LONDON CRAFT WEEK (3-7 May) is an annual event that showcases exceptional craftsmanship through a journey-of-discovery programme featuring hidden workshops and unknown makers alongside celebrated masters, famous studios, galleries, shops and luxury brands.

I write a few paragraphs each year about London Craft Week (LCW) but third time around I think this needs to extend to a good few pages as this timely show has grown beyond all expectations. The classy brochure landed this week with 120 pages covering over 200 events, which are gathered together in one place for one magical week.  Here’s a quick edit.
 
Gilding first captured my imagination when reading about Clare Mosley’s Parisian apartment in Elle Decoration.  I wanted to move in with her Eglomise glass gilded objects.  If you want to explore gilding at LCW then head to OCHRE on Thursday 4 May, 3.30-4.30pm where Helen Chislett is in conversation with OCHRE and master gilder Katharine Knight. Katharine shows the stages of traditional water gilding and gold leaf technique on OCHRE’s new Surya light. This is the most beautiful and skillful of all the applied gold leaf techniques. The light has a hand-turned green oak shade where the natural cracks of the timber enhanced by slithers of 22-carat gold inspired by the ancient art of Kintsugi.
 
If you have a passion for process and in particular the lost-wax casting technique then you have something in common with Christopher and Nicola Cox, who continue to push the boundaries of materials: bronze; silver; wrought iron; blown glass and cast stone. These designer-makers talk to journalist Henrietta Thompson on Wednesday 3 May at 5pm, discussing how to commission handmade lighting and furniture.  Take a design journey from the inspirations, original drawings and artisan techniques to the finished limited-edition piece.
 
Why slow design matters is answered at FRONT who believe that waiting a few months for a bespoke rug is something to be celebrated. Discover the techniques, materials and processes behind the most sought after rugs in the world. Writer and author Emma Crichton-Miller and FRONT’s Creative Director Aigars Zelmenis discuss how to commission handmade rugs by award-winning designers Jan Kath, Michaela Schleypen and Zoe Luyendijk on Thursday 4 May, 6.30 -7.30pm.
 
Design writer Barbara Chandler works with leading creative agency Design-Nation to present an exhibition of work by over twenty of their members. The exhibition runs from 4-7 May and is themed around marks and tools of the maker. It includes Margo Selby’s woven artworks.  Don’t miss Barbara’s in conversation with Margo Selby, Michael Ruh and Hannah Tounsend.
 
Margo Selby is a champion of British craft whose experimental approach to woven textiles has won her world acclaim.  One area that Margo is most excited by is her ‘paintings with yarn’. These are hand-woven artworks using a technique called Lampas, which she learnt at Atelier National D’Art Textile in Paris. Recently the scale and ambition of these designs has developed into larger scale framed artworks. Each piece displays her fascination with the interaction between colour, proportion, texture and weave.
 
Neisha Crosland’s distinctive designs for textiles, wallpaper, rugs, flooring, tiles, homes and fashion, have won her international fame. At LCW she talks pattern to Lucie Hague, founder of online platform Beyond Bespoke, and takes guests on a special behind-the scenes tour of her private studio, garden and home. Glean an insight into the evolution of a pattern, from an idea through the creative process to the finished product and receive a signed copy of her new book ‘Life of a Pattern’ on Thursday 4 May, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm.
 
In her story in Sunday times Home, Katrina Burroughs commented that ‘in the era of “buying less but better” craft is king.’ 
 
Fall under the spell of the handmade here
 

It’s incredible to think that over the next two years, wannabe entrepreneurs will launch up to 3.4m pop-up shops across the UK.  I am all for these outfits who give creatives a real shop window on this consumer world of ours.  My issue is that by the time the word gets out they have often popped off. I guess that’s the point.
 
One not to be missed is Fine Cell Work’s Christmas pop-up at 34 Great Windmill Street, London W1D 7LR open until 22 December, Monday to Saturday 10am – 7pm. The shop is supported by Kit Kemp, trustee, huge supporter and one of the collaborators of this pioneering prison charity and social enterprise.

“Embroidery requires a lot of heart, which inspired the heart-shaped oak-leaf design. This is what Fine Cell Work is all about helping prisoners in a constructive way – and I’m thrilled to support them.” 
- Kit Kemp
 
Just around the corner from Kit Kemp’s Ham Yard Hotel is Fine Cell Work’s pop-up. Discover Kit Kemp’s exclusive soft furnishings in the form of her Fine Cell Work collaborations - cushions and lavender bags that make perfect presents that keep on giving for Christmas.  Her ‘Heart of Oak’ design reflects her joyful sense of colour and love of embroidery. Other interior designer collaborators include Ben Pentreath, Melissa Wyndham, John Stefanidis while Daisy de Villeneuve vintage art cushions head fashionable line.
 
