20 Years in the Making
Cindy Ashbridge
Part of Craft Festival’s 20-year celebration.
Amazingly, Craft Festival has been going for 20 years. What started as a small project with 2000 visitors in Bovey Tracey has grown into the fantastic, diverse and vibrant event it now is, shaping the town where it started into the ‘Capital of Craft’, spreading the word to Cheltenham, Cardiff and online, and perhaps even transforming our views of making to appreciate the handmade that little bit more. In recognition of this, Sarah James, Director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker, was awarded an MBE for her services to craft in the King’s Birthday Honours List in June 2023.
As part of this celebration, we are showing a curated group show selected by Sarah James MBE and the MAKE Southwest exhibitions team. We have selected 21 makers from across the UK; previous prize winners from the last 20 years of the Craft Festival who we feel represent different aspects of the history and current landscape of this high point in the creative calendar. Expect collectable work by some of the biggest stars of the contemporary craft world!
Exhibitors
Cleo Mussi, mosaic; Isla Middleton, print; Ambrose Vevers, wood; Anthony Theakston, sculpture; Clover Robin, mixed media; Brett Payne, silver; Takahashi McGil, wood; Cindy Ashbridge, jewellery; Celia Smith, wirework; Lizzie Farey, willow; Margo Selby, textiles; Christian O’Reilly, furniture; Sasha Wardell; ceramics; Jessica Cutler, textiles; Jin Eui Kim, ceramics; Caroline Finlay, jewellery; Sue Pryke, ceramics, Fryth, wood; Teresa Green, textiles, Hilary Burns, basketry, Francisca Onumah, silversmithing.
27 Apr - 22 Jun 2024
Jubilee Gallery
Events
Fri 26 Apr, 6 - 8pm: Preview Evening
Sat 04 May, 10.30am - 12.30pm OR 1.30 - 3.30pm: An Introduction to Frame Loom Weaving, workshop with Jessica Cutler
Wed 05 Jun, 2 - 3.15pm: ‘A Ceramic Journey’ a talk by Sue Pryke
Sat 8 Jun, 10.30am - 1.30pm: Colour Winding, workshop with Margo Selby
Fri 14 Jun, 10.30am - 3pm: Spoon Carving, workshop with Alex Finberg
Sat 15 Jun, 10.30am - 4pm: Bone China Slip Casting & Decorating, workshop with Sasha Wardell
Wed 19 & Thu 20 Jun, 10.30am - 4.30pm: 2-Day Framed Basket Weaving, workshop with Hilary Burns
Inside the gallery
About the exhibitors
Ambrose Vevers | Wood
Best Maker 2017
Ambrose is a woodsman who is passionate about craft. His workshop is nestled in the ancient Stannary town of Ashburton, within Dartmoor National Park. Each piece of furniture is skilfully crafted by hand from locally sourced materials. Alongside furniture making he also manages a woodland, sawmills all his own timber and enjoys passing on knowledge through teaching woodworking courses.
Anthony Theakston | Sculpture
Craft Excellence 2018
Born in 1965, Anthony Theakston studied ceramics for six years gaining both a BA and MA degree before going on to lecture for five years at the Camberwell College of Arts, Falmouth School of Art & Design and as visiting lecturer at The Royal College of Art. As an established studio potter, he has been the recipient of many awards and his work is in the public collections of The British Council, The Fitzwilliam Museum and The Bristol Museum to name a few.
Brett Payne | Silver
Craft Excellence 2014
Craft and Design award 2017
Brett Payne is a contemporary silversmith, specialising in the design and making of candlesticks, tableware, cookware and vases. Simple, practical and original, his designs combine traditional silversmithing techniques with contemporary ideas of form to produce bold, chic silverware for the modern home.
