Bespoke For A Book
To celebrate their book Craft Britain: Why Making Matters (OH Editions), Helen Chislett and David Linley are pleased to announce the third edition of Bespoke For A Book in aid of The Prince’s Foundation. Twenty makers featured in Craft Britain have generously offered to create unique boxes or bags to contain a single signed copy of the book, using the materials and skills of their craft. The aim is both to raise funds for the Foundation, which does so much to encourage new generations of makers, artists and designers into the craft sector, while also showcasing a wide variety of master craftmanship across all sectors. Each unique creation is akin to a one-off artwork.
Lora Avedian
Sweet Pea Climber
Wool, rayon thread, silk, cotton.
£900
Multidisciplinary artist Lora Avedian creates couture textiles for interiors and fashion, including lamp-shades, cushions and table cloths. These often combine traditional and machine embroidery, with hand embellishments. Her work is grounded in history, inspired by antique textiles and folk costume. Often she assimilates scraps of antique or vintage fabric within her compositions, preserving their narrative through her process. Here, sweet peas ‘climb’ the book complemented by the added beauty of three-dimensional silk flowers.
Laura Ellen Bacon
Pocket
Dicky Meadows willow and paper
£3000
Laura Ellen Bacon is an artist who uses materials such as woven willow and stone, to express her distinctive voice. Born and raised in Derbyshire, a landscape that feeds much of her inspiration, she makes quietly powerful statements through her land art and sculpture. She originally began experimenting with sculpted spaces inspired by her childhood passion for creating complex treehouses and dens, first using branches and then willow. She developed her own instinctive way of knotting, weaving and pulling the stems into forms that are almost muscular in their structure, but also intimate and sensual.
Pocket is the artist’s way of describing the haptic pleasure of reading and turning the pages of a book, similar to carrying pebbles in the pocket to handle with pleasure.
www.lauraellenbacon.com
@lauraellenbacon
Represented by Hignell Gallery:
www.hignellgallery.com
@hignellgallery
Bibbings & Hensby
Dovetailed Box
Oak with hand-cut dovetail joints.
£450
Jack Bibbings and Matthew Hensby of Bibbings & Hensby make contemporary wooden furniture with a focus on functional craftsmanship and inherited vernacular traditions. As part of their ethos, they use hand tools to produce practical, everyday pieces of furniture suited to modern life. By marrying traditional craft with an eye for design in this way, they create pieces that feel grounded and relevant.
The box is made in the traditional manner of working from tree to finished object.
Sarah Burns
Sussex Oak
Organic hemp, oak Galls, iron, mud, indigo, handmade paper.
£300
Sarah Burns is a pattern maker and textile artist who is committed to revitalising ancient techniques such as natural dyeing and block printing that don’t rely on harsh chemicals. She uses only water-based inks, and organic hemps and linens that are regenerative to the soil. Seasonal dyes are harvested from plants of the woodlands and open downlands, and from the fields around her home on the South Downs in Sussex.
For this piece she has used the traditional materials of the Sussex Weald, such as oak and iron, combined with the ancient crafts of natural dyeing, block printing, resist printing and indigo dyeing. The Sussex Oak pattern is inspired by ancient Romanesque carvings in Sarah’s local church of St Cuthman in Steyning, as well as the Hedgerow pattern found in old, Elizabethan embroideries.
Carréducker
Bonbonnière de Métiers
Italian Tempesti Elbamatt leather lined with midnight blue Museum calf.
Saddle stitched with blue Tiger thread and burnished with Tokonole.
£900
Deborah Carré and James Ducker completed traditional apprenticeships in the craft of hand-sewn shoemaking before joining forces to create Carréducke in 2004. Today, they create award-winning, bespoke shoes and boots to commission; produce small batches of boots made to order by British specialist manufacturers in Suffolk and Derbyshire; and share the tools, materials, skills and heritage techniques of shoe making and leather craft through their Shoe and Leather School.
This piece is inspired by the excited anticipation of lifting the lid on a perfect gift. Leather has been mellowed and stretched over a traditional wooden mould before being cut into shape and hand stitched. The case has been burnished, polished and finished with vintage ribbon pulls.
Cox London
Rooted In Making
Steel, brass, silver, lead.
£4500
Cox London was founded by sculptor makers, Christopher and Nicola Cox. Inspired by the natural world, their designs echo the flow and structure of leaves, branches, shells, flowers, and rock strata. Every piece is made in-house, with a team of over thirty specialist artists, artisans and technicians working collaboratively to create exceptional collections and bespoke commissions. The combined craft palette includes sculpting, bronze casting, iron forging, traditional patination techniques, metal fabrication, gilding, lacquer work, plaster work, stonemasonry, glass-blowing, embroidery and traditional upholstery.
The hand-forged flora and fauna immortalised here celebrate the British countryside and its age-long symbiotic relationship with British craft.
Aiveen Daly
A Very Royal Garden
Hand carved suede leaves and butterfly; embroidered branch; hand painted gold foil technique.