The Christmas pop-up has a great selection of hand-stitched cushions in fabulous themes. There are also aprons, lavender bags, decorations made from British wool and beautifully embroidered Sway bags and even cross-stitched Christmas cards.
 
Time, love and care go into making each item. They are produced in British prisons as part of Fine Cell Work’s rehabilitation programme that teaches needlepoint and embroidery to 450 prisoners each year, encouraging them to come out with new employable skills and the hope of a better future.  
 
Pop into Fine Cell Work
34 Great Windmill Street, London W1D 7LR
Tel:  020 7931 9998
 
Christmas gifts and decorations also available online

It is just me or is Christmas getting earlier? Four festive film channels aired on the first of November and I am already weary of Monty and Mabel and penguin hash tags. Call me cynical, but that Penguin has already sold out at JL and is now going on EBay for £500. I certainly don’t want a bit of Monty in my Christmas.

But what I do want is more of the Pentreath & Hall’s of this world. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas now in Bloomsbury, and next Thursday 4th December seems just the right time for the festive shopping evening.

The beauty of Pentreath & Hall is the deeply discerning aesthetic of the team behind it. Together, architectural designer Ben and artist Bridie have created one of the most keenly watched stores in the London decoration world.  

The Christmas shop is now open and where else can you buy crackers lovingly handmade in Dorset covered in Judd Street Papers or wrappings based on stone floor and marble patterns by the great 18th century designer Batty Langley, and re-imagined by Pentreath & Hall? Bridie Hall’s handmade candles are now available in gift boxes with a new Covert fragrance that evokes the green smells of the forest, of pine branches and mossy banks. The shop has the best collection of decoupage in the country and toys – well, there are musical spinning wheels, vintage locomotives and that Educated Monkey must be one of the funniest ways to learn your times tables.

For those unable to visit the shop there is an excellent website and deliveries of handsomely wrapped brown paper parcels are made worldwide.

Pentreath & Hall
17 Rugby Street
London WC1N 3QT
www.benpentreath.com

The 1950s saw a frenzy of interest in home making and the young were keen that decoration and furnishings should be modern. They were encouraged by a flurry of exhibitions most notably the Festival of Britain in 1951; institutions such as the Council of Industrial Design established in 1944 and publications such as House & Garden, which all promoted a vision of ‘good design.’

Blighty and in particular London continues to push the boundaries of design and the capital is now an international creative hub, a city with a great heart flowing out to communities each with their own unique stamp.

Cutting-edge jewellery designer Lara Bohinc celebrates the launch of her furniture collaborations with Lapicida, as part of Chelsea Design Quarter events at The London Design Festival.

The new kid on the block is The London Design Festival launched in 2003, an event conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans. Building on London's existing design activity, their concept was to create an annual event that would promote the city's creativity, drawing in the country's greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to deliver an unmissable celebration of design.

If last year was jam-packed (333 projects and events staged by 216 partner organisations) then this year (13-21 Sept) sees even more districts. The sheer scope of the Festival events is fabulous but I wonder if far too much to see and do. Maybe our city is just too big and sprawling for the design cognoscenti to venue-hop.  

The Chelsea Design Quarter is a partner of the London Design Festival  and is one of the design districts to visit. Check out events on the London Design Festival website but a few highlights include:

Lapicida

Designers In Conversation

Monday 15 September, 6.30-8.30pm 


Roca London Gallery

‘Urban Plunge’ exhibition & panel discussion

Monday 15 September, 6-8pm 


The Rug Company

Meet the Designer – Jonathan Saunders

Thursday 18 September, 6 – 8pm


chelseadesignquarter.co.uk

londondesignfestival.com

The trouble with this PR business is that you are always working months ahead.  This bonkers time scale is further hindered by the onset of the summer holidays, which means magazines try and get a few issues under their belts before the seasonal exodus. This planning ahead also gives rise to the phenomenon of what we media folk call ‘ Christmas in July.’

Summer is when the shops preview their festive designs, when sandal-footed editors do their Christmas shopping for stories.

Where better to start then Pentreath & Hall and their fellow Bloomsbury shopkeepers – Darkroom, Persephone Books, Susannah Hunter, The French House, Maggie Owen and Thornback & Peel.

Only 161 days...

Christmas in July Press Day
Thursday 17th July, 8.30am – 6pm

pentreath-hall.com

One editor who joined me for champagne on the Ochre Salon said she felt quite humble in the face of Masterpiece, and doubly so having just hotfooted it from Chelsea Harbour’s Superyacht Design week. Walking the plushly carpeted halls of Masterpiece, I could see how even the pious may renounce their vows and wish they’d a few million to spend.

