image by Matthew Walter
CHRISTABEL BALFOUR
Christabel Balfour is an artist and tapestry weaver, based in London. She studied at Camberwell College of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. Beginning with sculptural, amorphous pieces designed to cluster on the floor or hang from the ceiling, she progressed into classical tapestry weaving and eventually to rug weaving. She set up her studio in 2015 and works on a Harris floor loom and a Don Porrit upright tapestry loom.
A concern with simplicity and form pervades all her woven work, as well as a strong sense of place. She draws inspiration from both the city around her and the natural landscape, seeking to create a sense of openness and tranquility in every piece. How her work functions in the space around it is key, as well as the arrangement of space within it. Each rug is both a tactile object and carefully composed woven image.
In 2017 she was named one of 10 emerging designers to watch by the Evening Standard. In 2018 she collaborated with celebrated architects Chan & Eayrs, showcased her work at the Barbican during London Craft Week and had an exhibition at Benk & Bo, a creative space in east London.
HARRIET ELKERTON
Harriet Elkerton is a ceramicist. Her objects, with their unassuming simplicity, are designed for living, for enhancing everyday pleasures. Natural materials, plants and food play a key role in this lifestyle; Harriet uses these elements in her display, on hand-constructed shelves and tables, suggesting how easily these pieces will fit into a domestic environment.
Harriet’s functional objects are slip-cast porcelain, with unctuous glossy white glazed interiors. They undulate and they ripple and they move, but they are also still quite crisp; there is a clean, modern aspect to them. Each piece is slightly different and this irregularity is intentional – Harriet’s use of paper to create the models establishes an inherent instability in the process.
She graduated from DeMontfort University with a 1st in BA Design Crafts in 2014 and since then has exhibited at, amongst many, New Designers, Rising Starts at New Ashgate, Lustre, Top Drawer CRAFT, The Contemporary Craft Fair and Handmade in Kew. She regularly exhibits with Design Nation, most recently during London Craft Week 18.
TIM EVERSHED
Tim Evershed is a designer and craftsman based in Hampshire who works on small batch production furniture as well as bespoke pieces. Each of his designs is an interpretation of historical or archetypal form and he draws inspiration from the reductive furniture of the Shakers, the Mid Century movement and English Windsor chair vernacular. He established Brook studio in 2017 to coincide with his participation in the Craft Council’s Hot House programme and has sold work through Benchmark Furniture, Messums Wiltshire and Yorkshire Sculpture Park among others.
RACHEL JONES-JONES
Rachel Jones-Jones trained in jewellery design at the Birmingham School of Jewellery. Her background and training shaped her methodology; teaching her to think in materials, processes and connections, instinctively considering the relationship between object and the body. Drawing from her in-depth craft education, she actively aims to resist the limitations of a single craft field and believes that interdisciplinary collaboration and outward facing work are imperative to the diversification of her practise.
Rachel’s work is often light hearted and observational. She absorbs the infraordinary and translates it into her own visual language.
Rachel is currently working in collaboration with architectural designer Maegan Icke on a project commissioned for the Oslo Architecture Triennale. Rachel is a visiting lecturer at Carmarthen School of Art.
ANGIE PACKER
Angie Packer is a glass/metal artist working with hot glass and glass blowing.
“My work is instinctive and often my ideas only emerge as I work; experimentation and freedom to explore is key to my practice. Glass has a fluidity which gives me creative freedom, being almost alive; in contrast, metal requires a more formal approach. I love the difference between these materials and the diverse working methods constantly excite and challenge me to produce innovative work. I often combine glass and metal, each being evident in the final piece, otherwise the metal is only present in the impression that it leaves behind.”
She graduated in 2017 from DeMontfort University with a BA in Design Crafts having been Highly Commended by the Contemporary Glass Society’s Graduate Awards. She has exhibited at New Designers, Lustre, the Contemporary Craft Festival at Bovey Tracey and New Designers One Year In in 2018. She was Artist in Residence at DeMontfort University 2017-18.
KATY WELSH
Katy Welsh is a print designer based in Bristol. She trained at Leeds College of Art graduating in 2016 with first class honours in printed textiles and surface pattern design. She has exhibited at New Designers and New Designers One Year On in 2017. Since then she has been further exploring the idea of design as an applied art, bringing her unique brand of image-making through screen print to a variety of briefs for commercial clients such as Heals and The British Museum, as well as expanding her personal practice through ongoing exploration of colour, texture and shape.