Der Schmuck Salon; Nail Extensions, Sandra Buyck, St Lucas University College of Art & Design

In advance of the show, ARTS THREAD takes a look at the highlights of Object Rotterdam, taking place February 09-12 at the Las Palmas building in the city’s docklands area.

The majority of the exhibitors are Dutch naturally, with a smattering of Belgian galleries. As the show partners alongside Art Rotterdam, there is an emphasis on design with a focus on art, craft and jewellery.

As ARTS THREAD, we are keen to see the university stands at the show. St Lucas University College of Art & Design in Antwerp is showcasing the work of students from the jewellery/silversmithing department. Entitled Der Schmuck Salon, the exhibition is curated by Hilde De Decker and was created within the research project UnScene, jewellery and presentation. The red plush boudoir fixtures are built in as a showcase for the jewellery. We particularly like the Nail Extensions series using hair, silver and brass by Sandra Buyck.

Rot, Jorge Bakker; Pillow, Mirela Srsa, Sandberg Institute

Red Shell, Catherine Truman; Boxes, Chien-Wei Chang, Galerie Ra

Holier that thou, Christel van der Laan, Galerie Louise Smit; Chain, Ineke Otte

New for 2012 is the appointment of featured designers to the fair, who will create a special attraction at the event. This year’s artists are Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn of Studio DRIFT, who have created an inter­active installation at the fair, playing with light and shadow.

Fragile Futures, Studio DRIFT

Object Rotterdam runs February 09-12 at the Las Palmas building, Rotterdam.

St Lucas University College of Art & Design
Sandberg Institute
Galerie Ra
Louise Smit
Ineke Otte
Studio DRIFT

Future Map 11, Selfridges

The University of the Arts London unveiled their Future Map 11 exhibition yesterday at the Zabludowicz Collection. The show features 30 of the most ‘cutting edge’ talent from the University’s 2011 graduates. ARTS THREAD takes a look at a handful of the best creatives on show.

In addition, Selfridges is showcasing seven designers from this year’s Future Map in a window display designed by StudioXAG and curated by the Future Map team.

Karin Soderquist, 'To the North Pole'

Camberwell College of Arts graduate Karin Soderquist will be showing her intricate laser cut 3D illustrations. Each illustration tells the story of two sisters who journey together to the North Pole. See Karin’s ARTS THREAD portfolio.

Karin says of her work: ‘The world I create is filled with bubblegum colours, snowy mountain tops and endless summer days. It may all seem nice and sweet but my work often have a darker side too, a bear wearing a hat is still a bear and it would have you for lunch if it could!’

Jon Anders Gulbrandsen is displaying his final project from the MA Graphic Design Communication course at Chelsea College of Art & Design. The project, an animation titled [uppruni] explores traditional Norse mythology and the way these folk tales ‘explain the world beyond what we can see, hear, touch and feel’. See Jon’s ARTS THREAD portfolio.

Alex Kwan, 'Endangered'

Graphic Designer Alex Kwan, who graduated from Central Saint Martins is showcasing his ‘Endangered’ project. The work features the image of a polar bear etched onto three separate pieces which are attached to the hands of a clock mechanism. As the images rotate, the bear is turned into a machine – highlighting the plight of the species and the way technology has a stranglehold on nature.

Chieh Ting Huang, 'The P Objects'

Camberwell College of Arts graduate Chieh Ting Huang is showing ‘The P Objects’ project which draws inspiration from lanterns of eastern and western cultures.

Chieh explains: ‘These objects also represent a homage to lighting and the taming of fire as the cornerstone of humanity, which can easily ignored by people in the modern world.’ See our review of Chieh’s gradaute show on the ARTS THREAD blog.

Wei Wang, 'Celadon Egg Shape Ceramic Evening Bag'

Traditional Chinese ceramics are turned into beautiful evening bags by London College of Fashion graduate Wei Wang, whom we featured in ARTS THREAD magazine Issue 4. To create the bags, Wei used a traditional Chinese crackle glaze: ‘The crackle pattern will continuously crack so that the ceramic displays new appearances at different periods. I like this idea very much. It would be like carrying an elegant bag that incorporates the glorious past with the present fashionable outlook.’

Jy Yeon Suh, 'Duvet Stalls'

A great project to look out for in the exhibition is the ‘Duvet Stalls’ project by Jy Yeon Suh – a series of flat-pack textiles that inflate to become stools and lamps. See Jy’s work as part of our review of Talking Textiles during Milan Design Week.

Iyvone Khoo, 'Liminality'

New ways of looking at everyday objects, activities and situation are explored in a video directed by Central Saint Martins MA Fine Art graduate Ivyone Khoo. See Ivyone’s ARTS THREAD portfolio.