£3000
Aiveen Daly is one of the UK’s most sought-after specialists in technically complicated textile art for interiors and furniture. Combining techniques such as pleating, stitching, embroidery, hand-dyed feathers, fine beading and fabric manipulation techniques, she creates unique compositions of true craftsmanship. Fine fabrics such as silks, Italian lambswool and butter-soft leathers comprise her natural palette, complemented by custom-made metallic details.
The inspiration for this piece are the flora and fauna of Buckingham Palace gardens and a reference to HM The King’s long love of nature. Each leaf has been hand carved in suede and hand painted.
Hugh Dunford Wood
The Craftsman’s Labyrinth
Gouache on Yuzen Washi paper
£120
Artist-designer Hugh Dunford Wood creates lino-blocked collections of hand-printed wallpaper, which are made to order, allowing the client to choose both the ground colour and the print colour. Hand-printed wallpaper is recognised as an Endangered craft and earlier this year Hugh was awarded the prestigious medal of the President’s Award by Heritage Crafts, chosen by HM The King, in recognition of his work in keeping this skill alive and securing its survival. His designs have recently been included in the permanent collection of the V&A Museum.
Forest + Found
Bookmatched Box by Max Bainbridge
Olive ash lined with black felt.
£900
Forest + Found is a partnership between Max Bainbridge and Abigail Booth, who create installations that bridge landscape, material and process. Working with materials sourced direct from the natural world, they aim to explore the human relationship within these environments. Bainbridge consciously seeks out wood that has fallen where it once grew, taking the natural shape and character of the tree to inform his sculptural decision-making. In this way, the essence of the tree is ever present within his vessels and sculptures, echoing its previous incarnation across surface and form.
This box is made from a single piece of ash felled locally to Max’s studio; re-sawn to create a rough texture, book-matched front and back, and lined with felt.
Caroline Groves
Sutor, ne ultra crepidam (Shoemaker stick to your last)
Alum tawed leather with silk embroidery and a gold deboss.
£3000
Original, poetic and timeless, every creation by Caroline Groves has a story woven into its essence. Internationally recognised for her bespoke shoes and boots, hand-crafted in her atelier in the heart of the Cotswolds, Caroline has recently begun to transition her artisanal needlecraft and leatherwork into collections of one-off museum-quality pieces each year, commencing with prestigious embroidered clutch bags inspired by nature.
The inspiration here is a traditional, hand-embroidered Sampler. This is to reference the artist’s needlecraft skills as well as her leatherworking. A central emboss represents the pattern of a shoe upper, while an embossed ‘Pink’ at either side is a nod to Caroline’s Arts & Crafts ancestry and a symbol of C.R. Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft, of which her cabinet-making great-grandfather was the longest serving member.
Isle of Auskerry
Shore Kaleidoscope by Teresa Probert
North Ronaldsay wool.
£750
Isle of Auskerry is a family business based on the remote Orkney island of the same name. They breed native North Ronaldsay sheep that thrive not on pasture but on seaweed, which the sheep graze along the rocky shores. The yarn is renowned for its lustre, softness and for colours that range from camel and black to creamy silver and dark grey. Isle of Auskerry sells a variety of products from its online shop, including knitting kits for hats, scarves, and mittens, and sheepskin rugs that feature this breed’s unique colours and patterns.
This knitted slip cover features some of the yarns produced on the island of Auskerry. The work is an abstract design worked in colour and stitch variation to convey the power of the sea against the rocky shore, a force which endlessly creates new patterns in the water whilst conforming to the rhythm of the tide.
Lock & Co.
Aster
Goose feathers, velvet ribbon, cotton velvet, duchess satin.
£900
In 1676, James Lock established Lock & Co. Hatters, the oldest hat shop in the world and the oldest shop in London. One of its most renowned customers was Admiral Lord Nelson who visited Lock just before the Battle of Trafalgar and ordered his famous cocked (bicorne) hat. Other signature Lock hats include the black fedora that Oscar Wilde wore on his 1882 US lecture tour; the Coke (Bowler) hat, which was invented by Lock & Co. in 1849 and the Cambridge hat so favoured by Churchill, and also worn by Bond villain, Oddjob, in Goldfinger.
Aster showcases traditional millinery skills and was created by Lock’s Head millinery Designer, Awon Golding.
Gareth Neal
Digital File
English oak, stained and oiled.
£1800
Gareth Neal’s mastery of hand skills, combined with openness to digital technologies, has resulted in some intriguing collaborations in this arena, including fluid, sculptural vessels conceived with the late architect Zaha Hadid. In 2020, Neal created a new series of vessels 3D-printed in black silicate – The Sio2 series . The ability to finely control singular particles of sand within the printing process, alongside advanced 3D modelling, enables him to create unique flowing forms that would be unobtainable in wood.
The oak of this piece has been shaped using CNC and then hand sanded to create the crisp, fluted surface, which mirrors the sand vessel on the cover of the Craft Britain book.
www.garethneal.co.uk
@garethnealfurniture
Represented by Sarah Myerscough Gallery:
www.sarahmyerscough.com
@sarahmyerscoughgallery
Neon Workshops
Thread by Richard William Wheater of Neon Workshops on behalf of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity & Craftsmanship
Neon gas within borosilicate glass.
