From 3 - 7 May 2017, the third edition of London Craft Week takes up residence in the capital to showcase new and established makers. Visitors will be able to experience the stories and contexts of beautifully made things by meeting the makers and even having a go themselves. Creative director of the Crafts Council, Annie Warburton, tells Run Riot about the event and delves into what makes craft currently significant.

Eli Goldstone: Hi Annie. It’s time for London Craft Week! What can we expect to discover?

Annie Warburton: Now in its third year, London Craft Week has grown from 129 events to over 200 talks, workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions.  The event reveals the perhaps unexpected breadth of making taking place in the heart of the city – from the traditional to the cutting edge, and from Blenheim Forge in Peckham to the luxury crafts on show in St. James Market.

One of the things that most fascinates people about craft is the processes of making behind the objects.  So I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the second edition of Real to Reel, the craft film festival, programmed by Crafts Council and Crafts magazine, running 2-4 May at Picturehouse Central.  The festival brings you 44 films over three nights that reveal the tender, human, sometimes comic, stories behind the objects that fill our world.

Other highlights on my list are the selection of independent leather artisans brought together by  Bill Amberg at Leathersellers’ Hall.  This is one of the many presentations during Craft Week that are accompanied by practical, hands-on workshops.  Get in quick if you want to book a place.  I’m also looking forward to journalist Corinne Julius’d celebration of the floral in jewellery in Bloomin’ Jewellery at Contemporary Applied Art, tucked behind Tate Modern, and to Second Sitters at the Geffrye Museum, which will upend your expectations on the craft of upholstery.

This year there’s an enhanced international flavour to the programme. Between Serenity and Dynamism at the Korean Craft and Design Centre promises breath-taking contemporary works drawing on Korea’s craft traditions, and Doppia Firma presented by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship at the Hospital Club in Soho, pairs Italian makers with European designers.  Another set of collaborations, this time on residencies in South East Asia is featured in On the Line at The Aram Gallery.  If this piques your interest and you want to hear more about the projects, join us at a talk with some of the designers on Friday 5^th May at G. F. Smith.

Finally, I’m really looking forward to a couple of talks showcasing the role of craft in our screen and stage industries.  Prop maker extraordinaire Pierre Bohanna will talk about the making behind Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, whilst Annie Symons whose work features soon-to-be-released Arthur: Legend of the Sword leads a panel on costume design for film.

Eli: What was your introduction to craft?

Annie: Like many people my introduction to making was at home, though I’m also of the generation that was lucky enough still to learn making at school, which these days is all too rare.  I learnt sewing as a child and then as a teen became a self-taught dressmaker - making clothes for friends and, sometimes, costumes for plays kept me in a beer money as a student.

Professionally, it was my first job in Dublin working on exhibitions at the Crafts Council of Ireland, but craft runs in the family.  Among my aunts and uncles are professional potters and milliners – and my grandfather was originally a gilder.  In the Twenties, he gilded the Statue of Justice on the Old Bailey, in the days when safety harnesses were deemed an irrelevance.

Eli: Do you think craft is enjoying a revival of interest in response to us living more disconnected, virtual lives?

Annie: Offering an antidote to screen-based life has definitely played a role in the surge of interest in craft.  Making connects us to the material world around us.  Whether on a modest or grand scale, making things gives a very real, physical sense of how we can shape the world around us.  It feels good to step away from the virtual and connect with the material.

On the other hand, digital tech is revolutionising how we make things, where we make them, and who gets to be a maker.   Take a look, for example, at the innovative new projects and companies based at Somerset House’s Makerversity.

Eli: Has austerity contributed to our changing aesthetic preferences?

Annie: Over the last decade we’ve become much more sensitive to the ethics behind the things that we buy.  We’re less interested in glossy, blingy clothes, furniture and object and care much more about provenance– things made with care using natural materials.  We want things with story and soul. Increasingly though, we’ve seen the luxury industries hi-jacking this trend and adding ‘craft’ as a gimmicky description to mass-produced products that are a million miles away from being truly handmade.  

Eli: What do most people buy that they could make themselves?

Annie: Some crafts are more accessible than others – for example, it’s much easier to pick up and practice sewing or knitting than, say, glass-making which demands specialist equipment, not least a fiercely hot kiln.  So I’d say textiles is probably the starting point.  I was told a few years back that the single reason that most clothes are thrown out is that so many people no longer know how to sew on buttons.  So, if you know how then, find a friend who doesn’t and pass on the skill.

Eli: Is there a maker whose work you are particularly excited about?

Annie: Now we’ve got to the really tricky question.  There’s so much talent in craft right now it’s nigh on impossible to pick out just one maker.  Take a look, for example, at the hundreds of makers on the Crafts Council national Directory of makers or visit Cockpit Open Studios in Holborn and Deptford in June to see just some the wealth of making going on here in London.

But top of my mind today is Danish glassmaker Steffan Dam - he’s the cover star on the current issue of Crafts magazine.  Dam manipulates glass to create enchanting cabinets of curiosity that are both exquisitely beautiful and consummately skilful. Check out his process on Crafts’ Instagram.  Dam is represented in the UK by Joanna Bird who shows each year at Collect – the annual international fair for collectible craft. 

Eli: What three objects would you save if your home was on fire?

Annie: If I’m going to stick with craft, then it’d have to be:

- A sampler hand-stitched by my many-times-great grandmother in 1800 when she was 9.  Some of the stitching is a little wonky, the colours have faded so much that in places it’s impossible to make out the text, but it’s a piece handed down to me that I treasure.

- A Heart Beater automaton by Martin Smith.  I have a soft spot for mechanical toys.  They are often witty.  This has a simple mechanism but with a nicely off-beat quirk.

- A basket by the amazing Joe Hogan based in Co. Galway. He makes artistic works and functional, traditional baskets.  I’ve had this over 20 years and it reminds me of my time in Ireland.  The wicker still smells extraordinary, too. 

London Craft Week - over 200 events, talks, exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops across the city

Wednesday 3rd - Sunday 7th May

Various venues