Rose Wood

Image courtesy of Rose Wood

In conjunction with Oriel Myrddin Gallery's exhibition Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft, currently touring from The Craft Council, west Wales based accessories designer, Rose Wood will be showing a range of her laser cut leather jewellery in the gallery shop.

Rose works with laser cut components, slicing and slotting flat shapes to build into sculptural jewellery. Working predominantly in leather and textiles she enjoys the tactility of the making process. 

The jewellery pieces are made from soft leather and have a gestural, performative element to their design, they are sensuous in their physicality and designed to be enjoyed and experienced as tactile objects. 

Rose has also designed intriguing folded textiles that act as sculptural garments and performance pieces.

Untitled from rose wood on Vimeo.

Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft

Installation of Lab Craft at Oriel Myrddin Gallery

I'm really excited that we are currently in the process of installing The Crafts Council touring show, Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft at Oriel Myrddin Gallery. The work arrived with us yesterday and our colleagues from The Crafts Council arrived today to work with us on the installation.

We first saw the show at Tent London in 2010 and were really captured by the ideas and possibilites that the show present to the contemporary designer and craftsperson.

Lab Craft includes 26 makers who combine hand, mind, eye, technical mastery of tools and materials, and aesthetic sensibility, with cutting-edge digital technologies. Using rapid prototyping, laser cutting, laser scanning and digital printing, Lab Craft explores the use of technology as an extension to the capabilities of the human hand.

Curated by Max Fraser, the exhibition includes work by some of the most experimental names currently working in craft and design, including; Tord Boontje, Michael Eden, Gareth Neal, Timorous Beasties and Nina Tolstrup, with many showing innovative work previously unseen. Textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and much more are presented to engage and intrigue anyone with an interest in craft, materials, design, and technology.

Watch this space for more images and thoughts as the show comes together. There will be an opening event on Saturday 3 March at 2pm with a talk by craft practitioners Anna Lewis and Claire Savage Onstwedder called Crafting Technology. Both Anna and Claire work with CIRIC at Swansea Metropolitan Museum.

Lab Craft will run from 25 February - 7 April 2012.

Lost in Lace

Lost in Lace at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

I managed to get to see Lost in Lace at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery before if closed at the weekend. This major show was curated by Lesley Miller, one of the speakers at Oriel Myrddin Gallery's warp+weft Symposium in 2010.

The exhibition brought together 20 international artists and makers to think about the qualities and properties of lace and to play with these contexts in relation to the architectural space of the gallery.

Chiharu Shiota - After the Dream 201

The show included an installation by Berlin based artist Chiharu Shiota using her distinctive black-string installation technique which en-traps objects in its web of lines and space, in this case long, white dresses which seem to hover, ghost-like above the ground.

There is a dedicated website for the show which has information about the ideas behind the show and the artists involved.

Charmed Life: The solace of objects

Felicity Powell - Conjuring Coral - seen here

The Wellcome Collection in London is currently showing an exhibition of charms and amulets, Charmed Life: The solace of objects which is the result of a project with artist, Felicity Powell. Powell has had the opportunity to engage with the museum's collection of 1400 amulets and charms collected in the early twentieth century by folklorist, Edward Lovett. She is also showing her own extraordinary wax drawings and films alongside the collection.

The exhibition publicity uses this insightful quotation from 1580:  “It seems that the soul... loses itself in itself when shaken and disturbed unless given something to grasp on to; and so we must always provide it with an object to butt up against and to act upon.” Michel de Montaigne, 'Essais' 

The exhibition runs until 26 February 2012.