The Capital of Craft 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Season

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in June, here is the 4th season of The Capital of Craft hosted by me, Sarah James MBE. I am the director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker.

Alex Finberg was the recipient of Craft Festival's Making It Award 2023 and debuted at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey that year.

In our podcast we find out more about his career. Trained in psychology, his entry into woodworking came about from working on therapeutic projects. I loved learning more about Alex's life and his passion for the outdoors.

He talks with me from his Devon home.

https://alexfinberg.co.uk/

https://www.craftfestival.co.uk/

The Capital of Craft LIVE from Cheltenham Town Hall: Bonus Podcast

As a bonus podcast, listen to Sarah James MBE talk to Dr Kate Strasdin about her critically and commercially successful latest non-fiction book, The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes. 

The book is investagative journalism meets fashion and social history and is a brilliant read. Sarah and Kate talks about the fascinating story of how she found the diary and the lengths she went to to piece together the life and times of Mrs Anne Sykes. 

Dr Kate Strasdin is a senior lecturer at Falmouth University, where she teaches contextual studies for Fashion Design, Fashion Photography, Fashion Marketing and Performance Sportswear Design.

Sounds quality reflects a live setting. 

@katestrasdin 

@craftfestival 

@thecapitalofcraft

The Capital of Craft with Keith Brymer-Jones and Marj Hogarth.

To celebrate the end of our good friend, Keith Brymer-Jones', storming national tour, we are releasing a podcast to end Season 3 of The Capital of Craft.

Recorded live earlier this year at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall,  Keith is in conversation with his partner Marj Hogarth, talking in great depth, with humour and poignancy about his life, growing up in London to Welsh parents. Becoming (as well as a dancer and singer) an accomplished and prolific potter, before being "discovered" by Love Productions and asked to be a judge on The Great Potter Throwdown. The series has gained a hugely loyal following, almost entirely due to the warm and emotional interactions between Brymer-Jones and the contestants. The show is now the 2nd most popular show on Channel 4 after Bake Off! 

Marj and Keith have just completed a successful, 22 date national theatre tour, where they brought Keith's book, Boy in a China Shop, to life. 

Huge Congrats Keith and Marj.

Sound quality reflects a live environment. 

Recorded Live at Craft Festival Cheltenham March 2023

The Capital of Craft Podcast with Sue Pryke

Sue Pryke is an award winning homeware designer and ceramicist with over three decades of experience.

Sue talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker infront of a live audience at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall in March 2023. Sound qaulity reflects a live setting. 

We talk about Sue’s work and her new book, Design and Create Contemporary Tableware, which is co-authored by Linda Bloomfield.

She has a wealth of experience lecturing, delivering design in both consultancy, production and in-house roles, to international and High Street retailers and restaurants including IKEA and Marks & Spencer and The Newt. She was awarded the Homes & Gardens Ceramic & Glass Designer Award in 2014 and was a judge on Season 3 of The Great Pottery Throwdown. In recent years, Sue has concentrated on studio production of her own ranges, selling these directly at trade and public specialist craft events.

You can meet Sue Pryke at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023. 

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/

You can watch our films on You Tube

You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival

You can follow Sue Pryke on Instagram @suepryke

Our latest podcast features the brilliant basketmaker, Hilary Burns MBE.

Hilary is one of the UK's most respected makers. Recipient of Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year in 2018, she was also awarded MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021, in recognition of her dedication to her craft. 

She talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker from her Devon home. We talk about her earliest memories of making and what keeps her exploring the possibilities of creativity.

Hilary has been curating one of our most loved features at Craft Festival, Out of the Woods, for a number of years. You can meet Hilary at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023. 

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/

You can watch our films on https://www.youtube.com/@craftfestival1035/featured

You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival

You can follow Hilary Burns on Instagram Hilary Burns (@hilaryburnsbasketmaker) | Instagram

This weeks podcast is with the  brilliant, Lauren Aston. We met at her home and chatted about how she started out her chunky knit empire, with Craft Festival playing an important role in her starting her business. IAlways good to hear!

You can follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftfestival/

You can watch our films on https://www.youtube.com/@craftfestival1035/featured

You follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalcraftfestival

You can follow Lauren Aston on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/laurenastondesigns/

Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker meets with lecturer, designer and maker Keeley Traae. We met at her home in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK.

Keeley has had a varied and illustrious career in design having worked for ceramic industry giants Wedgewood and Royal Doulton. She set up her own making practise, Keeley Traae Design in 2020. She has extensive experience in ceramic design, design management and evaluating market trends. In her own practise, she is now known for her dististictive use of colour and shape,  specialising in 3D Printing techniques. 

Keeley is also a senior lecturer on the Staffordshire University 3D Designer Maker BA (Hons) course and Product, Furniture, Ceramics BA (Hons). The course is a mixed material course and so she has the opportunity to work with students not only with their ceramic designs and making processes but also with many other materials and objects. Working alongside the amazing course leader Timothy Forrester and other design and industry experts, she thoroughly enjoys sharing her knowledge, skills, and over 25 years of experience with the next generation of creatives. 

@keeleytraae_3d

@craftfestival

@find.amaker

The Capital of Craft

Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with visual artist, potter, curator and lecturer, Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery. 

Peter trained in Ceramics and 3D in the mid 1980s at Camberwell School of Art. In the mid 1990s he completed an MA in Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan. Peter lives near Cardigan and runs St.Dogmaels Pottery in West Wales. He is an experienced educator having worked with a number of UK Universities. Informing and framing his ceramic practice are a range of sources including the processes of walking the coast, swimming along its shore, gathering objects, materials and studying its intertidal ecology and geology. Images, motifs and gestural marks brushed or drawn into the surface of both his functional pots and the sculptural vessels can be seen as direct traces of his phenomenological experience.

@st.dogmaels_pottery

@craftfestival

@find.amaker