David Canter Memorial Fund: 2024 Awardees
GRANTS FOR CRAFT
The David Canter Memorial Fund (DCMF) offers awards to give financial assistance to those working in craft. The fund is open to those who have finished their formal training and are working full-time or part-time but need money for specific projects, e.g., setting up a workshop, buying equipment, educational work, or for research and travel. Awards made are usually up to a maximum of £500 and are made every other year, each time focusing on different craft disciplines.
Awards are available to those who have finished their formal training and are working full or part-time anywhere within the UK but need money for special projects such as setting up a workshop, buying materials and equipment, or for research and travel.
Applications to support work with community groups is not the focus of this fund. Grants are not available to students.
Awards are not usually made to cover the cost of buying consumables i.e. raw materials
In 2024, working with our Green Maker Initiative, the fund supported makers in reducing their environmental impact within their craft practice. We had 50 applicants, and many extremely strong applications. It was a tough decision, but the worthy awardees are…
Imogen Taylor-Noble | Ceramics
Image credit: Ben Boswell
Imogen Taylor-Noble is a researcher, maker, kiln builder, teacher, questioner, activist, re-wilder: using what she has to make what she can, within the broader scope of a socially engaged ceramics practice.
Imogen’s focus for a long time has been investigating how it is possible to be not only a green maker, but to explore regenerative approaches to making ceramic objects, as well as how to be a carbon neutral ceramicist. Her ceramics practice also encompasses teaching, where she shares ideas about responsible making, glazing and studio management with her students.
Imogen was awarded the DCMF grant to fund the scoping phase of a project to investigate the possibility of making 100% industrial waste stream glazes to use in her practice.
Industries such as glass blowers, clay extractors and stone polishers all create some waste that cannot be recycled, and which ends up in landfill. This is often very toxic for the environment, as it is the waste sludge from the processes used, and because the particles are small, they can contaminate the ground and therefore the ground water.
Using these sludges in place of regular glaze ingredients can divert these pollutants and can also prevent the environmental cost of the extraction for them in the first place.
Imogen will work with local companies to use their waste sludge to research, make and test glazes on her own work and offer to her students in place of readily available ones on the market. Testing the model and recipes so that they could be made available commercially on a small scale.
Nell Swift | Textiles
Nell Swift is a weaver in natural fibres utilising custom built hand looms. She weaves garments and textiles for the home in reclaimed natural fibres-producing the least impactful fabrics in a low to zero-waste method. She is motivated by a need to de-scale production levels, produce and value quality fabrics, repair what we have and see fabrics for their technical and artistic value.
Nell was awarded the DCMF grant to fund the purchase of a drum carder to turn her limited yarn waste into new yarn. She aims to produce a tweed yarn which will echo past pieces of her work, a ghost of original projects and a yarn snapshot of her practice. The carder will allow Nell to close the loop in her practice to be zero waste from textile waste.
Nell has already gone to great lengths to reduce the environmental impact of her creative practice - her looms are restored or custom built, her studio is highly insulated, passive solar and built from construction waste using removeable foundations. Rainwater is harvested for wet finishing and solar PV provides additional lighting and dobby control.
Josephine Birch | Printmaking
Josephine Birch is an illustrator and printmaker specialising in monoprint and lithography. On the strength of her drawing, Josephine has been the recipient of multiple awards, exhibited worldwide, awarded multiple residencies and is a published illustrator. She is currently self-building her print room in an industrial farm unit in South Devon with a view to teaching and editioning.
Lithography is categorised by the Heritage Crafts Association as an endangered craft, meaning the discipline has sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation, but there are serious concerns about its ongoing viability.
Lithography is a costly process that requires specialist equipment, likely contributing to its decline. Much like other lithographers, Josepine’s work starts on location through drawing and painting but then she has to travel to Bristol, the closest lithography provision, to be able to print!
Josephine was awarded the DCMF grant to fund the purchase of two vital pieces of studio equipment: a gum blanket for a recently purchased off-set litho press, and a large spindle roller required for inking lithographic plates. This purchase would enable Josephine’s studio to become a specialist workshop space for lithography in Devon, creating more rural arts opportunities for the local community and a specialist resource for devon-based printmakers. Josephine will also be able to teach this specialist subject, increasing an endangered craft’s viability and keeping the process alive.
Printing and teaching in house will not only drastically reduce Josephine’s carbon emissions but will also cut the carbon emissions of other printmakers who may have had to travel to Bristol to use this specialist recourse too.
Beca Beeby | Metal
Beca Beeby is a blacksmith and sculptor turned small-scale: her organically formed jewellery and sculpture are inspired by microscopic and macro exploration of the natural world. Having worked with 'industrial' metals such as cast iron and steel, Beca has recently downscaled her work to enable a faster, more playful development of ideas and to work in a way that is less wasteful and less damaging to the environment.
Beca notes that at each step the environmental impact of what she does is considered, from recycled materials and packaging to non-toxic acids and a solar powered workshop. She avoids polishing compounds due to their environmental impact, instead using a pin polisher as needed.
Beca draws on her previous experience in casting but scaled down and developed to utilise the lost wax casting method to suit her needs. Though Beca carves her pieces onsite she must send her work off to a casting foundry to be cast.
Beca was awarded the DCMF grant to fund the purchase of a kiln, the final piece of the puzzle to enable her to cast her own work using the lost was casting method.
Beca will cast using beeswax instead of the polymer waxes usually used and, unlike the casting foundry, she will be reclaiming the wax in order to use it time and time again. Casting her own pieces will mean no unnecessary transportation of goods, reducing carbon emissions, and the kiln we be incorporated into her solar powered workshop.
About the Fund
The establishment of the fund in 1988 was made possible by generous support from David Canter’s friends and colleagues, wishing to show their appreciation of his great contribution to the Crafts, following the initial proposal and funding from the Craft Potters Association 1984. The fund also acknowledges with thanks the help and support of MAKE Southwest.
David Canter’s love and enthusiasm for the Arts and Crafts was a deep inspiration to all who knew him. His vision of the highest aesthetic standards uncompromised by commercial considerations was expressed in his creation of Cranks restaurants, which he founded and designed, and Craftwork shops in which he brought together an unrivalled collection of crafts from all over Britain.
David was Honorary Secretary of the Craft Potters Association for over 20 years, and during this time he pioneered the setting up of the Association’s first retail outlet in London. In his work as Chairman of the Crafts Council Grants Committee, and co-founder of the Dartington Pottery Training Workshop, he showed his commitment to helping and advising young craftspersons.