CRAFTHOUSE

CRAFTHOUSE is the vision of artist Cressa McLaren.

Two curated showrooms will be open within The Briggait, Glasgow. They will present contemporary craft for the home, showcasing Cressa’s decorative glassware as well many other makers from across Scotland. Each piece on display will be bespoke contemporary handmade craft from some of Scotland’s most skilful artisans. It will include furniture, pottery, textiles, lighting and glass. Exhibiting artisans include Cressa McLaren, glassmaker; Richard Owen, furniture-maker; Cat and Andy of nocomplydesign; Andy Priestman, potter; Chantal Woven, textile designer; Laura Derby, textile designer; Gvido Bolsevics, furniture maker; Stuart Campbell, furniture maker; Ceri White, potter; and Stephen Finch, furniture maker.

From Cressa: I have a real passion, love and appreciation for high-end craft. This exhibition will highlight and celebrate craft-makers from across Scotland. With CRAFTHOUSE I want to focus on contemporary makers and provide a platform to showcase the wide variety and high quality of current craft production. By presenting the works together I hope to raise awareness of this talent and create a vision of how contemporary craft can look in an interior setting.

A glass artist based at Wasps within The Briggait, Cressa McLaren studied Architectural Glass at the City of Glasgow College. She went on to set up Cressa’s Glassworks in 2006 and has been practicing the craft of kiln-formed glass ever since. She produces a range of distinctive designs including tableware, lighting and a collection of work Glass Meadows made up of wall-mounted glass flowers. She has years of experience exhibiting in galleries, solo shows and open studios. Cressa has had the vision to showcase her work alongside other Scottish artisans for some time. She believes that presenting in this way can only add strength to the practice of the makers and will allow the viewer to experience the work in relatable terms.

Gvido Bolsevics is based in Glasgow and grew up in Latvia. The forests were a way of life; discovering and foraging. This is where his love of wood began. He studied furniture joinery and wood carving in his home country. He now has over 20 years of experience both designing and making bespoke furniture in Scotland and overseas.

Andy Priestman has lived and worked at Minniwick, south-west Scotland since 1973. His pottery and studio are surrounded by oak woods, birch and Scots pine, and the upland terrain of the Galloway Hills. Clays, slips and glazes are refined and adjusted from firing to firing, as new materials are introduced. Ball clays from Dorset and Devon make up most of the two stoneware bodies mixed by hand, but the colour and textures are achieved by adding – or using as slips –local low-firing clays and Ayrshire fireclays, along with the granite sand of Loch Neldricken. Glazes are based on simple clay/wood ash and clay/ limestone combinations, along with feldspar, quartz and Cornish stone.

No Comply is a celebration of skateboarding and its unique community. Cat & Andy are a wee team of two and craft from their workshop inside an old barn, nestled in the beautiful Perthshire countryside. The homeware and jewellery pieces they make are crafted from broken, disused skateboards – donated from skaters across the UK – and locally sourced, reclaimed hardwood.

Stuart Campbell returned to education as a mature student in 2012 to study Musical Instrument making in Glasgow at Anniesland College, making the ‘The Spalted Silverado’ acoustic guitar as a 2^nd year student that took the Advanced Instruments award at the 2013 CRAFTEX show. He completed an HND in Furniture and Restoration course at City of Glasgow and began the construction of his workshop ‘The Arc’ in his back garden. He completed his studies with the submission of a reproduction table piece based on a Seth Roland design that took the Advanced Furniture award as well as the CRAFTEX Gold Medal that year. Stuart is the Team Leader at the 3D Making Workshop (Reid) at GSA.

From her studio in Perth’s Creative Exchange, Ceri White produces a confectionery of contemporary ceramics for the home. She specialises in hand-thrown earthenware vessels and planters, alongside which she has developed a range of delightful interior accessories including collectable tiny house sculptures and miniature vases. Every piece is unique and made using traditional pottery techniques, from the ball of clay thrown on a wheel, through various decorating processes and two kiln firings, to the finished item. Ceri is art school trained with many years of studio experience and continues to be influenced by a 1970’s suburban upbringing, the minutaie of nature, a lifetime habit of doodling and collecting, and a love and understanding of colour and pattern.

Richard Owen was born in 1964 in Llanharan, South Wales. He studied at Cheltenham School of Art (BA 1996) and Central Saint Martins (MA 1997). His work has been exhibited in the UK, Europe and South America. His art practice is formed by looking at the world, people and their lived environment.

Stephen Finch is an Edinburgh based designer-maker of bespoke wooden furniture. He combines traditional joinery techniques and modern production methods in the pursuit of his craft. His work is precise with great attention to detail and is meticulously hand-finished to the highest quality. Inspired by the philosophy and style of George Nakashima and the clean lines of Mid Century Modern design, Stephen strives for an elegant and simple aesthetic which makes the best use of the timber’s characteristics combined with his own craftmanship.

Laura Derby designs and makes fun, colourful, heirloom quality hand-tufted wool pile textiles. This technique allows her to paint and sculpt with yarn and weave elements of nature and heritage into useful objects. Natural phenomena like colour, time, infinite variation in nature, and human nature, inspire her. Invisible, primal, archetypal drives intrigue her.

Chantal Balmer’s love of weaving and textile design first began whilst studying at The Glasgow School of Art, and after graduating in 2001 she was offered a position there to share her knowledge of this specialism with students. In 2006 she took a sabbatical to explore Jacquard woven structures in India. Bangalore is one of the main centres for commercial fabric production. On returning to Scotland she gained numerous awards and accolades and in 2014 she started up my own woven textile brand ‘Warped Textiles’, a luxury craft business focusing on time honoured artisan fabrics.