My Old Man
When Ted Kessler launched a website about his – and everyone’s – dad, the stories kept coming...
Hole & Corner in Kyoto: In Your Hands
We are delighted to announce that we have returned to Kyoto to host an exhibition with Alan Clarke and Sfera honouring the work of the artisans featured in Issue 18 as well as the broader work and traditional skills employed by generations of Japanese craftspeople.
Available now: The Story Of Tools
'The best tools last a lifetime - or even several…' The Story of Tools is Hole & Corner’s first foray into book publishing and will be released this May.
Make It Harewood: Our new event partnership with Harewood House in Yorkshire
We are delighted to announce a new series of Hole & Corner curated workshops at Harewood House as part of their current exhibition ‘Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters'.
Hole & Corner x Port Eliot Festival 2019 - Full workshop programme
We return to Port Eliot this July to present ‘Create Connect Craft’ in partnership with Princess Yachts – a whole area dedicated to workshops, creativity, learning and good times!
Listen Weekly 15: Tools
‘Tools! What are they good for?! Absolutely everything!’ Welcome to Listen Weekly #15…
Grace Winteringham takes inspiration from Scotland's great outdoors
PATTERNITY is a conscious, creative organisation founded by global pattern pioneers, Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham in 2009. Underpinned by a core philosophy that ‘everything is connected.'
H&C Recommends for June
This June sees a varied and exciting range of exhibitions opening across the country. Here are six shows that encapsulate the variety of subjects, inspiration and artistry that continue to inspire us at Hole & Corner.
Listen Weekly 14: Paper
The rough and the smooth; the plain and the bold; the very special and the yesterday news; this week's music selection is an ode to 'paper'...
The Man Who Makes The Earth Move
At Wildside, his Groundbreaking Devon garden, horticultural firebrand Keith Wiley manipulates what was once a flat field into undulating layers, creating extraordinary perspectives and new habitats for his plants
Indigo dyer Aboubakar Fofana on his kind of blue
For Aboubakar Fofana, indigo dyeing is both art and technology: it is alchemy; a communion with God, or nature, or both. He doesn’t just make colour; he grows and nourishes the bacteria that creates it. Roll up for his magical mystery tour…
Seven Questions with architect Arthur Mamou-Mani
Sustainability, research and technology were pushed to their limits at this year’s COS installation at Milan Design Week...
Listen Weekly 13: Stitching
Re-introducing the Listen Weekly playlist series for 2019. This week's tailor-made playlist from Hole & Corner HQ delves into the theme of stitching...
Top 10 London Craft Week picks
There’s so much to do and see during London Craft Week – a whole world of workshops, talks, physical experiences and glimpses into the possibilities of a more mindful, creative life. You will need to be strategic. Spend an evening perusing the programme and make sure you book as some of the places are limited.
Engraver Castro Smith finds inspiration in his favourite bookshop
Castro Smith is an engraver who apprenticed at Rebus in Hatton Garden before travelling to Japan to hone his craft with metal-working master Kenji Io. He uses the ancient technique of seal engraving, incorporating European and Japanese processes to produce a cross-fertilisation of styles.
TOAST launches creative residency
Inspired by their spring/summer collection (titled The Unknown Path) TOAST has gathered together some of its friends and collaborators to share their experience, knowledge and craft know-how.
Cutting Shapes
Obsidian was the choice of material for Mexican architect and designer Frida Escobedo when commissioned by the 11th-generation tequila brand, Maestro DOBEL, to create a drinking vessel to showcase its range.
From fungus to furniture – Sebastian Cox
Sebastian Cox explains how he’s combining tradition with biotech futurism to create a homeware range out of mushrooms. ‘It’s very satisfying to email a customer and write, Thank you for your order, your product is now growing,’ he says…
Factory Corners – Isle of Harris
For clothing designer Ashley Watson, a work trip to Skye with his vintage motorbike afforded an unexpected bonus – a visit to Carloway Mill on the Isle of Harris, home of one of the world’s most respected fabrics. It made me think, he says, how all too often I look for inspiration from far-flung places …
A rare glimpse inside the HQ of porcelain masters Nymphenburg
At Nymphenburg’s Munich headquarters, the fine line between art and craft is blended in a way that only the stillest of hands can achieve, armed with 300 years of acquired skill in porcelain manufacture – but always with the attitude of an open and enquiring mind. ‘You always have to learn,’ says master craftsman Anton Hörl…
How Christina Kim built her cult brand dosa
Motivated by the need to keep traditional skills alive as new generations move on from their parents’ vocations, Christina Kim has built her own business into an internationally-respected brand – all thanks to a special talent: ‘I can see and mimic,’ she says…
Taking a punt with rush weaver Felicity Irons
Felicity Irons is one of the last of the English rush weavers, keeping alive a craft that remains unchanged since Anglo Saxon times, using crops she harvests herself from a punt on the river Ouse. How did she learn this ancient art? ‘I taught myself from a book…’
The Slow Burn
Ben Short gave up an advertising job in London to become a charcoal burner and hedge-layer in Dorset. He isn’t a craftsman, he insists, more of a semi-skilled labourer devoted to The Old Way. ‘I didn’t know what I wanted to do,’ he says, ‘but I knew I wanted to be useful.’
Steph Buttle: the dancing potter pushing things to breaking point
A trained ballet dancer turned actor, advertising director and ceramicist, Stephanie Buttle has found a way to combine all of her previous vocations in the name of art. It’s all about brinkmanship, she says …
The Curators' Guide to Venice
With the Venice Biennale up and running once more (until 25 November 2019), we asked the people who know it best – the hoteliers, the art critics, the artists and most of all the curators – to open up their little black books for us…
Hole & Corner Selects: Maria Sigma
In the Elements Issue, Maria Sigma speaks about her zero waste philosophy, her love for wool as a material and how her work connects back to the earth...
Dreaming high with Cameron Balloons
Founded in Bristol in the 1970s, Cameron Balloons have earned their reputation as the best hot-air balloon company in the world. They may have come a long way from the early days of stitching canopies in their own flat, but the principle remains the same, as founder Don Cameron explains: ‘Heat air and it expands…’
Marks of Success
For designer Ilse Crawford, working with Bosnian furniture company Zanat on a unique project to celebrate native Konjic woodcarving offered the chance to explore how hands-on craft is remaking itself in the wake of digital. ‘I think the physical world needs to be better,’ she says. ‘It needs to step up…’
The Glassblowers of Saint-Louis
In the tiny French village of Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, a centuries-old performance takes place every day, as the craftspeople at Saint-Louis crystal work in eight-hour shifts to produce some of the most exquisite glassware in the world. Come and join the dance…
Foraging with Toast’s Jessica Seaton
The local landscape has always informed Jessica Seaton’s work; be it Toast, the fashion brand she co-founded with her husband Jamie, or foraging for ingredients in West Wales – which is where we found her, listening to trees…
