On Friday 29 November we enjoyed an a busy afternoon crammed with 10 minute presentations, exploring various facets and definitions of craft. IGNITE CRAFT, a creative workshop, comprising talks from ten creatives about what craft means to them and sharing processes, kicked off the first of 3 tri-monthly conferences. Tim Scrace, the event founder of IGNITE noted that:
“Whether you’re wrestling with a tight budget, a turbulent world, or fears of an apocalypse, we believe it’s time to reclaim control and manifest our future. Creativity has always been our ally in bleak times, and now more than ever, it’s time for our community to come together and make real things happen.”
IGNITE + CRAFT, COLLABORATE and CREATE is a series set up with the purpose of sparking action through shared ideas, creativity, and collaboration.
CRAFT by Tim Scrace – 1 of 3: Craft, Collaborate and Create.Below is a quick summary or review of each presentation. Make sure to book in for our next one on 4th April, by booking here or by signing up to our mailing list.
What is craft?
Louise Tunnard and Tim Scrace introduced the event and began a discussion about the definition of craft, which touched upon Louise’s practice as an image maker who creates Chemigrams.
Artisan Baker – Paul Henderson
Paul Henderson’s T-shirt reads “flour, water, salt, time” – a phrase that sums up well, his daily working process. Paul works the early hours every day, crafting sourdough loaves of perfection for the citizens of Salisbury. In a hands-on approach, Paul brought along a rising mound of dough in a giant Tupperware style container and delighted in teaching us some insider tips on how to make it ‘billowy and pillowy’. His talk demonstrated the idea that craft involves well considered, thoughtful development of materials to hand, be those physical or nonmaterial.
Potter / Painter / Disruptor – Steve Neville
Partly in response to a gentle comment from galleries that his work may be ‘too quiet’, Steve’s work took a bolder turn. He took us through the evolution of his bold and simple painting process and how he integrates the painting with ceramics. Steve beautifully demonstrated, with a live painting performance and outlined his learning that development may occur over a period of many years, and the implementation may occur in a moment of brevity.
Beer Entrepreneur – Jacob Price
Jacob is a wizard with craft beer, as we saw when we headed to his bar after the Ignite event. Lurid cans lined the shelves, gleaming with cutting edge graphics, shoulder to glassy shoulder with cork topped beer bottles. His talk introduced us to the shrouded world of Trappist monks and their charitable beer making enterprises. A truly Trappist beer is blessed. We were captivated as Jacob opened various pages of the official craft beer spell book.
Weaver – Sharon Kearley
Sharon was hands-on in her presentation: a small loom arrived, along with an array of tactile, non-synthetic weaving materials, each with a ‘personality’. A key part of Sharon’s talk was her explanation of how deeply she has settled into the long tradition of her craft. She told us: “ I ended up doing costume, working in TV and film [I was a textile artist], and then went full circle and came back… Now I actually say I’m a weaver, because that’s what I do. And it feels quite proud to say that, because there’s a long lineage of weavers.”
Sculptor / Glass Ceramicist Rebecca Newnham
Rebecca took us on a tour of lakes, stately gardens and forest landscapes around the country, illustrating her response to the scale of the landscape. She worked with a structural engineer to extend the dimensions of her work in glass. One outstanding commission (photographed in situ, in the lake at the Himalayan Gardens in Yorkshire), traced loops of transcendental red glass across the water.
Steel Fabricator/Designer – Shaun Osmond
Shaun provided a long distance video of his steel fabrication business, which uses both traditional and cutting edge knowledge and equipment.
Potter – Mirka Golden-Hann
Mirka’s pottery / ceramic craft is rooted in her teenage enthusiasm and active voluntary work at archaeological excavation sites in the Summer holidays. At these she: “came in very close contact with the work of our ancestral potters” and this led to a deep feeling of affinity and connection when she was introduced to working with the raw material of clay at the age of 19. Mirka rounded off with discussion of the importance of collaboration, which segues nicely with the title of our next event, IGNITE COLLABORATE. Having worked with choreographers, filmmakers and animators, she was moved to say: “It got me to places I couldn’t have gone by myself”.
Master Builder – Bernard Franklin
Bernie, who describes himself as a “very straight and practical person” with a very “black and white background of science subjects at school” was initially surprised to be presenting alongside a group of artists and designers. Perhaps because his craft involves bricks and mortar holding up roofs, aspects of improvisation and surface aesthetics are of less immediate concern in his practice. Bernie specialises in conservation building, especially vernacular type buildings constructed using (literally down-to-earth) local materials. He explained that historically, it was possible to build locally using the sub soil with materials such as chalk, flint and lime. This type of building is called ‘cob’ and his craft expertise enable his business to repair and construct cob buildings.
Artist / Curator – Judith Rodgers
Judith read a short piece about crafts and activism, called the Craftivist Manifesto which begins: ”Connecting our hands, hearts and heads, we can truly make a difference. Number one is be the tortoise, breathe, take it slow. Craft is about taking a thoughtful approach to mindful activism.”
Game Developer / Educator – Jez Whitworth
Working in his converted World War II bunker, Jez designs animated computer games and has just released one for Gameboy. He shares his expertise through his schools programme. I loved his game concepts with titles like “Street Food Rivals” and “Little Friends” (a bizarre clown with fighting finger puppets). In a compact mini-teaching moment, Jez shared advice for games designers who aim to hone their craft. He recommends: Remove self-doubt completely, Don’t take yourself too seriously (have fun), Experiment with new ideas, Learn how to deal with failure, Get involved in a Game Jam.
Architect / Artist – Tim Scrace
With a handy scroll of thinking paper to hand, Tim asserted that: “One of the things that we lose touch with… is the process of thinking”. Tim expounds a method of charting creative thoughts by free sketching on layers of drawing paper. Other props to Tim’s talk on craft, included a large, antique spirit level once owned by his Granddad, Wilfred Harold Pickin, chief engineer… (wait for it) of the sewers in London. After he’d conducted a brief ripple of laughter with this revelation, Tim warmed up to an interesting point about inherited craft. Knowledge and skills passed down through the generations can feel like second nature to those who grew up with them – to the extent that they become overly modest about the skill level. It’s just always been there. But Tim emphasised the need to acknowledge and cherish the skill level of not-yet-lost heritage crafts.
REMEMBER TO BOOK HERE for 4th April, by booking here or by signing up to our mailing list.
Join us for IGNITE COLLABORATE
