Happily, we still have many people who remain dedicated to handmaking, whether they craft furniture, stitch their own clothes or throw their own ceramics – and long may that tradition continue. Their work may be more expensive but, circumstance-depending, it is so often worth buying less but better – and these products are certainly built to last (we need only to look to surviving ceramics from the Greek and Roman eras for confirmation of that). Skilled artisans abound, but these six are some of our very favourites.
Jack Welbourne
The Cardiff-based Jack Welbourne makes the most tactile, warmth-effusing hand-thrown tableware, his work heavily influenced by eastern ideas brought to the UK by the legendary Bernard Leach. He cut his teeth first working with Joel Stuart-Beck in Gothenburg, Sweden and Jeremy Steward at Wobage workshop, before spending a year as a production thrower in the Rhondda valley. These days, he produces his lovely pieces from a coach house at the bottom of his garden. Adhering to traditional techniques, he often uses locally sourced materials collected from the landscape in which he lives. His recent work has found wider audience thanks to being stocked at the ever-discerning Toast. Discover more.
Blenheim Forge
Are you serious about your knife skills in the kitchen? You can’t do better than one of Blenheim Forge’s beauties, which are beloved by world-class chefs and aesthetic admirers of their artisan-skill alike. Based in Peckham, they say, ‘Whilst heavily inspired by Japanese knife making traditions, current advances in metallurgy and production also drive our designs, processes and materials.’ They certainly make our cut. Discover more.
Geoff Travers
‘It has been said that humans have an intuitive ability to weave a basket, just as a spider weaves its web or a bird makes a nest. The baskets I make are made using English willow mainly sourced from the Somerset levels.’ So explains Geoff Travers, the artisanal basket maker whose wares we absolutely adore. Having begun making baskets from found hedgerow materials as a hobby in 1985, his goal has never wavered: to keep the tradition and skill alive in an age dominated by plastic. We salute him, his baskes and his charming way with words. Discover more.
Cutts & Sons
We love a good quilt. But rarely have we come across examples as artistic or inventive as those of Jessie Cutts – aka Cutts & Sons – an Australian who decamped to the Kent coast where she creates her exceptional work from her beautiful house. Where many quilts follow a prescribed notion of symmetry, hers are freeform and utterly exquisite – and created as works of art that are just as, or more, likely to be hung on the wall as flung over a bed. She says, ‘Ever since I was young, I’ve always loved making things with yarn and fabric. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t creating something or other. Bringing together a long background in graphic and communication design, illustration and a lot of making on the side, I wanted to create a range of products that elevates humble home crafts to something that can be enjoyed in a new and modern way.’ Discover more.
Alfred Newall
Don’t get us wrong. We are as much a fan of inexpensive Swedish furniture that comes in flatpacks and can be hacked to create something exceptional as the next budget-conscious person. Nonetheless, it cannot compare to the exceptional craftsmanship, design and attention to detail that comes with a properly hand-turned piece of wooden furniture. Poignant and perfect, Alfred Newall’s work comes firmly under that category, his furniture making skills honed from a young age. Having trained at the Building Crafts College, he later worked for the exceptionally lovely Plain English Design, before setting up his own practice in London and East Sussex in 2010, which is where he has been working ever since, every piece created by a team of skilled craftsmen in the South Downs using sustainably sourced wood and traditional processes. Discover more.
Old Town
Old Town, in the pretty Georgian town of Holt in North Norfolk, so firmly a cognoscenti favourite that it is really something of a small-scale rural industry. Do you know someone of an arty persuasion who is especially well-dressed? They’re probably in Old Town clothes, which are created to order by Will and Marie, who make roughly 70 pieces a week. The idea is that customers order from a prescribed set of designs but choose their own fabrics and colours. Then, a little while later, they receive the most thrilling of parcels through the post, containing clothes that disdain to flirt with fashion but instead offer absolute timelessness and quality, as well as panache. Discover more.
