The Capital of Craft

The Capital of Craft Season 5, Wales Special To celebrate the first Craft Festival Wales at Cardigan Castle, I had a lovely conversation with textile artist and surface pattern designer, Sophie Snow. Born and bred near Cardigan, West Wales, Sophie lives in St Dogmaels and makes contemporary quilts.  I loved hearing about her creative family and how she is passing down her passion for making to her own children. You can meet Sophie at Craft Festival Wales from September 6-8th 2024.  Sophie will also be speaking at The Capital of Craft LIVE at Craft Festival about her practise.  Join us in Cardigan. www.craftfestival.co.uk Sophie Snow 

Welcome to Season 5 of The Capital of Craft: Wales Special. To celebrate the first Craft Festival Wales at Cardigan Castle, it was a real pleasure to interview Rosa Harradine for The Capital of Craft podcast.  Rosa is based in Carmarthen and makes brooms and brushes. We talk about her creative life and how she began making brooms. It's a lovely story and I hope you enjoy listening.  You can meet Rosa and 80 more makers at Craft Festival Wales from September 6-8, 2024 at Cardigan Castle. Rosa is also one of our demonstrators and you can also find her work in the Craft Festival Town Trail, which runds from August 30 to September 20th.  Craft Festival Wales is funded by Arts Council of Wales, Ceredigion County Council and QEST.  www.craftfestival.co.uk/wales Rosa Harradine

The Capital of Craft 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Season To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in June, here is the 4th season of The Capital of Craft hosted by me, Sarah James MBE. I am the director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker.  In this podcast I chat with the inspirational and influential founder of the Craftivist Collective, Sarah Corbett. Sarah is joining us at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in the Out of the Woods tent on June 8th where she will be in conversation with Daniel Carpenter, Executive Director of Heritage Crafts.  Born in Everton, Liverpool, Sarah P Corbett is an award-winning activist, Ashoka Fellow, author and founder of the global Craftivist Collective. She has dedicated over a decade to the Craftivist Collective, honing her unique 'Gentle Protest' methodology, combining neuroscience, positive psychology, campaign strategy and beautiful handicrafts. We talk about upbringing in Liverpool and how her parents shaped her approach to activism and why it's important to use your voice for change.   Her latest book, Craftivist Collective Handbook is is out now.  Craft Festival Bovey Tracey, Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9FF www.craftfestival.co.uk   

The Capital of Craft 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Season To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in June, here is the 4th season of The Capital of Craft hosted by me, Sarah James MBE. I am the director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker.  Margo Selby is one of the UK's most celebrated and successful textile artists. Back in 2008, Margo was awarded Best New Business.  Since then she has built an impressive portfolio of creative work and working collaboratively with leading high street brands.  Her latest work, the spectacular moon landing; her first site-specific installation, created in collaboration with composer Helen Caddick, was debuted at Collect at Somerset House in March 2024.  Margo will be joining us at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey on June 8th. She will be running a workshop at Make Southwest in the Morning. In the afternoon, she will be giving a talk about her work in the Out of the Woods tent at Craft Festival. The talk is free and cannot be booked in advance.  Margo talks with me from her studio in Whitstable. https://www.margoselby.com/ https://www.craftfestival.co.uk/

The Capital of Craft 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Season To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in June, here is the 4th season of The Capital of Craft hosted by me, Sarah James MBE. I am the director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker.  Alex Finberg was the recipient of Craft Festival's Making It Award 2023 and debuted at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey that year.  In our podcast we find out more about his career. Trained in psychology, his entry into woodworking came about from working on therapeutic projects. I loved learning more about Alex's life and his passion for the outdoors. He talks with me from his Devon home. https://alexfinberg.co.uk/ https://www.craftfestival.co.uk/  

The Capital of Craft LIVE from Cheltenham Town Hall: Bonus Podcast As a bonus podcast, listen to Sarah James MBE talk to Dr Kate Strasdin about her critically and commercially successful latest non-fiction book, The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes.  The book is investagative journalism meets fashion and social history and is a brilliant read. Sarah and Kate talks about the fascinating story of how she found the diary and the lengths she went to to piece together the life and times of Mrs Anne Sykes.  Dr Kate Strasdin is a senior lecturer at Falmouth University, where she teaches contextual studies for Fashion Design, Fashion Photography, Fashion Marketing and Performance Sportswear Design. Sounds quality reflects a live setting.  @katestrasdin  @craftfestival  @thecapitalofcraft  

The Capital of Craft with Keith Brymer-Jones and Marj Hogarth. To celebrate the end of our good friend, Keith Brymer-Jones', storming national tour, we are releasing a podcast to end Season 3 of The Capital of Craft. Recorded live earlier this year at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall,  Keith is in conversation with his partner Marj Hogarth, talking in great depth, with humour and poignancy about his life, growing up in London to Welsh parents. Becoming (as well as a dancer and singer) an accomplished and prolific potter, before being "discovered" by Love Productions and asked to be a judge on The Great Potter Throwdown. The series has gained a hugely loyal following, almost entirely due to the warm and emotional interactions between Brymer-Jones and the contestants. The show is now the 2nd most popular show on Channel 4 after Bake Off!  Marj and Keith have just completed a successful, 22 date national theatre tour, where they brought Keith's book, Boy in a China Shop, to life.  Huge Congrats Keith and Marj. Sound quality reflects a live environment. 

