Tag Archives: Crafts

2021, Categories

PIONEERING THE POTENTIAL 2021

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Natural Building Materials across the Weald & Downland

We are pleased to be supporting this years Pioneering the Potential, an evening micro-symposium hosted by Fourth Door Research.

Talks, presentations and an exhibition focused on timber, demonstrating Sussex’s pioneering natural building materials role and potential.

Friday September 10th 2021, 18.00 – 21.00 at Studio Hardie Workshop* Studio Hardie, Unit 4, Phoenix Works, North St, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2PE

*Seating will be appropriately spaced. The studio workshop is large and well ventilated. We would prefer face coverings to be worn inside.

Booking through Eventbrite. Free/Donations – pay what you can.

Symposium Speakers:

Steve Johnson (the Architecture Ensemble) and Chris O’Callaghan – Flimwell Park a new all-wood development showcasing local timber in Flimwell village.

George Fereday and Nick Meech – Home Grown House + the Home Grown House demonstration projects exhibition.

John Russell (to be confirmed) – Foxwood Cruck Frame built from local thinnings.

Amy Hammond/Lantern – Re-using urban and roadside wastewood, ash dieback and other wood destined for burning.

Lukas Imhof live on Zoom from Switzerland – on his engineered ash Ekkharthof Community Centre building.

Plus:

Fourth Door’s Annular wood and timber culture website relaunch will be part of the evening. Revisiting The Bio Base – Another opportunity to view Making Lewes’s 2014 the Bio Base exhibition.

More detailed information available via Fourth Door.

For further information please email editorial@fourthdoor.org or contact Sam Jenner (07884 006413)

Pioneering the Potential is hosted by Fourth Door Research in association with Making Lewes http://www.fourthdoor.org.

Photo credit: Flimwell Park Roland De Villiers/ShootLab

Supported by:

Events, Talks

Ceramics Series 2019

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Ceramics: public and personal change and regeneration

The first in an occasional series of talks about ceramics presented by Making Lewes.

Friday May 17th 7.00 -10.pm, Lewes Depot, Pinwell Lane, Lewes BN7 2JS (map)

Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Booking through Lewes Depot, tickets available HERE

Artistic director of the British Ceramics Biennial, Barney Hare Duke will talk about the aims and activities of the Biennial which takes place from September to November 2019 in Stoke on Trent.

Past Biennial award winner, Brighton based ceramicist Louisa Taylor will discuss her work and career as maker in porcelain, designer for industry, researcher, author and teacher.

The talks will be preceded by a screening of the 1947 short documentary The Five Towns which shows the production techniques of the skilled workers of Stoke and addresses the challenges of post war reconstruction in the region; a challenge which has been picked up by the British Ceramics Biennial in the face of regional decline and the increasing globalisation of ceramics production.

Making with Sussex clay past and present

Wednesday 12th June 2019, 7pm upstairs at the Elephant and Castle,White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ

Cost £5.00 or £3 student concession. Pay on the door

Talks on the medieval potteries around Lewes will be followed by a presentation about contemporary pots made with local clay

David Gregory ‘The early medieval pottery kilns at Ringmer’

David has had a long interest in the medieval pottery industry in Ringmer and has helped dig a number of kilns in the area.

John Bleach ‘The Medieval Potters of Ringmer’.

John has researched many medieval matters and worked at the Museum of Sussex Archaeology for 35 years.

Susie Ramsay-Smith, a potter inspired by the environment of her lakeside Sussex farm will present a recent collection of pots made from clay dug on the farm in pursuit of her current Craft MA at University of Brighton. Susie is a member of Kent Potters and exhibits with Sussex Arts Collective.

Image credit: BCB general view by Joel Fildes

2018, Events

Un:Plastics Exhibition

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Exhibition across four different locations illustrating some of the many ways designers, makers and artists are tackling our plastic waste problem.

10 November – 18 November 2018. Friars Walk, Lewes (map)

FREE EVENT.

Waste plastic is an environmental disaster globally. It spills upon and infiltrates the sea. It suffocates the wave, strangles the shore, and shrouds the beach.

