics and wood have selected to represent Scotland at Collect 2022, from February 25-27.
Craft Scotland have revealed the designers and makers selected to be showcased at Collect, the international art fair for modern craft and design. Collect is the craft sector’s premier showcase, bringing together galleries, artists and collectors from around the world to present a stunning array of established and new talent.
Craft Scotland will have its own dedicated gallery space making it a real focal point of Collect 2022; showcasing covetable artworks in silversmithing & goldsmithing, furniture making, ceramics, textiles and blacksmithing. A mixture of established artists and exciting new craft talent, the eleven makers selected represent some of the most celebrated makers working in Scotland today.
Held in Somerset House in London, Collect is the craft sector’s premier showcase, bringing together galleries, artists and collectors from around the world to present a stunning array of established and new talent. Since its launch in 2004, Collect has gone from strength to strength to become one of the world’s leading fairs for museum-quality applied art and the highlight of the international craft calendar.
Following a rigorous selection process, the 11 makers selected are:
A sheep created by Susan O’Byrne (Photo: Taili Wu)
Susan O’Byrne specialises in the making of ceramic narrative animal forms and detailed collaged porcelain surfaces. Her work not only acknowledges the extraordinary role occupied by the animal in the imagination – populating myth, children’s stories and cultural traditions throughout history – but also the ability of the metaphorical animal to embody, distil and reflect aspects of our own humanity. Susan’s practice is now based in Glasgow and she exhibits her work internationally. www.susanobyrne.co.uk
CHALK is the studio run by plain and decorative plasterers Fffion Blench and Steven Blench. Both are inspired by the rich history of the plastering tradition. Their practice is rooted in research into historic techniques and materials. They aim to create work which both respects and elevates the trade craft. Through their practice, they hope to demonstrate that decorative plastering can be more than a heritage craft useful for restoration or reproduction of historic designs. www.plaster-design.com
Pushing the limitations of his material, Daniel Freyne is a blacksmith with an in-depth knowledge of iron and forge work. His experimental process seeks new methodologies for working with iron, and in this process, he has found a creative liberation. Daniel learned his craft as an apprentice at Ratho Byres Forge, then as craft Journeyman in Europe and currently completing a BFA in Metal Art at the University of Sweden. www.danielfreyne.co.uk
The natural environment surrounding Duke Christie’s home and studio in Moray is a constant source of inspiration. With the aid of power and traditional hand tools, including spokeshaves, gouges, rifflers, adapted, or purpose made, Duke uses local responsibly sourced timber to make sculpted forms with hand carved textures. The surfaces of Duke’s objects are often torched, scrubbed and pigmented to enhance the grain and create a fascinating play of light on highly tactile surfaces. His work aspires to celebrate wood and its imperfections and tell the story of the tree’s momentous life. www.dukechristie.com
In her early career, Eileen Gatt won a Royal Academy of Arts scholarship to work with Inuit stone carvers in Alaska, an experience which has fuelled her interest in the Arctic ever since. Having collaborated with storytellers from both Scotland and North America, Eileen continues to draw her inspiration from the Polar wilderness. as well as from her appreciation of Inuit culture. This research took her work in a new direction and ever since it has had a strong narrative element, inspired by customs and folklore stories from the Northern Hemisphere. www.eileengatt.co.uk
A slinky necklace by Heather Woolf (Photo: James Robertson)
Heather Woof is a contemporary jewellery designer based in Edinburgh. Working in precious metals, she is best known for her innovative chain techniques and pared back approach to design. Her work is characterised by refined simplicity, craftsmanship and attention to detail. Her work seeks a balance between simplicity and complexity. Her interest in chain structures is underpinned by a fascination with the simplicity of the single component versus the intricacy of a finished piece. www.heatherwoof.com
Jasmine Linington is an emerging textile artist/maker based in Edinburgh. With an inquisitive and explorative approach, she is driven by material, tactility, sustainability and innovative processes. Experimenting with a variety of seaweed species hand harvested, under licence, from beaches close to Edinburgh, she uses the material as a natural dye and as unique embellishments for her SeaCell fibre textiles. Her work looks at seaweed in new and inventive ways, currently showcasing seaweed’s unique position within the luxury textile market for interiors and fashion. www.jasminelinington.com
Lara Scobie’s ceramics are intuitive. Starting with an instinctive process of mark making, her work is receptive to the moment hand-touches-clay. The ceramics relay the spontaneous process of hand-to-paper drawing; responding to how the materials react with the marks, her work grows around what emerges. Fascinated with the relationship between form and surface, she allows them both to inform the other as the piece develops. Encouraged by botanical forms, Lara’s work has an organic quality, the lines refusing an exact uniformity, allowing the piece to wrap themselves around the viewer. This is of course aided by her supreme use of strong colour. www.larascobie-ceramics.com
Lynne MacLachlan Studio sees designer and maker Lynne MacLachlan-Eastwood create designs that play with light, space and colour, intending to create visual delight for wearer and viewer, leading the use of 3D printing technology and colour in design. Lynne takes an experimental approach with digital tools, exploring and pushing the capabilities of these, using bespoke software tools and 3D printing to materialise complex forms. Combining these tools with meticulous hand finishing techniques, such as dying, polishing and construction, elevates the pieces to become artful pieces of cutting-edge craft and design. lynnemaclachlan.co.uk
Meditations on a Landscape by Naomi McIntosh (Photo: Naomi McIntosh)
Naomi Mcintosh is a designer interested in exploring the relationship between the body and objects through design and works on different scales from jewellery and sculptural objects to installations. With an architectural background she creates spaces by using techniques similar to an architectural model maker. Naomi works primarily in wood, combining a broad range of skills that include digital and hand processes taking inspiration from pattern, movement, landscape and collaborations. www.naomimcintosh.com
Susan Cross has designed and made contemporary jewellery for over 30 years, regularly exhibiting both nationally and internationally. Drawing underpins the development of her ideas, which are refined through a continuous reflexive process based on the investigation of materials. Inspirations come from plant forms, and from her deeply-rooted interest in textiles, both in terms of borrowed techniques and the range of visual references. Precious metals are central to the making process. Silver is oxidised black, emulating a drawn graphite or inky line. www.susancrossjewellery.com
The showcase for Collect 2022 was curated by an industry panel; Helen Ritchie (Curatorial Research Associate, The Fitzwilliam Museum), Susan Holland: Exhibition & Programme Curator, National Design & Craft Gallery, Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and Jo Scott (Head of Programmes, Craft Scotland). Visitors to Collect 2022 will discover beautifully crafted statement pieces from well-established Scottish makers and emerging Scottish talent with unique perspectives.
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