The Capital of Craft – Details, episodes & analysis

Season 5 of The Capital of Craft, Wales Special.

To celebrate Craft Festival Wales at Cardigan Castle, I had a great conversation with Jem Roberts AKA On the Wing. 

Writer, poet and artist, we chat about the creative juggling act needed to persue a passion for words. 

Jem is our poet in residence at Craft Festival of Wales and she will be working along side Nick Hand of The Letterpress Collective to produce daily posters responding to the Festival at Cardigan Castle. 

You can meet Jem at Craft Festival Wales from September 6-8th, 2024.

www.craftfestival.co.uk

On The Wing

Season 5 of The Capital of Craft, Wales Special.

To celebrate Craft Festival Wales at Cardigan Castle, I was delighted to meet and chat with Belinda Knott of Pothies. We had a lovely conversation about her practise and how her love of sea swimming prompted the invention of the Cosymajig. 

You can meet Belinda at Craft Festival Wales from September 6-8th. 

www.craftfestival.co.uk

Belinda Knott

Our latest podcast features the brilliant basketmaker, Hilary Burns MBE.

Hilary is one of the UK's most respected makers. Recipient of Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year in 2018, she was also awarded MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021, in recognition of her dedication to her craft. 

She talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker from her Devon home. We talk about her earliest memories of making and what keeps her exploring the possibilities of creativity.

Hilary has been curating one of our most loved features at Craft Festival, Out of the Woods, for a number of years. You can meet Hilary at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023. 

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/

You can watch our films on https://www.youtube.com/@craftfestival1035/featured

You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival

You can follow Hilary Burns on Instagram Hilary Burns (@hilaryburnsbasketmaker) | Instagram

This weeks podcast is with the  brilliant, Lauren Aston. We met at her home and chatted about how she started out her chunky knit empire, with Craft Festival playing an important role in her starting her business. IAlways good to hear!

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/

You can watch our films on https://www.youtube.com/@craftfestival1035/featured

You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival

You can follow Lauren Aston on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/laurenastondesigns/

Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker meets with lecturer, designer and maker Keeley Traae. We met at her home in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK.

Keeley has had a varied and illustrious career in design having worked for ceramic industry giants Wedgewood and Royal Doulton. She set up her own making practise, Keeley Traae Design in 2020. She has extensive experience in ceramic design, design management and evaluating market trends. In her own practise, she is now known for her dististictive use of colour and shape,  specialising in 3D Printing techniques. 

Keeley is also a senior lecturer on the Staffordshire University 3D Designer Maker BA (Hons) course and Product, Furniture, Ceramics BA (Hons). The course is a mixed material course and so she has the opportunity to work with students not only with their ceramic designs and making processes but also with many other materials and objects. Working alongside the amazing course leader Timothy Forrester and other design and industry experts, she thoroughly enjoys sharing her knowledge, skills, and over 25 years of experience with the next generation of creatives. 

@keeleytraae_3d

@craftfestival

@find.amaker

The Capital of Craft

Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with visual artist, potter, curator and lecturer, Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery. 

Peter trained in Ceramics and 3D in the mid 1980s at Camberwell School of Art. In the mid 1990s he completed an MA in Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan. Peter lives near Cardigan and runs St.Dogmaels Pottery in West Wales. He is an experienced educator having worked with a number of UK Universities. Informing and framing his ceramic practice are a range of sources including the processes of walking the coast, swimming along its shore, gathering objects, materials and studying its intertidal ecology and geology. Images, motifs and gestural marks brushed or drawn into the surface of both his functional pots and the sculptural vessels can be seen as direct traces of his phenomenological experience.

@st.dogmaels_pottery

@craftfestival

@find.amaker

Season 3 of The Capital of Craft

Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker, gallery owner and teacher, Jennifer Collier. 

We talk about her practise and how she moved from textiles to paper and how her gallery, Unit Twelve, founded with her partner Iain Perry, has moulded her making life. 

Paper pioneer, Jennifer Collier, creates exquisite sculptures from vintage recycled materials in conjunction with stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers serve as both the inspiration and the media for the work, with the narrative suggesting the forms. Through this marriage of unlikely materials old papers are transformed into something truly unique, delicate and complex.

Most recently Jennifer has been collecting rarely used, heritage stitches and discovering how to translate the art of lost stitches onto paper, as these techniques are an important part of our creative heritage and she wants to continue to invest time in them to keep them in the present, offering them onto future generations. Jennifer is giving new life to things that would otherwise go unused, unloved or be thrown away.

Jennifer completed a BA (hons) in Textiles (Print, Knit and Weave) in 1999 at Manchester Metropolitan University, is internationally exhibited, and has had her work featured in over 60 magazines and over 15 books to date.

@paperjennifer @unittwelve

@craftfestival @find.amaker

Season 3 of The Capital of Craft

Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker and shop owner, Becky Prior. 

They speak from her shop, Prior in Cabots Circus in Bristol. Becky's journey as a maker is interwoven with stories of overcoming great personal setbacks and is truly inspirational, told with great humanity and humour. 

@priorshopbristol

@priormade

@craftfestival @find.amaker

Welcome to Season 3 of The Capital of Craft.

Earlier in the year at Craft Festival Cheltenham, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker interviewed potter and Pottery Throwdown Judge, Keith Brymer Jones in front of a live audience. 

We talk about his autobriography "Boy in a China Shop", his Welsh roots and the journey from Highgate to becoming a treasured TV Potter. 

We'll be opening the doors of Craft Festival Cheltenham on Saturday November 26-27th.

Next March, Keith will be joining us again at Craft Festival at Cheltenham Town Hall. 

@keithbrymerjones

@craftfestival

@find.amaker

In the final episode of Season 2 of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with weaver and educator, James Donald from Pick One. 

They speak from his workshop in Coburg House in Leith, Edinburgh.

James talks about his journey into textiles and his early life in Brechin in Angus, which as well as having access to countryside and freedom, it also established his love of music and dancing at the iconic nightclub, Flicks. 

James is joining us at Craft Festival Cheltenham from March 11-13th at Cheltenham Town Hall. 

@pickoneweave

@craftfestival