Making Lewes has brought together artists, designers, and like-minded makers, whose shared need makes manipulating recycled resource material a necessity, and who by compulsion force the transition.

In this exhibition Making Lewes aims to illustrate alternative progressive solutions to the plastics waste issue. To move this on from debate to action. To help, repair – mend – reconcile.

Locations

30 Friars Walk (map) – shop front only, showing coasters and multi purpose plastic slabs from Weez and Merl, Aimee Caine’s Plastic Hunter Kit, Robyn Edward’s plastic and Silver jewellery and Footballs from Knowtrash.

Union Music Store (map) – Bluetooth speaker by Gomi.

Pestle and Mortar (map) – Home-ware by Toni Packham and ornamental animals from Knowtrash.

Symposium Wine bar (map)– Coasters from Weez and Merl.

Cover image – Bluetooth speaker by Gomi

Events, MLF 2018

MAKE LEWES FESTIVAL 2018

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This September sees the return of Make Lewes Festival with another series of inspiring and informative workshops, talks and Symposia exploring the relationship between making, architecture, design and sustainability.

21st – 30th September 2018

Highlights include:

Friday, September 21

Collaborative Conspiracies

18.30 -21.30 at Fitzroy House, Cliffe Precinct, Lewes BN7 2AD
Talks by Fred Baier and William Hardie, two leading woody designers, and sit-down supper.

Talks, vegetarian mezze, cake and a complimentary drink: £22.50.
Places limited. Book via eventbrite.co.uk.

Friday, September 21 to Sunday, September 23

Collaborative Collisions III

10.00 – 17.00 at Depot Cinema, Pinwell Rd, Lewes BN7 2JS
Improvisations with Lewes makers and crafts-people.

Free.

Friday, 28 September

Makers Talks Evening

19.30 at Studio Hardie, Unit 1, Lewes, BN7 2PE
With Jim Keeling, Oxford Anagama Project, Barbara Keal, Felt Maker and Elaine Bolt, Ceramicist.

Free (donations welcome)

Saturday, September 29 

Pop-up Pottery & Kiln firing workshop

10.00 – 17.00 at Linklater Pavilion, Railway Land, Lewes, BN7 2FG
Family workshop with Martin Brockman making pots from local materials fired in a wheelbarrow with locally sourced wood.

Free (donations welcome)

Building with Water

13.30 – 18.00 at Fitzroy House, Cliffe Precinct, Lewes, BN7 2AD
Water, Building, Architecture, Material Sources and the Future – talks by international and national speakers

Talks and water tasting: £8.50 Concessions £6.50. Book via eventbrite.co.uk.

Sunday, September 30

FutureScoping

13.30 – 17.30 at Depot Cinema, Pinwell Rd, Lewes BN7 2JS
The future of Lewes’s cultural infrastructure provision: What do we want? What does Lewes need?

Tickets £6.50 Concessions £4.50. (available through Depot website here)

Further events to be anounced…

Any questions? Email: info@makinglewes.org

Image credit: S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, “Bengal Stream³ 2017/18, photo: Iwan Baan

 

Events, MLF 2018, Talks

MLF 2018 – Collaborative Conspiracies

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MAKE LEWES FESTIVAL 2018 LAUNCH EVENT

Tongue and Groove and Algorithms – the Fred and Will Story

Sit-down vegetarian supper with special guest talks by designer makers Fred Baier and William Hardie.

Friday September 21st 18.30 prompt at Fitzroy House, Lewes BN7 2AD map

Tickets £22.50 (includes vegetarian mezze supper, cake and a complimentary drink) Pay bar available. Booking online through eventbrite.

Fred Baier is an internationally renowned furniture maker, who pioneered the use of computer aided design in furniture making in the 1980’s, and has been at the forefront of drawing together analogue and digital making in the decades since.

William Hardie, is well known in Lewes for Studio Hardie. Resolving seemingly impossible design challenges, William has become a familiar face on Amazing Space’s and other TV programmes. Less known is that years ago Fred and William worked together on a public art project leading to a long and creative friendship.