I was at Masterpiece with Ochre, a contemporary design company that I cherish and whose beautifully crafted products I covet. These pieces are modern collectables – something to fall in love with, never tire of and stamped with Ochre’s hallmark – discreet glamour. Ochre’s new creations were in the company of the old masters.

Collectors, curators, and designers flock to savour a staggering array of art, design, fine antique furniture, precious jewels and vintage cars showcasing £1 billion worth of works from antiquity to contemporary. 

Standouts range from Impressionist paintings to unique diamonds. Within the first hour of the fair Apter Fredericks had sold an important mirror, a sale that was eclipsed by selling their pair of chinoiserie cabinets by Vile and Cobb to an American collector for a seven-figure sum.  Another valuable sale belongs to Symbolic and Chase who have sold a 1912 Cartier Corsage for in excess of $20 million. These are accessible prices for the visiting troupe of shoppers at Masterpiece, which is now part of the glitterati’s social calendar.

The prize for Object of the Year went to Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s ‘The Masterpiece 2014’ exhibited by Blain Southern and Painting of the Year to an ‘en grissaile’ maritime work by William van der Velde The Elder (1611-1693), offered for sale by John Mitchell Paintings.

My highlights Richard Philip and Elizabeth Turk also highlight how Masterpiece is reinvigorating the market in the traditional fields and incorporating that with a new look at contemporary design.

Masterpiece is well worth a visit - even though some of the art and antiquities really do belong in museums… 

www.masterpiecefair.com

We’ve certainly had our fill of the Georgians as the whole nation marks the 300th anniversary of George I’s accession. ‘WILLIAM KENT Designing Georgian Britain’ at the V&A until 13 July is an exhibition that explores this polymath, who having lived the high-life in Italy returned to recreate the dream in Britain. Handy for him that his career also co-incided with the rise of country-house building.

I guess what is relevant to our homes is how he turned from painter to architect of interior design tackling an interior space as a whole – fascinated with everything from door frames and fireplaces to flamboyant furnishings. Love or loathe his exuberance he was seen as an arbiter of taste and in modern terminology a brand builder when Britain was ready for a fresh start. Decorex, which is at Syon Park, is going mad for the new Georgiana, just announcing it as this year’s theme, honing in on craftsmanship, celebrity and brand. 

Sitting Room in ‘English Decoration’ by Ben Pentreath
The Katzsic sofa designed by Max Rollitt is based on a sofa Max bought in a Manor House in Lancashire which dates from 1790.

Georgian style is considered one of quality and taste. We are building Georgian-style homes again and wresting rooms back from the grips of open-plan living.  Neo-classicalism is just incredibly elegant and pleasing to the eye. Perhaps all this marks a move away from minimalism towards a desire for detail in decoration and for interiors that are refined and composed, yet comfortable and joyful.

The above image is Ben Pentreath’s house in Dorset, a 19th century former Parsonage, where as he says the ‘rooms are calm, quiet spaces and I have designed accordingly, using plain, light furniture that responds to the simplicity of the building. The Parsonage is a changing place, as I use the house as a test-bed for my own ideas and thoughts, but an underlying Englishness and sense of comfort prevail.’

pentreath-hall.com

maxrollitt.com

1919 was the first time street parties were organised by residents en masse. These were sit down formal affairs and were part of the Peace Treaty celebrations. Thus began the unique British tradition of the street party held on all major national days of celebration and now whenever we feel fit, or can get a long-tern weather forecast.

The Chelsea Design Quarter is bringing back its King’s Road street party, last held around six years ago when one of the best antique showrooms in town (that will remain nameless) served the best cocktails in town.  The focus is now on beautiful furnishings, but fun it must be and it welcomes the great and the good of the design world.

Orchid are even staging the dance of the Chinese Dragon – for one night only!

The Chelsea Design Quarter’s Summer Street Party on Wednesday 4th June, from 6-9pm is the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of the summer season in London.  Enjoy a relaxed summer evening having fun strolling with the stilt walkers, dancing to the Dixieland Jazz Band and just browsing the showrooms in this design hot spot.

This interiors Mecca is home to more than 45 showrooms where classic and traditional sit cheek by jowl with contemporary and modern. Partygoers can chat to well-know names behind the showrooms such as Christopher Sharp of The Rug Company, Sally Storey of John Cullen Lighting, Rupert Cavendish, Charles Edwards and Julia Boston to name but a few. Check out what’s showing at The Trowbridge Gallery and Thompson’s Contemporary, and visit the newly opened Drummonds and Waterworks and the newly expanded Lapicida.

After 9pm the music and party move to The Jam Tree!

chelseadesignquarter.co.uk