Craft Case: Hothouse Selects New Wave of Makers
The Crafts Council has selected its latest group of makers to join the six-month Hothouse programme.
In a marketplace where the bespoke and handmade is recognised and celebrated by global brands the skill and knowledge of the individual maker becomes ever more powerful.
Hothouse provides emerging makers with a programme of focussed, intensive business skills and creative development, complemented with 1:1 support over a six month period.
The initiative take up to 40 new makers per annum across the UK, delivered in cohorts of 10 – this means participants are part of a valuable peer group and a wide national network at the same time.
Hothouse is open to any discipline; based in any region and from any educational background or training, both formal or informal. There is no age limit.
Hothouse works with other professional development and craft organisations across the country to deliver its programme.
Partners include universities, colleges, makers’ networks, galleries and retailers, studio complexes, Guilds & Societies, cultural institutions and professional development agencies.
Thirty-eight makers from across the UK have been selected to embark on the Hothouse scheme that will begin in 2014 and be delivered via four regional cohorts; South West, North, South East and Midlands.
Makers include:
- Anna Brimley (South West), who makes jewellery and objects inspired by and incorporating kinetic mechanisms and multi-sensory experience.
- Charlotte Nash (North) who uses braiding and crochet with cord and ribbon, combined with laser and hand-cutting techniques in leather and mirrored acrylic, to create geometric and rhythmic interior textiles such as light flexes and braided mirror frames.
- Adam Collins (South East), whose work is pictured on this site. Adam uses the materials and techniques learnt through his upbringing around wood and steel boatbuilding combined with influences from Britain’s industrial past, to produce a fresh and functional furniture collection.
- Katharina Eisenkoeck (Midlands) who brings the revival of ancient techniques and craft processes into a new context, such as her cordless lamps for contemporary nomads using cuir bouilli (an ancient method of boiling and shaping leather), developed with the Austrian LED research company Lumitech.
The partners for all Hothouse 4 cohorts are Plymouth College of Art and Creative Skills (South West) Creative Lancashire and University of Central Lancashire (North) Craft Study Centre, Making Space, New Ashgate Gallery (South East), Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire County Council, and Nottingham Trent University (Midlands).
The Crafts Council has been supporting makers for 40 years, and this is the fourth year of Hothouse – 85 makers have successfully completed the scheme since 2010. Find out more details about the Hothouse programme here.
.jpg)