Caroline Finlay | Jewellery
Craft Excellence 2017
Based in Fife, Scotland in a studio by the sea. The unpredictable nature and untamed beauty of the coastline, in particular the wild and remote Scottish and Hebridean shoreline is Caroline’s constant source of inspiration. Caroline uses Silver and Vitreous Enamel to make her contemporary jewellery. Enamel allows her to introduce colour into her work and she uses a palette that echoes her inspiration.
Celia Smith | Wirework
Best Maker 2017
Celia Smith draws with wire, inspired by going out and observing birds in the wild her sculptures are three dimensional drawings capturing life and energy. Celia also makes wire wall drawings often depicting birds in flight. The work shown in 20 Years in the Making is made from reclaimed fencing wires and electrical wires.
Christian O’Reilly | Furniture
Best Maker 2011
Christian is a furniture maker whose aim is to create pieces that are beautiful and made for everyday use. He designs his furniture to have visual and physical integrity, elegance, and strength. He is interested in the way light plays across the shape of a piece and how it will look from different angles. Clean lines, subtle details and considered proportions are all key elements in his work.
Cindy Ashbridge | Jewellery
Best Stand 2009
Cindy is an established jeweller with a shop in Lostwithiel, Cornwall. She studied Craft Design in Christchurch New Zealand, majoring in printmaking and light metals. Her focus eventually turned into making Jewellery. On graduating she went on to win one of 12 grants from the Crafts Council NZ for New emerging craft artists. Today her work features her passion for brightly coloured gemstones, big bold shapes and colours, using recycled gems when possible and recycled gold and silver.
Cleo Mussi | Mosaic
Proof Magazine award 2007
Highly Commended 2009
Cleo Mussi is a renowned and maverick mosaic artist who creates spectacular works using recycled ceramics. Working with carefully selected and hand cut shards of reclaimed tableware, a material that would normally end up in landfill, she brings a new lease of life to discarded and broken crockery
Clover Robin | Mixed Media
Period Living award 2020
Clover Robin is a collage artist, crafter and designer. She creates tactile artwork using a mixture of cut paper collage, painting, printing and hand drawing. She studied Surface Pattern Design at Leeds College of Art and Design before completing a Masters in Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins in 2009.
Francisca Onumah | Silversmithing
Brewery Arts Prize 2020
Best New Business 2022
Drawn to finding character and a human-like semblance in inanimate objects, Ghanaian born silversmith, Francisca Onumah creates ambiguous vessels and jewellery that reflect vulnerabilities and strengths through their anthropomorphic forms. Working from sheet metal, she subtly layers different marks, patterns and textures by repeatedly hammering, fold forming and impressing textile patterns onto the surface of the metal.
FRYTH - Nina Varnham | Wood
Find a Maker craft skills award 2023
FRYTH is the sister company to bespoke cabinet and furniture makers Shawstephens, giving them access to beautiful offcuts, and a team of highly skilled artisans. They produce limited homeware pieces that honour functional design and simplicity, and reduce waste. Each item is unique and has been designed to fit perfectly into a contemporary or traditional home.
Hilary Burns MBE | Basketry
Curator, Out of the Woods tent since 2015
Hilary originally trained in textiles as a fabric weaver before taking up the craft of basket making some forty years ago. After moving to Devon in 1985 she planted a willow bed and uses natural materials including hedgerow materials and small diameter woodland oak and ash. Basketry is a slow craft; growing the materials, cutting, grading, drying, soaking, gives control, and adds time to the making process.
Image shows a collaborative piece made with Takahashi McGil.
Isla Middleton | Printmaking
Period Living award 2020
Isla’s first experience of the craft festival was in 2018 when she helped Ambrose Vevers on his furniture stand. She had recently moved down to Devon and started up her own linocut design business, so the opportunity to meet with local makers was very encouraging and a great way to connect with the craft community. The following years Isla exhibited her own work in the Out of the Woods tent curated by basket maker Hilary Burns. Also she demonstrated her printing techniques, sharing the process of creating her linocut designs.