The pair will thread together their shared story during the course of the evening.

Collaborative Conspiracies is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018

Events, MLF 2018, Workshop

Kinship IV Workshop (Postponed*)

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Kinship IV Design & Make Workshop POSTPONED*

* For unexpected reasons Kinship IV has been postponed untill spring 2019. Details to be confirmed in October. If you wish to be involved and kept up to date please email us at info@makinglewes.org

Make Lewes Festival’s fourth Kinship workshop co-led by William Hardie of Studio Hardie and Sally Daniels of tangentfield with a site tour and introduction to the ‘Heart of Reeds’ from artist Chris Drury.

26th – 28th September, 10.00 – 18.00

Venue – Linklater Pavilion, Railway Land and Studio Hardie Workshop map

Tickets £95, Students £75

definition: kinship – a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character

– a sharing of characteristics or origins – relationships between family members – a feeling of being close or similar…

BRIEF

With our fantastic team of designers and makers, we will collaboratively dream-up, draw-up, build, install and test-out a remarkable nest of 4 outdoor benches to be enjoyed as kinship by all. As for every Kinship; we aim for beauty, comfort, conviviality and for Kinship IV we will need steadfast durability!

aerial.jpg

SITE

The Railway land. This will not only be the home of our design endeavours but the prototyping, sharing, testing and production area itself.

PROCESS

Participants gather on site 25th September. There we will first discover the components of our workshop, space to construct and pitch together.

Once we have a shelter in place, and materials gathered, we will begin to dream and scheme in teams through the game of ‘consequences’ or ‘exquisite corps’*1. This will give our work a special twist and some surprise ingredients! And best of all, passers-by will this year be invited to join in and join up our benches!

 

1* Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. … The technique was invented by surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game …Consequences is an old parlour game in a similar vein to the Surrealist game exquisite corpse and Mad Libs. Each person takes a turn writing a word or phrase forming part of a set structure in order to build a story.

 

If you are travelling to Lewes from far afield, please see our list of accommodation options for staying in Lewes.

Kinship IV Design & Make Workshop is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018

Cover Image – Railway Land, Lewes – Google Earth
Site Image – Heart of Reeds by Chris Drury. Photo – Nicholas Sinclair
Events, MLF 2018

Collaborative Collisions

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Come and try on the fantastical felt coat of changing seasons created by Barbara Keal, Owena Lewis and many others, as part of Collaborative Collisions III.

Depot forecourt, Pinwell Rd, BN7 2JS

3-4pm Tuesday 25th to Friday 28th September

Between these times each day this week you can have this wild hooded garment lowered on to you.

And then at 6.15pm on Friday 28th, Barbara will put on the coat and parade through the town to Studio Hardie for the Makers Talks Evening.

*The coat is hanging on steel strings at the Depot but please do not touch the coat if you arrive to view it unless there is somewhere there to help you as it is fragile.

photo credit: Katie Holloway

MLF 2018

Collaborative Collisions III

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Improvisations with Southdowns Herdwick sheep wool and other found and rescued materials.

21 – 23 September, 10.00 – 17.00, Lewes Depot, Pinwell Rd, BN7 2JS map

MLF’s popular Collaborative Collisions returns after a year off. This year’s improvisational workshop draws together a diverse group of makers, crafts people, and designers to meet a design challenge integrating local sheep wool and other materials.

Over 3 days a fantastical felt coat of changing seasons will be created from local sheep fleece (and a bit of local alpaca fleece too). Come and join Barbara Keal, Owena Lewis and others in any stage of the process from washing fleece through to making a felt leaf or animal motif to be added to the coat. Then on Sunday come and have this wild hooded garment lowered on to you.

This years Collaborative Colliders include:

Barbara Keal  – Felt Maker and artist

Owena Lewis – Farmer & wool producer

Fred Baier – Furniture Maker

Further Collaborative Colliders to be announced

Expect the unexpected

For more information email: info@makinglewes.org

Collaborative Collisions III is part of Make Lewes Festival 2018

Cover image: Kids participating in Collaborative Collisions II in 2016 – Photo: George Sinclair

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