The Crafts Council’s Hothouse programme selects the brightest new craft talent from across the UK. This year 28 makers have been selected to embark on a tailor-made six-month programme of creative and business support starting in September 2011.
Makers have to be within two years of setting up their business to be eligible for Hothouse and all those selected already display a high level of technical craftsmanship and creative energy. In a marketplace where the bespoke and handmade is being recognised and celebrated by global brands the skill and knowledge of the maker becomes ever more powerful.
Hothouse is delivered in partnership with UK craft organisations, development agencies and higher education institutions, and encourages different ways of working and thinking whilst equipping makers with the tools to run an entrepreneurial and sustainable business.
There are three cohorts of makers in 2011 – a jewellery and silver cohort delivered in partnership with The Goldsmiths’ Institute, London, a textile cohort based in the South West and a mixed discipline cohort based in the North.
Each cohort includes makers from all over the UK and the tailored programmes include creative workshops and mentoring alongside sessions on business planning, market and audience development, costing, financial planning and presentation skills.
Hothouse encourages a broad creative outlook and creates a solid peer network for the makers as they embark on the crucial stages of setting up their new businesses. The programme will support a new generation of makers in realising their potential both collectively and individually.
Selected makers for Hothouse 2011 include;
- Amy Bear - a multi-media textile maker who combines CAD design with laser cutting and CAD embroidery to create layered textile panels using materials such as plastazote foam, neoprene and PVC.
- Hanna Nielsen – a jewellery and accessories maker whose graduate collection – Sound Ware – combined musical boxes and sound systems within wearable jewellery pieces.
- Tortie Hoare - whose quest to find environmentally conscious materials in her ergonomic and durable furniture led her to the medieval art of boiling leather.
Full list of Hothouse participants; Amy Bear, Aimee Betts, Eleanor Bolton, Emma Bradbury, Kevin Brook, Hannah Felicity Dennis, Jane Dzisiewski, Amelia Fever, Lucy Jane Foakes, Helen Foot, Jasmin Giles, Anna Glassbrook, Mahtab Hanna, Zehava Hashai-Spellman, Tortie Hoare, Anna Collette Hunt, Zoe Lloyd, Hanna Nielsen, Elizabeth Peers, Carly Petit-Taylor, Helen Smith, Rhian Solomon, Thorody, Ellen Thomas, Victoria Walker, Sarah Warsop and Janice Zethraeus.
The following Hothouse participants will be exhibiting at London Design Festival; Jasmin Giles, Emma Bradbury and Sarah Warsop at Origin: the Contemporary Craft Fair, Old Spitalfields Market, and Anna Glassbrook, Ellen Thomas and Tortie Hoare at Tent London, Old Truman Brewery.
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council said: “This is an exciting group of new makers who are working across a range of materials and techniques from centuries-old leather boiling to CAD embroidery but the unifying factor is the skill and imagination of these new makers. The first cohort of Hothouse from 2010 have already exploited their new confidence and shared experience by launching a group exhibition at this year’s London Design Festival.”
