The Amazingness that was London Craft Week: Part Two

The first ever London Craft Week, held in early May this year, was utterly wonderful. So much making! So many skilled crafts people! So many beautiful creations! So much inspiration!

I spent two days zipping round London trying to visit as many of the events as I could and had a total blast (but kinda wore myself out in the process and had to give the weekend's events a miss while I put my feet up. Oops!).

I blogged about the first morning in part one... but what did I see after lunch?

First on my list to visit was the Rolls-Royce showroom at Berkeley Square. I have to admit that I know next to nothing about cars but it was really interesting to see the different leathers and woods customers can choose from and to be able to peek inside the cars themselves.

Next I headed to Mulberry, where I chatted to one of their craftsmen about the techniques that go into making a Mulberry bag and how he got started working for the company. Mulberry were also - rather excitingly - hosting a craft workshop in the store, offering people the chance to make their own personalised bracelet. This was a huge amount of fun...

... and it was delightfully surreal to have a table of people hammering away in the middle of the otherwise serene Bond Street store!

Everyone chose slightly different things to add to their bracelets - names, special places, silly phrases, anniversary dates. I ummed and ahhed over what to choose for mine, eventually deciding to make a black bracelet for my mum (which she loved, hurrah!).

 

After I'd finished my bracelet and oohed over all the lovely things on display in the store, I headed to Kathryn Sargent Bespoke Tailoring.

It was rather thrilling to be able to visit a tailor's workshop as it really isn't a space I would normally ever visit. It was wonderful to be able to see the work in progress, to see and feel some fabric samples and to chat to Kathryn and her team about her business and the art of hand tailoring.

Hand embroiderers Hawthorne & Heaney were also demonstrating their monogram service in the studio - I was quite in awe of such perfect, precise embroidery!

 

My next stop was Drake's, where (among other things) you can buy a handmade tie or order your own bespoke tie... and where the techniques of the tie-making process were being demonstrated.

Ties are something I'd never really given much thought to before (as a woman, I don't tend to wear one - and haven't since I was about 8 and ties were part of my school uniform). Drake's website has lots of tips for the stylish gentleman aiming for "relaxed elegance" - it's all about details and, of course, your tie is an important part of that!

Continuing with the tailoring theme, I then headed to Norton & Sons on Savile Row. Norton & Sons "have been tailors to the royal households of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Prussia, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, and to three US Presidents." The tailors of Savile Row are so famous, it was amazing to be able to visit one of them (instead of just nosily peering in the windows as I've done before!)

I met the owner (Patrick Grant of Great British Sewing Bee fame) then chatted to the tailors in the workshop.

I cannot even begin to say how awesome this was! Being allowed into this working space, to chat to the tailors and ask them about their work: just wonderful. It was fascinating to hear how the tailors had got started in their profession, to see them at work and to hear details of their working life: the process of making a suit, working with different fabrics, fittings and alterations, and so on.

 

It was so fascinating, in fact, that I and another girl who was visiting Norton & Sons ended up being quite late to our next planned stop: a demonstration of cordwaining in the window of Gieves & Hawkes.

A cordwainer is someone who makes shoes from new leather (this is different to a cobbler, apparently, who mostly repairs shoes or makes them from old leather).

Bespoke shoemakers James Ducker and Deborah Carré of Carréducker were demonstrating some of the 200+ steps involved in crafting a pair of hand-sewn shoes, using only hand-held tools.

James discovered his passion for shoemaking totally by chance, and now works with Deborah making bespoke shoes and running shoemaking courses in London and New York. Their talk was highly entertaining and really interesting - they demonstrated different tools and techniques and explained how much time and skill goes into making shoes by hand (short version: a lot).

 

As the day was drawing to a close, I squeezed in a visit to Dashing Tweeds - just over the road from Gieves & Hawkes.

Here Kirsty, who designs all Dashing Tweeds' weaves in house, was showcasing their textiles and the steps involved in designing and weaving tweeds. It was lovely to see the little looms set up surrounded by the finished garments that get made from the final tweed designs, and to chat to Kirsty about her designs and the challenges of "thinking in three dimensions" to make something two-dimensional.

 

On my way home, I took a small detour and popped in to The New Craftsmen - a shop selling a whole assortment of luxury British craft, from hand-woven throws to hand block-printed wallpaper to hand-made ceramic lamp bases to hand-crafted knives.

They were showcasing the work created as part of Made of Mayfair, where makers took inspiration from the history, architecture and craft of Mayfair. It was great to see this collection after chatting to one of the makers that morning.

Such a busy day! And there was still more crafty goodness to come... which I'll blog about in part three, sometime soon :)

P.S. You can read part one of my visit to London Craft Week here.

The Amazingness that was London Craft Week: Part One

I can't remember exactly where I heard about London Craft Week, but it sounded like just my cup of tea.