£3000
Artist Richard William Wheater opened Neon Workshops in 2010, specialising in the design, fabrication and installation of neon projects across the globe. Neon was discovered in 1898 by two British scientists, William Ramsay and Morris W Travers. While red is the colour of pure neon, other colours can be created through the addition of gas colours, phosphor coatings and coloured glass. Few materials have infiltrated our culture so successfully through art, architecture, film, music, fashion, theatre and retail. What is often overlooked is that every neon sign, past and present, has been hand bent by a skilled maker. These glass tubes are shaped using only heat, breath and expert manipulation.
Thread references the essential thread of a machine nut.
Royal School of Needlework
Gold Leaf Book
A floral decoration using a mixture of traditional hand embroidery techniques, including Appliqué, Goldwork and Surface Stitches.
£3000
The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is the international centre of excellence for the art of hand embroidery and this year celebrates its 150th anniversary. Steeped in history with unrivalled expertise, the RSN is based at Hampton Court Palace. At its heart is its Embroidery Studio where highly skilled embroiderers create beautiful bespoke commissions as well as restoring historical textiles. Clients include fashion designers, Oscar nominees, private individuals, religious institutions and the Royal Family.
This floral design was inspired by the Royal School of Needlework’s unique Textile & Archive Collection. It includes a combination of twisted silks and metal threads for the flowers; applied metallic tissue edged with metal threads for the leaves; and a pretty embellishment of tiny pearl beads to give contrast, all on a silk background.
Kathryn Sargent
Pinstripe
Dugdale Bros & Company vintage pure wool 14oz grey pinstripe and Kathryn Sargent Bespoke Tailoring sleeve lining. Accompanied by a pure silk Kathryn Sargent branded pocket square.
£900
Master Tailor Kathryn Sargent rose to the position of head cutter at the Savile Row tailor, Gieves & Hawkes, the first woman to do so in the company’s 200-year history. Having joined as an apprentice in 1996, she opened her own business in Mayfair in 2012. Today, she provides a comprehensive offering of bespoke, couture and made-to-measure services for both women and men. Properly tailored garments flatter the shape with their perfect fit and are produced to last a lifetime.
This cover is made from a beautiful piece of vintage wool cloth from Dugdale, which is based in Kathryn’s original home county of Yorkshire. It resembles a well-cut forepart of a jacket, complete with an out-breast welt functioning pocket. It is hand stitched and hand crafted, complete with a hand finished buttonhole.
Staines & Son
Orrery
Walnut, brass, mechanics
£3000
Staines & Son are one of the last orrery makers in Britain: an orrey is a mechanical model of the solar system, illustrating and predicting the relative positions and motions of planets and their moons. It is a Critically Endangered craft.
This box shows the moon orbiting the Earth as if it were being observed from above the North Pole. Turning the steel knob on the side of the box by one revolution will rotate the Earth by twelve hours, the same pace that Staines & Son use on all their orreries.
As the knob is turned, gears engage and the moon and Earth begin their journey – only a small portion of the gears are visible as they are hidden behind the Earth. In this way, celestial bodies move around in homage to our solar system.
Swaine
Equine
London Tan English bridle leather with gold embossing.
£1200
With its long-established reputation as makers of the finest items, Swaine (formerly Swaine Adeney Brigg) is arguably the oldest luxury brand in the world with a rich history dating back to 1750. In the 1960s, the company was catapulted into the public eye, first with The Avengers, which brought the Brigg umbrella favoured by John Steed (actor Patrick Macnee) to a new market overseas, and secondly with From Russia with Love, for which the company made James Bond’s (played by Sean Connery) box-of-secrets briefcase.
This piece will develop a rich patina over time, a characteristic of the leather used.
Tom Vaughan
Hepworth
Maple with fumed oak lining.
£1800
Tom Vaughan is a designer and maker who founded Object Studio in 2010, best described as a design practice, a workshop for making, a laboratory for experimentation, and the meeting point of traditional craft with modern manufacturing. Under his direction, Object Studio takes on ambitious commissions for galleries, public institutions and private clients, including the fabrication of complex three-dimensional structures in woods, metals and synthetics. Vaughan is best known for the way in which he manipulates timber and metals into sculptural organic forms, such as the perpetual, looped timber of Ribbon Chair and Tembo console.
Katie Walker
Slip End
English oak, oiled and waxed.
£900
Katie Walker designs furniture with a sculptural approach, always pushing the boundaries to create deceptively simple pieces. She has established her name with a number of elegant designs that draw on traditional styles, while coaxing them firmly into the twenty first century. The award-winning Ribbon Rocking Chair, for example, is inspired by the sculptures of Naum Gabo, with backrest, armrests and runner created from one continuous line. She has received many notable commissions, including that of HRH Prince George’s high chair.
Slip End combines the idea of a slip case with a book end, cleverly making a feature of the book’s spine.
Enquiries
For further details on each piece and to purchase, please contact gallery@helenchislett.com
Photography by Yeshen Venema: www.yeshen.uk @yeshen.uk
The Prince’s Foundation: www.princes-foundation.org @theprincesfoundation