Origin - in Turbulent Times

The Autumn Equinox has brought with it an atmospheric change. An economic year of bumbling along, sort of hoping things might improve has suddenly blown up into a maelstrom of recrimination, anxiety, market chaos and talk of recession round two. Origin, now in the beating heart of trendy art-world East London, oozed confidence by contrast. It hummed with activity which, I hope, was an indicator of people deciding to spend money on well made, long lasting objects they would love.

Origin is vast, overwhelming in some respects. You can't look at everything unless you have all day and a substantial reserve of energy. I go there for the ceramics and, to some extent I notice the metalwork and furniture too. Jewellery, textiles and sundry other weird-looking accessories interest me not one jot and, these days, with limited time, I simply edit out of my vision all that does not immediately engage. This year, I looked only at the ceramics and, for the first time, bought things. It's my new project -  kick-starting the economy.

Sophie Woodrow's porcelain dream-world beasts made an enticing reception committee. With hollow eyes and strangely clad in unlikely costumes, they stood on their hind legs, those that had them, and stared and I stared back. An owl with antlers, covered in miniature toad-stools, a bull with a lowered head and large bow, hedgehog-like creatures and rabbity things - all called out mournfully for attention. It was astonishingly affecting and surprising too  -  a relief not to encounter more of the vicious bunnies intended to subvert or shock but, instead, something quietly and genuinely moving.

Aneta Regel-Deleu had a gorgeous collection of new work - weird bone-like structures, half live, human, and growing but also surreal and anything but human, in their skins of ferocious-coloured glaze - matt powdery pink, bright orange gloss and vicious yellow.

Then came the tableware, which is where I got out my debit card. First stop, Sun Kim, her sleek, oatmeal coloured stoneware has evolved into a fine collection of supremely elegant tableware. I sulked when I found no mugs with handles. 'A disastrous firing,' she explains, and promises me mugs at her forthcoming open studio. I make a mental note to reserve enough money for one of her teapots too. On to Linda Bloomfield's stall where a lovely new lemon yellow glaze attracts me and I buy a mug, tall and straight. She's also developed a new mushroom coloured glaze. 'Men didn't buy my work until I made the 'grey,' she explains.' She's talking to a woman from London Potters Association who's taking copious notes and questioning every potter closely, particularly about sales. Origin, according to Linda, delivers the goods. Hooray! So I'm not the only one determined to kick our sluggish economy up the ass then.

Finally, it's Chis Keenan. Lately he's been making delicious Temmoku glazed work with sky blue insides and sure enough - he has mugs. Mugs! Proper mugs with handles - he's one for the Japanese aesthetic which is all very fine if you're Japanese but I'm English, very English, and I like a good stout mug for tea, brown tea - and I've always had my doubts about blue with brown. However, to my surprise, I find myself selecting a mug with a handle and buying it. Someone had asked him to put a handle on a tea-bowl apparently - and damn sound advice it was too. I don't hold with this tea-bowl nonsense. The colour is gorgeous. Ok, so the Temmoku is a wee bit marmitey and the handle's a bit fussy - Keenan's a tad over-crafted for my tastes but this is proper mug-shaped mug and I wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity - I do love that black/ blue mix. I needn't have worried about the blue / brown tea look. It works perfectly. The tea just reaches up near the rim where the black of the Temmoku is bleeding into the blue and it's just exactly right. Looks like a turbulent Autumn day in fact. Slurrrp. That's better - and silky smooth too, enough to calm the most jittery nerves, even those of the markets.

Origin, The London Craft Fair, 2008, part 2

Quote of the week, or possibly of the moth:

“My star customer at Origin was someone who owns Edmund de Waal's wall of pots
but feeds her children off my tableware.”

This from Linda Bloomfield, she of the delicate pink interiors.

So Origin 2 was, well, altogether more upbeat than week 1. If we consider the Crafts Council’s stated aims, one of which is to create a viable economic infrastructure for the craft sector, then this was an unqualified success, as far as I could see. It would be a truly ground breaking achievement if countable numbers of makers could generate a sustainable living wage from making and selling their work, assuming that’s what they want, without needing to be from a class or family background which is able to provide a trust fund, or help with the mortgage, or similar, to keep things afloat. The acid test of this is if a critical mass of women from non-moneyed backgrounds can achieve that even if they are single, or have no obvious access to money. Then you know you’ve got an infrastructure not just a sprinkling of exceptions, or a group of people who’ve netted higher income partners. If they can achieve that, I’ll be cheering them to the rafters, however ‘naff’ ore over perfect the craft is.

Feedback from Emma Shaw and Linda Bloomfield.

Big thanks to Emma for being vastly more on the ball than I am. She supplies the link to the relevant page on the Jerwood Foundation website here which informs us of the new and improved ‘non medium-specific’ Jerwood Contemporary Makers which replaces the former Jerwood Prize for the Applied Arts. All the information you need is there, but I couldn’t resist copying the following sentence from their press release:

'They approached a range of makers to apply to take part in the exhibition, asking them to consider the theme of touch.'

Hmmmm. So will the application process always be closed, or were they just overly concerned to keep out the riff raff this year? As to ‘the theme of touch’, am I alone in thinking this sounds like something out of a GCSE coursework project?
The press release is downloadable in full as a pdf from the linked page as is the list of this year's selected makers.

From Linda Bloomfield:

Why should innovation be so important? The Crafts Council are now supporting artists who make finely- crafted art, rather than crafts people who make finely-crafted craft which ordinary people (as opposed to collectors or museums) actually want to buy. I have never had any help from the Crafts Council. I have, however, found Crafts Central (formerly Clerkenwell Green Association) very helpful with business training and opportunities.

post from Linda Bloomfield re CLF

Introducing an intriguing post from Linda Bloomfield about the CLF. I know this sounds like the militant wing of Ceramic Review, but it's actually the Country Living Fair. Here's what she confides:
I have just returned from exhibiting at the Country Living Fair in Islington, which is for ladies from the country to come and do a day's shopping. The good thing about it is that you get huge numbers of customers who wouldn't go to the usual ceramics and craft fairs. They buy my pink cake stands, jugs and bowls and some come back every time to add to their collections. They come from as far away as Yorkshire and the Scilly Isles. There is not much competition from other potters, apart from the likes of Emma Bridgewater or similar. Makers there included Jane Cox, Anna Perring of Luna Lighting, Lucy Dunce, who makes beautifully decorated earthenware dishes, and Gemma Wightman. I also saw a few of Katrin Moye's luscious fat jugs on Margo Selby's (woven textiles) stand. If you make things which appeal to women from the town and country, then you can sell a large amount at this show.
Linda's website here.