Origin is the Contemporary Craft Fair that runs during the London Design Festival. Located in a purpose-built pavilion within Old Spitalfields Market, Origin has a host of new and established makers. Some of my favourites from the show are below.
One of my favourite stands at Origin this year was Claire Brewster. Claire creates beautiful and delicate paper cuts of flowers, birds and insects. These stunning creations are made using old maps, atlases and other found paper. The cutouts are pinned either directly on to the wall or captured in box frames. The shadows created when light is shined on them give them an intriguing 3 dimensional quality and creates a feeling of movement. I’d really like to use these in a project.
Niamh Barry is a small artisan lighting designer based in Dublin who uses glass, steel and bronze in her work. The sculptural forms she creates would be ideal as a statement piece in either a residential or commercial interior. I can imagine this piece looking stunning hanging in the corner of a room or above a circular table in a hallway.
I came across the lovely Sam & Glenn of Pacha Design who are a designer-maker partnership based in North Devon. They specialise in contemporary furniture and accessories from locally sourced reclaimed and natural resources. Their items incorporating rusted and well-worn metal really attracted my attention and I loved their passion for using materials that are usually discarded.
I am completely aghast that my pictures of Abigail Brown’s beautiful 3 dimensional textile sculptures of birds are all blurry – in fact one even has my finger partially over the lens. Her stand had quite a crowd and I completely understand, as it was filled with such beautiful covetable items.
Glass artist Charlotte Sale only graduated from the Royal College of Art two years ago and already discerning individuals and retailers have snapped up her fabulous collection. Charlotte was “discovered” at the Liberty open call this year and even featured in their Best of British Open Day window display. Her gorgeous organic forms would look fabulous on my glass Le Corbusier table.
Also for the first time Origin collaborated with Liberty with the addition of the ‘Liberty Selects’ display windows. Their Buying Manager for Home & Gifts, Michelle Alger curated 5 exterior display windows with work from this year’s participants, selecting 30 beautiful items.
If you are interested in seeing more craft and meeting designer-makers why not consider going to MADE11 in Brighton click here for tickets.