Hannah Shaw, Alice Walton and Janette Lazell have recently been selected for Making It, an initiative by the Suffolk Craft Society which offers recent craft and design graduates the opportunity of support in bridging the gap between education and the market place.
The award offers successful applicants a two year period of membership to the Suffolk Craft Society. During this period participants will have access to exhibition and gallery selling opportunities, a supportive network of fellow professional artists/makers, the Friends of the Society and promotion through the website.
Jeweller Hannah Shaw, a graduate in Design Crafts, BA (Hons) at De Montfort University, will exhibit a collection of sculptural and wearable pieces made from silver, wood, cork, concrete and cuttlefish. Growing up on a farm surrounded by the countryside and close to the Suffolk coast inspired Hannah to work with natural materials. Latterly the architecture and linear structures, sharp shapes and forms in the urban environment she found herself in whilst at University have had an opposite but equally strong influence on her aesthetic ideas.
She uses a variety of natural materials, combined with precious metals in her work. A feature which ties these elements together in her finished pieces is the influence of the relief of the landscape, the use of grids, keys and scales to organise the land.
Hannah explains, “I use this approach on my pieces by framing, dissecting, enclosing and applying the grid literally: giving objects of beauty an element of structure and focus.”
Ceramic artist Alice Walton has just graduated with First Class Honours BA (Hons) in Materials Practice, Wood, Metal, Ceramics and Plastics, at the University of Brighton. She takes her inspiration from stories, from the past, nonfiction books, autobiographies, bric-a-brac markets and science museums. She works primarily in ceramics but enjoys also using other materials such as metal and leather. Her work combines ideas and process; using the properties of clay as a form of expression concluding in series of grouped, often similar, objects.
Alice will be showing a series of ceramic bird cages, glazed in lustrous golds, greeny-silvers and pearly-whites. Inspired by Victorian birdcages, they stand distorted and frozen, as if something may have escaped. She will also show a group of pocket watches which will sit inside some of the cages and hang from them.
Sculptor Janette Lazell has enjoyed a successful career as a Garden designer exhibiting at Chelsea Flower Show and The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Working with artists to realise her garden plans inspired her to make her own sculptures. After gaining a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Art and Design, 3D Design & Craft from Colchester School of Art and Design she continued making sculptures based upon plant forms made from forged mild steel and stainless steel woven wire cloth. Janette combines her knowledge of plants and grafting with craft techniques in metal work and sewing to ‘grow’ her sculptures, representing the growth of real plants in the finished work.
Janette explains: “ Nature is my greatest inspiration. I have a camera with me at all times so as not to miss the chance to capture the moment. Although many of my photographs are taken whilst travelling, a large percentage of my images are taken in my garden, when the light, weather and time of day highlights something familiar. “
The work by these 3 new graduates will be showcased at the Suffolk Craft Society’s permanent exhibition space, at the Town Hall Galleries in Ipswich, from 12th March to 16th April. Alongside this exhibition of new graduate work and throughout the year, Gallery 2 will show an ever changing range of contemporary designer crafts by the other members of the Suffolk Craft Society.