Jessica Cutler | Textiles
Craft Excellence 2020
Jessica is a handwoven textile designer and maker. She produces all her work on traditional hand looms using leftover yarn from the UK Mill industry and predominantly uses 100% wool due to its circular, biodegradable properties. The inspiration for Jessica's work stems from her rural surroundings.
Jin Eui Kim | Ceramics
Best Ceramics 2016
Jin Eui Kim is an accomplished ceramic artist with a global reputation. Originally from South Korea, he now resides in Cardiff, UK, with his family. After completing his BA in Contemporary Arts (Ceramics) at the University of Tasmania, he pursued further education and obtained his MA and PhD in Ceramics from the Cardiff School of Art and Design. In 2011, he was accepted into the Graduate Residence at Fireworks Clay Studios in Cardiff, where he remains a full-time member. He is also a selected member of the Craft Potters Association (CPA).
Lizzie Farey | Willow
Best Stand 2008
Lizzie Farey’s delicate, intricate structures reflect nature’s own balance between order and chaos. Like complex 3D drawings these intimate forms allow the viewer to enter the process of creation as our eyes trace the hand and mind of the artist. Growing her own field of willow and collecting ash, birch, hazel and larch from nearby woodlands and hedgerows Farey has informed her artistic vernacular through an extensive knowledge of her materials and an innate desire to engage with the rhythms of nature.
Margo Selby | Textiles
Best New Maker 2006
Margo Selby is a British textile artist and designer of woven textiles working with colour and geometric form. She studied at Chelsea College and the RCA, graduating in 2001. Margo has established an expansive approach to working in textiles – across art, design and industry. Margo’s practice as a weaver is at the heart of all of the studio projects, alongside her handwoven art practice. Throughout her work, Margo explores the relationship between man and machine, hand and industry, craft and technology.
Sasha Wardell | Ceramics
Best Maker 2022
Sasha has over 40 years experience in the world of bone china and porcelain having studied in two centres of excellence , namely Stoke on Trent and Limoges. She has taken elements of this industry and adapted them to a studio environment with her own production which includes bespoke vases, bowls, lighting and tea ware. Sasha has concentrated on perfecting the craft-based skills which enhance the inherent qualities of bone china and her carefully produced distinctive work embraces and reflects contemporary taste and lifestyle.
Sue Pryke | Ceramics
Best Stand 2016
Based in rural Leicestershire, Sue Pryke is a potter who utilises an industrial method of making, slipcasting, to produce elegant, pared back practical pottery in a craft context. Her minimal aesthetic and precise finish can be traced back to an early introduction to pottery in the Lincolnshire fens where she learnt the skills of production throwing.
Takahashi McGil | Wood
Best Stand 2019
Best Maker 2021
Takahashi McGil are an artistic duo comprised of husband and wife, Mark McGilvray and Kaori Takahashi, who met at Wimbledon School of Art where they both studied Fine Art. Mark is originally from South Africa and Kaori is from Japan, and the pair now live and work in Devon. In 2016 they set up their own studio; since then, they were initiated into MAKE Southwest, and in 2019 they were selected for the Toast New Makers programme. Combining Japanese and Western woodwork techniques, Takahashi McGil harmoniously honour tradition and create functional furniture and homeware designs that are crafted from a beautiful array of local and sustainable hardwoods.
Teresa Green | Textiles
Best Maker 2023
Teresa has been working with cloth for over 20 years now. The obsession with linen began during her teens. "There's something about the natural softness & fluidity that I love” she says. Initially Teresa created mainly domestic wares - tea towels, aprons and cushions. It’s in the past 7 years that’s she’s begun exploring clothing more, making garments with loose shapes that drape naturally from the body to create simple silhouettes.
Plan your visit
Open Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm.
The Isles - Shetland
Riverside Gallery, 11 May - 13 Jul 2024
Philippa de Burlet & Taja (Porcelain)
Maker Showcase Gallery, 2 Mar - 11 May 2024
PJW Woodworks (Wood)
Maker Showcase Gallery, 18 May - 6 Jul 2024