Ivyone explains: ‘The positioning of the video cameras took on a ‘functional’ role in probing relationships between how we see and what we think we see. In these works the camera became my surrogate eyes.’

Jing Jing Cao, 'Memento Mori'

The beautiful ‘Memento Mori’ collection by Harold Hobbs Memorial Process Award winning jeweller Jing Jing Cao is another project to look out for.

Geoff Bartholomew, 'Postal Service'

Drawing inspiration from Neoclassical sculpture, early 17th century landscape painting and contemporary abstract art, Camberwell College of Arts graduate Geoff Bartholomew creates incredible photography.

Holly Stevenson, 'Swiss Roll'

A fascination with wrist watches has informed ‘Swiss Roll’, a project by Chelsea, MA Fine Art graduate Holly Stevenson.

Giovanni Martins, 'Manifesto'

‘Manifesto’ by Giovanni Martins is a wonderful dream-like fashion film which makes use of bullet time animation techniques.

Giovanni explains: ‘Inspired by Andre Bretons ‘Le Manifeste du surrealism’, written in 1924, it’s 5 moving sequences of fashion photography reference and draw inspiration from techniques employed in classic surrealist films such as Cocteau’s ‘Blood of a poet’ and Luis Bunuel’s ‘Un chien de Andalou’.’

Emma Hancock, 'Eames'/ 'Albers'

Furniture and 70s interior design influences the work of London College of Fashion graduate and footwear designer Emma Hancock. Emma investigates the use of different textures in her collection with wood and curtain tassles being some of the unusual materials which she incorporates into the designs.

Future Map 11 is open from 12 January – 5 February 2012 at Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince of Wales Road, London NW5 3PT.

For full details of all the exhibiting designers visit the Future Map website.

Claire English/Momocreatura/Jessica de Lotz

A collective of seven extraordinary jewellery designers and one typewriter artist have taken up temporary residence in London’s Kingly Court. The group of up-and-coming creatives will be selling their latest designs at Pieces of 8, a pop-up shop project which was initially launched at the Clarence Dock in Leeds.

Claire English and Momocreatura (aka Momoko Tamura) both display a morbid sense of humour with their respective jewellery collections. Claire turns a dead mouse into a stunning, sterling wrist charm in ‘The Mouse About Bracelet’ while Momocreatura tortures and dismembers poor, defenseless woodland creatures in her macabre collection.

Nostalgia plays a large part in the creation of Jessica de Lotz’ intricate and emotive jewellery pieces. Basing her designs on historic such as framed baptismal certificates dates 1909 and hand-written love letters from the 1940s.

Keira Rathbone/ Laura Gravestock

Laura Gravestock will be displaying some stunning pieces from her Promise collection, which echoes the intricate construction of Moorish architecture, while the shop’s one and only non-jewellery designer, Keira Rathbone is selling some of her incredible typographic illustrations. Keira explores the creative and artistic potential of typewriters to create bold, graphic imagery.

Pieces of 8 runs from the 2 – 11th December at Unit 1.10 (1st floor), Kingly Court (off Carnaby Street), London, W1R 5LE.

Alice Meneter
Cabbage Is King
Claire English
Gina Melosi
Jessica de Lotz
Keira Rathbone
Laura Gravestock
Momocreatura

Sian Zeng, 'Magnetic Wallpaper'

While some of you might have headed to the high street for your Christmas shopping last weekend, ARTS THREAD were scouting for one-of-a-kind handmade gifts at Cockpit Arts’ Christmas Open Studios. Now in it’s 25th year, the award winning Social Enterprise and ‘creative business incubator’ for designer makers opened its Holborn studio doors to the public for three days, and will be doing the same at the Deptford studios this weekend.

We found the quality of everything on show really impressive, with nothing below par, and some really original concepts across all crafts. There was a great variety of jewellery, fashion, homeware, textiles and lighting.

Our favourite discovery was the interactive magnetic wallpaper by Sian Zeng (above), which features magnetic paper characters that can be moved around an illustrated scene, as well as speech bubbles that can be written on to create a personalised, ever-changing narrative. The concept is based around the changeable nature of fairytales, in which things are not always as they seem, frogs become princes, and vice versa. A Central St Martin’s Textiles graduate, Sian creates unique interior products with strong visual narrative, and her wallpapers have been chosen as one of Heal’s Christmas Picks this year. Sian’s collection of stuffed toys, Christmas cards and cushions all feature her quirky illustrations.

Tania Clarke Hall

Another highlight was Tania Clarke Hall’s dynamic leather jewellery. Inspired by tribal jewellery, Japanese wabi sabi and ‘the beauty of geometric solutions’, Tania explores the potential of leather as a material in jewellery, by bending, weaving, slashing and manipulating vegetable tanned leather in a variety of rich colours.

