GUEST DESIGNER: SARA HOWARD

Last Saturday, we had the incredible opportunity to host a full day talk and workshop at Culford Studios with Sara Howard.

Sara is an award-winning London designer, building new systems in pursuit of circularity and regeneration in the ceramic industry and beyond. 

She graduated from Central St. Martins in 2020, studying BA Honours Degree in Ceramic Design. In her final year, Sara designed an industrial symbiosis around the ceramics industry. With finite raw materials projected to deplete within decades, and England alone generating millions of tonnes of industrial waste each year, the ceramics industry is at risk. Sara's Circular Ceramics approach addresses this challenge by reducing reliance on virgin raw materials and repurposing waste, ensuring a sustainable future for both the industry and our planet. Scaling up with ceramic tableware manufacturer Kevala in Indonesia, Sara now works with hotels and restaurants across the globe.

In 2023, Sara founded Crafting Coral, an initiative regenerating reefs across Maldives and Indonesia using ceramics. 

Sara also co-founded Golden Earth Studio, a platform to make construction waste streams accessible to the creative industry in pursuit of circularity. Sara’s methods and processes are shared in her book, Circular Ceramics.

Her talk inspired all our members and participants to think differently about the materials and resources we commonly use in a ceramic studio. It was a kind reminder about the environmental crisis we are currently facing, while also offering available actions anyone could take to make their own ceramic practice more sustainable. Everybody was impressed and started sharing ideas and discuss potential alternatives that could help address these issues in all industries, from Construction to Fine Art.

The talk was then followed by a 3-hour workshop (including a mini pizza break) where our members and participants had the unique chance to experiment with London wild clay. Golden Earth Studio had collected clay from a 12-14m deep excavation from a construction site in Wimbledon, providing attendees with a firsthand experience of using reclaimed materials. The workshop was an afternoon of clay discussions and collective testing as we explored how to develop different clay bodies, glazes, slips and engobes.

We look forward to unveiling the results at our Open Studio Weekend, taking place on the 30th November and 1st of December at Culford Studios. We hope to see you there :)

You can RSVP here if you haven't already.

Thanks again Sara!

Find out more about Sara's work and Golden Earth Studio:

https://sarahowardstudio.com/

https://goldenearthstudio.co.uk/

GUEST ARTIST: PHOEBE COLLINGS-JAMES

We are incredibly happy that Phoebe Collings-James has now joined Culford Studios as a Resident Artist and will stay with us for the next few months! We thought the start of this residency was the perfect opportunity to host a talk by Phoebe, where all our members could meet and hear about Phoebe's journey with clay, from the evolution of her art through different mediums, to her international ceramics residencies and solo exhibitions in London and New York.

The talk was followed a few days after by a large scale sculpture workshop, where Phoebe delved into specific hand-building techniques and her approach to large scale sculpture, demonstrated live through the making of a Horsemen.

More about Phoebe Collings-James:

Phoebe Collings-James’ (b.1987 London, UK) works function as “emotional detritus”; speaking of knowledges of feelings, the debris of violence, language, and desire which are inherent to living and surviving within hostile environments. 

Her work spans across sculpture, sound, performance and installation, and unpacks the object as subject by giving life and tension to ceramic forms. Colling-James’ musical alias, young nettle, creates sound design for original music productions and is a member of B.O.S.S., a QTIBIPOC sound system based in South London.

Collings-James also runs Mudbelly, a ceramics studio, shop and teaching facility offering free ceramics courses for Black people in London, taught by Black ceramicists.  

Fellowships include summer 2022 incubator resident at The Archie Bray in Helena, Montana at the invitation of Theaster Gates and 2021 Freelands Ceramic Fellow at Camden Arts Centre. 

Collings-James also had their first US institutional show at SculptureCenter, New York this Summer 2024. A new series of ceramic sculptures was exhibited, exploring relationships between heresy, faith, and orthodoxies of church, state, and society. Intensely coloured by iron-rich glazes, slips and various firing techniques, and imprinted with fragments of texts, each of Collings-James’ sculptures elaborates on the position of the heretic as a transmitter of incendiary speech, opposition from within, and ostracisation.

Find out more here:

https://www.sculpture-center.org/exhibitions/13984/in-practice-phoebe-collings-james

Thank you again Phoebe, what an inspiring talk and workshop!

Learn more about Phoebe's work: www.phoebecollingsjames.com

And follow on instagram: www.instagram.com/phoebethegorgon

GUEST ARTIST: ZAHED TAJEDDIN

Last week we had the pleasure to host our Culford Social event with Zahed Tajeddin, one of our long-term resident member here at Culford Studios! 

Zahed is a Syrian artist, archeologist, conservator and researcher. He studied chemistry, fine arts, ceramics, archeology and has a PhD in Egyptian Faience from Westminster University. He has a special interest in history and ancient art, and his sculpture is influenced by ancient artefacts, archaeology and mythology. He has worked on many archaeological digs in the Middle East. With his scientific background and an incredible understanding of ancient materials, Zahed then works intuitively with clay, creating sculptural ceramic figures which he finishes with textures, and naturalistic patinas. Some have weathered surfaces, which he creates with oxides and the artful use of glazes. His art tells us a story about ancient and modern tales, weaving history, technology, archaeology and mythology all together.

Zahed talked us through his long professional career, starting with his Syrian origins and his body of work as a sculptor, establishing a recurring theme in his career: mythology. While giving a story to the piece, the mythological narrative is also subversive and makes us reflect on both the past and present time. 

Zahed then delved into his research on Egyptian faience. During his PhD at Westminster, Zahed not only re-discovered the science and technology behind this beautiful turquoise material, but he also re-discovered how to use it to make and sculpt new artefacts. While studying this material, Zahed created a whole body of work known as the 'Nu' Shabtis, exhibited at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at the end of his thesis in 2014. The ‘U’ Shabtis in ancient Egypt are the small, mostly turquoise figurines that guarded the dead and served them in the afterlife. Zahed created instead the ‘Nu’ Shabtis, who have awoken in the 21st century and found there is no afterlife, no god of the underworld, and no labours to perform. They are ‘liberated’ and walk among us finding new things to do with their lives. He describes it, “Some follow our lifestyle and become happy with our activities, our shopping and consumption patterns, and all our gadgets and tools. Other Nu‐Shabtis remain restless and continue searching for freedom and liberty. Some find themselves becoming demonstrators and freedom fighters and joining us in mankind’s eternal quest for freedom. In these varying responses to our modern existence they reflect us all, and also the complications and contradictions of the world in which we currently operate”. Today you can find six of these ‘Nu’ Shabtis at the Victoria & Albert museum, in the Ceramics and Islamic Middle East Galleries.

Zahed finished his talk telling us about his recent exhibitions as well as his impressive large-scale private commissions created here at Culford Studios using our large kiln. 

We all felt very grateful to listen to Zahed, and inspired by his unique career path and point of view. So much knowledge, skills and wisdom! The evening continued with many questions and positive feedbacks from the members community. We felt like we've only scratched the surface and can dig a little more into Zahed's approach to ceramics  

(archeological pun intended). To be continued...

Thank you again Zahed, what a pleasure! 

Learn more about Zahed's work on his website: www.zahedtajeddin.com

And follow him on instagram: www.instagram.com/zahedtajeddin