Tent Digital; Michael Eden, Lab Craft
September 23-26 sees Tent: London take over the Truman Brewery for its multi-faceted design show. ARTS THREAD previews the event and picks out some of the talents to visit.
Tent Digital is the showcase for digital creatives and digitally enabled design and this September’s selection includes Lab Craft: Digital adventures in contemporary craft from the Crafts Council. Lab Craft features 26 designers who mix traditional craft methods with new technology such as rapid prototyping, laser cutting, laser scanning and digital printing.
Tent Selects: Tortie Hoare & Harry Parr-Young at New Designers
Tent Selects is an area dedicated to 10 upcoming designers – all recent graduates. Look out for Tortie Hoare, who won the BDC New Designer of the Year at New Designers this July with her boiled leather furniture, as well as fellow New Bucks University graduate Harry Parr-Young, also snapped by ARTS THREAD at the Islington event.
Bucks New University are also the new Enterprise fellowship sponsor of Furniture Magpies, a small team of designers set up by Nessa Doran O’Reilly, Sivan Metzer and Sua Lee. The team also have the support of the National School of Furniture and the Worshipful company of Furniture Makers. The company specialise in regenerating old furniture to create new pieces as one-offs and say ‘Although our assembly methods are not always traditional our materials are!’
Lovely Legs collection, Furniture Magpies; One to Many collection, ByAsli
Also looking at recycling is the One to Many collection from ByAsli. Unwanted plastic bottles are transformed into stackable components and made into coffee tables, shelves, bottle racks, hooks and bird posts, with the addition of wood from reclaimed construction site boards sourced from the Bromley Wood Recycling Project.
Cloth pendant lights, Orchard studio; Enclosed Spaces 2, Anna Glasbrook
Daniel O’Riordan, a graduate of Bath Spa University, has set up Orchard Studio to showcase his furniture, interior products and also lighting – using advanced 3D modelling, digital simulation, 3d printing and CNC technology with traditional techniques and materials. ARTS THREAD saw his work at New Designers and loved the Cloth pendant lights: digital simulations of fabric falling that are 3D printed and then flocked internally to produce vibrant pendant lights.
Anna Glasbrook, also from Bath Spa University, brings her Enclosed Spaces, a series of three-dimensional, sculptural textile designs for use as free-standing panels, room-dividers or wall-hung pieces. Large-scale images of her work can also be printed onto Perspex or glass panels; each piece is made using double-faced satin ribbon, transparent net fabric, backed with silk fabric and encased in an aluminum frame.
Fade Vase in Purple Clay, Xin Yaoyao; Merry Go Round Clock, Haoshi Design Studio
Xin Yaoyao is a recent graduate from the Jiangnan University School of Design in China and brings to Tent London her work which uses traditional Chinese techniques in new ways, such as her Rice Paper lamps and Purple Clay vases.
Haoshi Design Studio was set up in Taipei, Taiwan in 2009 and the name comes from the Chinese for ‘Good things’. The label focus on joyful fun jewellery and time pieces.
Minotaur tieback, Jessica Light; Side Table, Ashley & Boyle; Leaf Chandelier, Aline Johnson
Jessica Light is one of the last working trimming weavers left in England, producing innovative and contemporary passementerie of the highest quality. Everything is handmade to order in her East London workshop using methods dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
Ashley & Boyle, Danielle Boyle and Alexandra Ashley, both studied textiles at Chelsea College of Art and Design and have developed a range of innovative furniture using hand embroidery and Perspex, combining traditional craft techniques with contemporary materials. Look out also for Aline Johnson’s glass leaf chandeliers.
Book online for Tent London until September 17 2010.
Tent London
Tortie Hoare
Harry Parr-Young
Furniture Magpies
ByAsli
Orchard Studio
Xin Yaoyao
Anna Glasbrook
Haoshi Design Studio
Jessica Light
Ashley & Boyle
Aline Johnson