Sena Gu

We also loved Sena Gu’s tableware featuring fruit and vegetables cast in porcelain. Her cauliflower range seemed to be attracting a lot of attention and we also liked the simplicity of the lemon squeezer. A Royal College of Arts graduate, Sena aims to inject humour and a sense of vibrancy into her work, pulling away from the stereotypes associated with traditional tableware.

Some other stand-out designers deserve a mention – tailor Justin Oh, ceramicists Yoyo Ceramics and Shan Annabelle Valla and Zoe Miller of Tangent Accessories with her beautiful lambswool accessories.

The Deptford Christmas Open Studios will run from 2-4 December at 18-22 Creekside, London, SE8 3DZ. Opening times are 11am- 9pm on Friday and 11am – 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information:

Cockpit Arts Website.
Sian Zeng
Tania Clarke Hall
Sena Gu

Kerry Howley, 'Attraction Aversion' Hair Necklace/ Michelle Oh, 'Bristle Brooch'

Ten new graduates who scour the hidden nooks and crannies of our everyday environments for inspiration are exhibiting their latest creations in ‘Traces: Rust, Dust & Belly Button Fluff’ at the Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery.

Middlesex Uni graduate Kerry Howley will be showing her award winning ‘Attraction/Aversion’ collection – a series of intricate necklaces woven entirely from human hair. Kerry’s work highlights the way people react to hair – it’s a source of pride when on one’s head yet it fills many of us with disgust once it falls out. See Kerry’s ARTS THREAD portfolio here.

Central Saint Martins graduate Michelle Oh will display pieces from her deeply personal, multi-textural ‘We Were Here’ collection. The pieces in the collection were created in collaboration with her partner as a way of expressing and documenting their shared experiences as a couple. The textures used in each piece were collected from the surfaces of the everyday objects which she and her partner have been in contact with.

Mirjana Smith, 'teapots'/ Rachel Jones, brooch

Another designer to look out for at the show is Mirjana Smith (University College Falmouth) with her collection of teapots created from up-cycled materials mixed with unconventional objects such as coat hooks. Mirjana toys with our perceptions of functionality, creating objects which are engaging and utterly unique. See Mirjana’s ARTS THREAD portfolio.

Traces: Rust, Dust & Belly Button Fluff runs from 17th November 2011 – 29th January 2012 at the Kath Libbert Jewellery Gallery, Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford BD18 3LA.

For further information visit the Kath Libbert website.

Freshly Cut/ Lin Cheung, 'Silver Poppy'

Floral and heart motifs are omnipresent in jewellery design. From the Neoclassical jewellery of the late 1700s through to the Art Nouveau movement straight up to modern day accessories, the romantic connotations of these motifs have proven to be a timeless source of inspiration for both the designer and the wearer. For ‘Freshly Cut’ at Gallery Complete, Tel Aviv, seven jewellery makers have explored the aesthetic possibilities of these themes and produced their own contemporary interpretations.

Lin Cheung will be exhibiting her conceptual ‘Silver Poppy’ brooches which she created from clay impressions taken from various sites of shrapnel damage from the Second World War. The pieces represent both war and peace and act as reminders of the devastation that can be caused by conflict.

Attai Chen, 'Untitled'/ Rory Hooper, 'Crushed Rings'

Attai Chen combined discarded materials such as paper, paint, coal, linen and silver into his beautiful necklace which captures the patterns found in the cycles of growth and decay.

Another designer to keep an eye out for at the exhibition is Rory Hooper with his silver ‘Crushed’ rings created from cast off jewellery. Rory collected old and new jewellery pieces which included heart and flower motifs before smashing and hammering them into strange, abstract shapes.

‘Freshly Cut’ is open from the 10th November – 9th December 2011 at Gallery Complete, Tel Aviv then from the 8th February – 14th April 2012 at Flow Gallery, London.

Shana Teugels,'Crowned Curiosities'

The final results of Design Platform Limburg’s annual Toegepast program went on display today at the Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium. The five promising designers who took part were given the unique opportunity to be professionally coached by fashion duo Ti + Hann who were on hand to enable their creativity and help them realise a brand new piece of work.

Attraction and repulsion are the emotions which jewellery designer Shana Teugels hopes to invoke with her new collection created for Toegepast 16. Shana’s kitsch, glittery and over-exaggerated designs may at first catch someone’s eye for all the wrong reasons, but her curious use of materials and shapes eventually draws the viewer in, making them want to touch, hold and wear her pieces.

Jihyun Ryou, 'Save Food From Supermarket'

Jihyun Riyou’s project brings together a wealth of knowledge regarding effective food preservation in her installation to promote forgotten vegetables. Jihyun’s work can teach us some fascinating things about storing fruit and veg. For example, did you know that if you store an apple and a potato together, the gases released from the apple will preserve the potato for longer?