Recorded Live at Craft Festival Cheltenham March 2023 The Capital of Craft Podcast with Sue Pryke Sue Pryke is an award winning homeware designer and ceramicist with over three decades of experience. Sue talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker infront of a live audience at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall in March 2023. Sound qaulity reflects a live setting.  We talk about Sue's work and her new book, Design and Create Contemporary Tableware, which is co-authored by Linda Bloomfield. She has a wealth of experience lecturing, delivering design in both consultancy, production and in-house roles, to international and High Street retailers and restaurants including IKEA and Marks & Spencer and The Newt. She was awarded the Homes & Gardens Ceramic & Glass Designer Award in 2014 and was a judge on Season 3 of The Great Pottery Throwdown. In recent years, Sue has concentrated on studio production of her own ranges, selling these directly at trade and public specialist craft events. You can meet Sue Pryke at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023.  You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/ You can watch our films on You Tube You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival You can follow Sue Pryke on Instagram @suepryke

Our latest podcast features the brilliant basketmaker, Hilary Burns MBE. Hilary is one of the UK's most respected makers. Recipient of Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year in 2018, she was also awarded MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2021, in recognition of her dedication to her craft.  She talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker from her Devon home. We talk about her earliest memories of making and what keeps her exploring the possibilities of creativity. Hilary has been curating one of our most loved features at Craft Festival, Out of the Woods, for a number of years. You can meet Hilary at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023.  You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/ You can watch our films on https://www.youtube.com/@craftfestival1035/featured You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival You can follow Hilary Burns on Instagram Hilary Burns (@hilaryburnsbasketmaker) | Instagram

Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker meets with lecturer, designer and maker Keeley Traae. We met at her home in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK. Keeley has had a varied and illustrious career in design having worked for ceramic industry giants Wedgewood and Royal Doulton. She set up her own making practise, Keeley Traae Design in 2020. She has extensive experience in ceramic design, design management and evaluating market trends. In her own practise, she is now known for her dististictive use of colour and shape,  specialising in 3D Printing techniques.  Keeley is also a senior lecturer on the Staffordshire University 3D Designer Maker BA (Hons) course and Product, Furniture, Ceramics BA (Hons). The course is a mixed material course and so she has the opportunity to work with students not only with their ceramic designs and making processes but also with many other materials and objects. Working alongside the amazing course leader Timothy Forrester and other design and industry experts, she thoroughly enjoys sharing her knowledge, skills, and over 25 years of experience with the next generation of creatives.  @keeleytraae_3d @craftfestival @find.amaker

The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with visual artist, potter, curator and lecturer, Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery.  Peter trained in Ceramics and 3D in the mid 1980s at Camberwell School of Art. In the mid 1990s he completed an MA in Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan. Peter lives near Cardigan and runs St.Dogmaels Pottery in West Wales. He is an experienced educator having worked with a number of UK Universities. Informing and framing his ceramic practice are a range of sources including the processes of walking the coast, swimming along its shore, gathering objects, materials and studying its intertidal ecology and geology. Images, motifs and gestural marks brushed or drawn into the surface of both his functional pots and the sculptural vessels can be seen as direct traces of his phenomenological experience. @st.dogmaels_pottery @craftfestival @find.amaker  

Season 3 of The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker, gallery owner and teacher, Jennifer Collier.  We talk about her practise and how she moved from textiles to paper and how her gallery, Unit Twelve, founded with her partner Iain Perry, has moulded her making life.  Paper pioneer, Jennifer Collier, creates exquisite sculptures from vintage recycled materials in conjunction with stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers serve as both the inspiration and the media for the work, with the narrative suggesting the forms. Through this marriage of unlikely materials old papers are transformed into something truly unique, delicate and complex. Most recently Jennifer has been collecting rarely used, heritage stitches and discovering how to translate the art of lost stitches onto paper, as these techniques are an important part of our creative heritage and she wants to continue to invest time in them to keep them in the present, offering them onto future generations. Jennifer is giving new life to things that would otherwise go unused, unloved or be thrown away. Jennifer completed a BA (hons) in Textiles (Print, Knit and Weave) in 1999 at Manchester Metropolitan University, is internationally exhibited, and has had her work featured in over 60 magazines and over 15 books to date. @paperjennifer @unittwelve @craftfestival @find.amaker

Season 3 of The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker and shop owner, Becky Prior.  They speak from her shop, Prior in Cabots Circus in Bristol. Becky's journey as a maker is interwoven with stories of overcoming great personal setbacks and is truly inspirational, told with great humanity and humour.  @priorshopbristol @priormade @craftfestival @find.amaker

Welcome to Season 3 of The Capital of Craft. Earlier in the year at Craft Festival Cheltenham, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker interviewed potter and Pottery Throwdown Judge, Keith Brymer Jones in front of a live audience.  We talk about his autobriography "Boy in a China Shop", his Welsh roots and the journey from Highgate to becoming a treasured TV Potter.  We'll be opening the doors of Craft Festival Cheltenham on Saturday November 26-27th. Next March, Keith will be joining us again at Craft Festival at Cheltenham Town Hall.  @keithbrymerjones @craftfestival @find.amaker

In the final episode of Season 2 of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with weaver and educator, James Donald from Pick One.  They speak from his workshop in Coburg House in Leith, Edinburgh. James talks about his journey into textiles and his early life in Brechin in Angus, which as well as having access to countryside and freedom, it also established his love of music and dancing at the iconic nightclub, Flicks.  James is joining us at Craft Festival Cheltenham from March 11-13th at Cheltenham Town Hall.  @pickoneweave @craftfestival