A new annual event to showcase and celebrate craftmanship? Fantastic! I signed up to the newsletter, pencilled the dates in my diary (Thurs 6th - Sun 10th May) then postively drooled over the programme when it arrived.

Aside from being pretty gorgeous itself (always a good sign), the programme was jam packed with awesome-looking events. There were going to be talks, workshops, demonstrations, tours, open studios and exhibitions featuring a huge range of different craftspeople: watchmakers, tailors, jewellers, fashion and textile designers, bootmakers, engravers, hat makers, perfumers, glassblowers, ceramacists, print makers, costumiers, weavers, silversmiths, gun makers, bookbinders and more.

I knew the week was going to be something special but I was unprepared for just how wonderful it was.

All the venues were buzzing with people visiting, asking questions and oohing over the gorgeous pieces on display. Seeing so much incredible, intricate, beautiful craftsmanship up close was a joy, learning about so many different crafts was fascinating and getting to peek behind the scenes and visit workspaces and studios was totally thrilling. But above all it was just incredibly inspiring to meet and chat to so many makers. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and excited to share stories about their work - and they had such interesting stories to tell!

I have to admit to feeling a teeny bit nervous about entering some of the spaces where the events were being held. I do not normally hang out in the luxury shops on Bond Street! Or visit tailors on Savile Row! Chatting to some of the other visitors I discovered it definitely wasn't just me who felt a bit nervous about this... but it was, of course, fine and we were all made to feel totally welcome.

Similarly, I felt a bit embarrassed at first to admit what I did for a living when meeting these "proper" craftspeople: "oh hello skilled craftsperson who trained for years to make these amazing luxury objects, I, er, sew small things out of felt!" But everyone was so nice and it turns out that makers are makers no matter what craft we specialise in: we're all connected by our passion for creating things. Again and again people mentioned situations and feelings that I recognised from my own job and I got into so many great conversations about making, inspiration, the ups and downs of the creative life, etc, it was hugely inspiring. 

Honestly, the whole thing was so wonderful I felt slightly overwhelmed (in the best possible way) and nearly cried with happiness on my way home (okay so that might have partly been due to exhaustion after dashing around for two days straight trying to see everything I possibly could and staying up until the wee small hours in between on election night!).

Right, that's enough waffling about all my OMG CRAFTING IS SO AWESOME feelings. Time to share some photos!

Thursday's events were clustered in central London, around Bond Street and Piccadilly, which made it really easy to walk between the venues (stopping for tea and cake at intervals along the way, of course). The whole area was full of people wandering round clutching their London Craft Week programmes, chatting happily with each other and taking lots of photos (there was a lot of Instagram-ing happening!).

My first stop was visiting Caroline Groves who designs and makes incredible bespoke shoes and handbags - and whose incredible parakeet shoes are included in the new shoe exhibition at the V&A. I especially loved this bag, which was inspired by a Victorian photo album.

Next I headed to St James' Church, where Catarina Riccabona was busy weaving. It was slightly surreal to find a loom in the middle of a church, but very cool. Catarina was one of a group of craftspeople who took part in Made of Mayfair, where a group of makers took a walk through Mayfair then made work inspired by things they saw along the way. Catarina chose the carvings behind the altar at St James' as her inspiration - aren't they gorgeous?

Just along the road from St James' is legendary store Fortnum & Mason, where I oohed over an showcase of gorgeous craft work. There was a whole schedule of demonstrations at Fortnums during London Craft Week but I totally failed to make it to any of them. I'm glad to have seen the showcase though, and I really enjoyed reading the little blurbs about each of the makers and their work.

 

 

My next stop was the Italian fashion house Etro. After swooning slightly over the beautiful clothes I headed upstairs to see artist Mr Maury at work hand painting one of Etro's signature paisley designs...
 

... click here for a closer look - the detail was incredible!

A few doors down, I visited Swiss watchmakers Vacheron Constantin where a watchmaker and hand-engraver were demonstrating their skills. It was amazing to see all the tiny pieces that make up the watches and fascinating to hear stories of special watches and expensive watch repairs (top tip: don't leave your fancy watch in your trouser pocket when you do your laundry).

They had a camera set up so you could see the engraver's work on a big screen and see just how tiny and detailed it was. Look at these teeny letters- each one is just half a millimetre across!

 

You can see videos of the crafts that go into making Vacheron Constantin watches here.

Over the road at DAKS, Daniel from the London Cloth Company was demonstrating power-loom weaving and chatting about his growing collection of rescued machinery, his gorgeous bespoke cloth, and the ups and downs of running a business when it's just you and the cat (and "the cat is not pulling his weight").

 

 

 

You can see a short video of the (noisy!) loom in action here.

Next I called in at LINLEY to see a demonstration of their fabulously intricate marquetry...

... then decided it was time for lunch. Yup, all that crafty goodness and it was only lunchtime!

You can read about more London Craft Week awesomeness in part two.