Lore Langendries,'Tension Between Industrial Design and Craftmanship'

PHL Hasselt Jewellery Design graduate Lore Langendries has created a beautiful collection of jewellery based around the pharmacist’s mortar. Lore aims to create a link between traditional pharmacist’s mortar with the sterile and industrially produced mortar used nowadays.

Niek Kosten, 'Activist'

Niek Kosten presents an installation inspired by his personal research into activism and visual identity. Niek has previously explored the topic during his studies, culminating in his graduation project ‘Manifest voor Winterslag Cité’, a flag and visual identity for the Winterslag neighbourhood.

Dik Scheepers, 'Unpolished'

Dik Scheepers worked with a relatively unused material called papercrete to produce his new furniture collection ‘Unpolished’. Papercrete is a mixture of paper and cement which, when hardened, has a surface which looks similar to a concrete breeze block.

Toegepast 16: Les Nouveaux runs from 30th October 2011 – 5th February 2012 at Z33, Hasselt.

Further information can be found on the Z33 website and the Design Platform Limburg website.

Niek Kosten
Jihyun Riyou
Dik Scheepers
Shana Teugels

Awkward Beauty, Midland Atelier

The Midland Autelier, Western Australian’s hub for creativity and design innovation presents Awkward Beauty, an interdisciplinary collaboration between jewellery designer Helen Britton, garment designer Justine McKnight and photographer Michelle Taylor.

Each designer produced 10 pieces for the exhibition, based on the complex notions of beauty, fashion and identity and inspired by the unique exhibition space.

Although the three creatives worked separately from one another, they managed to informed each others’ creations by shipping their final designs to one another. Helen, based in Munich, sent her jewellery pieces to Justine while she worked on her fashion garments in Perth. Justine then drew inspiration from Helen’s work and in turn, photographer Michelle created a visual narrative inspired by the work of the previous two.

Awkward Beauty, Midland Atelier

Helen’s photography captures the beauty of Helen and Justine’s designs as they are placed in amongst the unrenovated railway workshops which the Midland Autelier creative hub calls home. The contrast between the elegant shapes and textiles used by Justine and the crumbling surroundings is dynamic and arresting.

Awkward Beauty runs from 7th October – 4th November 2011 at Midland Atelier, Midland Railway Workshops, Yelverton Drive, Perth, Australia.

Midland Atelier website.

Our Way Design Academy Eindhoven; Transformation and Distribution Centre for Abandoned Household Items, Joost Gehem; In Vena Verbum, Tiddo Bakker

With mases of exhibitions to choose from, ARTS THREAD homes in on the student and graduate events on show starting this Saturday at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Our reporter Like van Wijck will be out and about in the city to tell us what’s happening.

The key event is, as always, the Graduation Show at the Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE). Entitled Our Way, it is again curated by Ilse Crawford and showcases the work of 153 recent Bachelor and Master graduates from the academy, with exhibition design by Piet Hein Eek and Petra Janssen. The exhibition has seven themes Human, Nature, Nurture, Consious, City, Delight and Useful. Entry is 10 euros, but only 5 euros or free for students.

Modebelofte 2011; Mattia Akkermans

ID'11: Master graduates - De blijde gebeurtenis, Jeanine Kierkels; Morphing cutlery, Jeffrey Braun

With ID’11 being in the Central Station area, we move over to the Strijp area and the exhibition venue Klokgebouw where we find AKV|St.Joost who present a selection of work by recent graduates including Idris van Heffen (Animation), Helen Smits (Graphic Design), Moon Brouwer (Graphic Design) and Tim Cromvoirt (Interaction Design).

ABKMaastricht: Gravity Collection, Clara Scharping; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Iris Verstappen

The Art of Production, Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam

Soft Edges: On Tension, Eva Malschaert; Furniture, Hannah Sabapathy

Look out also at the Strijp for Fashion breaks Boundaries, a presentation by the ROC Eindhoven School for Fashion of graduation projects by the fourth-year students of Fashion Technology and Fashion Design.

Master and apprentice, SintLucas

Dutch Design Week runs from October 22 to 30 2011.

Image credits: DAE left to right: Copyright: Design Academy Eindhoven, Art Direction: Petra Janssen, Photographs: (Joost Govers).

Graduation Show 11: Design Academy Eindhoven
Modebelofte 2011
ID’11: Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology
AKV|St.Joost
Graduates 2011 ABKMaastricht Jewellery & Product Design
The Art of Production, Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam
Soft Edges
Fashion breaks Boundaries: ROC Eindhoven School for Fashion
Master and Apprentice: SintLucas