Homes & Gardens

editor’s letter

The focus of this issue is craft. As a brand, one of our passions is supporting artisans and people making waves in the creative industry. To this end, news editor Jo Bailey reveals five new names who are creating original pieces, while writer Fiona McCarthy throws the spotlight on makers who are breathing fresh life into traditional techniques. As mentioned last month, the Design Awards 2020, sponsored by GP & J Baker, Neptune, Farrow & Ball and Naturalmat, showcases the brightest faces working in Britain. The breadth of the nominees proves what a fabulously varied industry this is. I have a true fondness for the Designer of the Year, who has a distinctive approach. Her business launched 50 years ago, as a response to a ‘general beigeness’, and her contribution can be seen…

news

PRETTY POLLY With illustrations that are often inspired by childhood stories, Polly Fern’s work (previously featured in Homes & Garden’s One to Watch) has a playful and painterly quality that keeps us coming back for more. This season sees her launch a range of decorative table lamps that have been crafted from white earthenware clay and hand-painted with her whimsical designs. The Finch table lamp, £2,140, (left) is available exclusively at The New Craftsmen. PATTERN BOOK Inspired by an antique Kantha quilt, Jane Churchill’s new Imri patchwork-printed fabric has a charmingly handcrafted feel that has been created using a combination of zigzag, spotted and paisley patterns. Hand-stitched-style detail to emulate running stitches finishes the traditional look. The fabric is available in Indigo, Aqua and Red. Curtain in Aqua, £89m, Jane Churchill at Colefax…

ones to watch

THE CERAMICIST Lydia Hardwick creates bold, beautiful designs from her home studio Q How do you work? With a range of techniques, because I think it is important for my practice to move freely between different approaches. My pots are mostly coiled and decorated with slips. My plates and wall-pieces are often inlaid. This involves staining clay different colours using oxides, rolling the colours out flat, and collaging cut-out shapes together, pressing them to create a flat surface. Q Where do find inspiration? I am often drawn to motifs found within indigenous craft objects and textiles. My research into artefacts is quite specific: from nnaam wood carvings made throughout the Kuba Kingdom, to sculptures produced on Aitutaki, one of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. Q How would you advise a budding ceramicist? Ceramics can be…

richly deserved

Amodest bedroom redesign was the initially proposed project when interior designer Ryan Lawson first visited his client Kathy Robins. Ryan had made the trip with his boyfriend, furniture dealer Sean Robins, to see the house where he grew up and Sean’s mother Kathy quickly saw an opportunity to employ Ryan’s interior design skills. ‘When I got there, Kathy asked me to rearrange the furniture in her bedroom, which rapidly escalated to us both walking round the house with a legal pad talking about moving walls and changing lighting,’ Ryan recalls. Seven years later, the interiors of the Minnesota lakeside house have been overhauled with a new collection of curated art and furnishings with refined architectural detailing. ‘I think Kathy’s sense was that the house had lost its way and she embraced…

the bloomsbury set

PATTERN BOOK Cubist influences and abstract shapes feature heavily among artwork created by the Bloomsbury Set. Combine different designs across a scheme, harmonising the look with varying scales of print. Curtain in District in Claret, £189m, Kelly Wearstler V at GP&J Baker. Screen, £60, The Dormy House; covered in Gem in Blue/Onyx, £73.69m, Linwood. Dot stool in Deep Garnet, £995, Reda Amalou at Silvera. Tarma two-seater sofa, £2,095, Oka. Ripple cushions, £88 each, Jessica Osborne. Teardrops cushion, £75; Blue Virginia Woolf print by Michaela Gall, £110, both The Shop Floor Project. Double layer dot wiggle vase, £85; triple layer zigzag vase, £88, both Wicklewood. Seagrass herringbone carpet, £26sq m, Alternative Flooring € WORK OF ART The Bloomsbury Set embraced all things creative through a love of textiles and ceramics. Herriot Way wallpaper, £282 for 10…

old crafts, new energy

LAST YEAR, when the cutting-edge Frieze London art fair included a special section dedicated to female weavers in its programme, one thing was clear: craft, long dismissed by the art world as folksy and inferior, was finally in a league of its own. Certainly investment in craft is now big business – in its recent report The Market for Craft, the Crafts Council estimated it to be worth £3 billion in the UK. What’s surprising, perhaps, about this boom in old techniques is the demographic attracted to them. ‘The biggest growth in the craft-buying market is the under 35s. As their tastes and incomes expand, they’re going to be investing more frequently and at higher levels, which bodes very well for the future,’ says Natalie Melton, the Craft Council’s creative director.…