Tomáš Libertíny is an artist and designer, who was born in Slovakia but currently lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He burst into the wider consciousness with his Honeycomb Vase during Milan’s Design Week in 2007. For the extraordinary piece, Libertíny constructed vase-shaped beehive scaffolds and, essentially, let nature take its course, in a process he dubbed ‘slow prototyping’. The beeswax work took one week, and approximately 40,000 bees, to create. It is now in MoMA’s permanent...
Nov 18, 2020•50 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Peter Marigold is a London-based product designer who originally studied sculpture at Central St Martins before changing tack and enrolling at the Royal College of Art in 2004. Since then he has created gallery pieces for the likes of Libby Sellers and, more recently, Sarah Myerscough, had furniture and shelving manufactured by SCP and others, as well as creating a porcelain collection for Meissen. Best known for his use of wood, in 2015 he launched a new product FORMcard, essentially a small pi...
Nov 11, 2020•51 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Polly Morgan is an artist who has been hugely responsible for the recent revival of interest in taxidermy, an art form more readily associated with the Victorians, hunting trophies, and dusty bell jars. The one-time English Literature graduate and bar manager has set about upsetting those traditions, creating dark, but alluring, pieces that often place her creatures in disorientating environments. In her hands, a prone, and obviously lifeless, bird dangles from a string attached to a single red ...
Oct 14, 2020•52 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Sean Sutcliffe co-founded high-end furniture maker, Benchmark, with the late Sir Terence Conran in the early ’80s, when he was fresh out of Parnham College. Initially, he produced work for The Conran Shop, Heals and Habitat, before helping Terence change the face of the London restaurant scene by creating furniture and fittings for Bibendum and Quaglino’s. Subsequently, Benchmark has gone on to do commissions for the likes of the National Gallery, the Natural History Museum, the Eden Project, Vo...
Oct 07, 2020•54 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Natsai Audrey Chieza is a designer who has built an extraordinary career by working with bacteria. She grew up in Zimbabwe, before moving to the UK at the age of 17 and training as an architect at Edinburgh University. Subsequently though, she changed tack and completed her MA on the Material Futures course at London’s Central Saint Martins. Now through her experimental studio, Faber Futures, she operates between biology, design and our wider society, working, for instance, with microorganisms t...
Sep 30, 2020•55 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Julia Lohmann is a German-born designer who first came to prominence after graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2004 with a chandelier fashioned from 50 preserved sheep stomachs. She followed that up with a stool made by casting the inside of a dead calf and, perhaps most famously, with her Cow Bench – essentially a sculpture of a cow’s body covered, anatomically correctly, with an entire hide. Both beautiful and a bit disturbing, the pieces were created as provocations, to make us consid...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Esna Su is an artist and jewellery designer, who was brought up in Turkey, near the Syrian border, before arriving in London in 2003. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2015, she has developed a reputation for her extraordinary pieces that attempt to highlight the plight of refugees. Her wearable sculptures curve and bulge around the body, using traditional Turkish techniques of hasir, twining, needlework and crochet, as well as materials such as leather, cotton and paper rush. In he...
Sep 15, 2020•44 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Dominic Wilcox is a London-based designer, artist and inventor. I first came across his work in 2002 when he created The War Bowl, in which he melted down plastic toy soldiers from a particular battle and turned them into, well, a bowl. Since then he has gone onto to create a singular space in the design world, with witty creations and drawings that are a combination of David Shrigley and Heath Robinson, with a dash of Vic and Bob thrown in to boot. In Wilcox’s hands your shoes can tell you wher...
Sep 08, 2020•57 min•Season 7Ep. 1
The final episode of this special ‘lockdown’ series of Material Matters features Alexis Peskine. I came across the Paris-based artist’s work at last year’s 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at London’s Somerset House and described it in a subsequent Instagram post as ‘breathtaking’. Rather than using canvas, Peskine takes an earth and coffee-stained timber base. And instead of paint, he hammers nails at different heights, which are often tipped with gold leaf to form the features of a face. The...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 6
In the fifth ‘lockdown special’ of Material Matters, I speak to the brilliant Lin Cheung. Lin is one of the world’s most intriguing jewellery designers, her output vacillating between installation pieces, work that contains political and social commentary, as well as high profile commissions, including the medals for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. She picked up an Arts Foundation Award in 2001 and a Jerwood Contemporary Makers Award in 2008. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour...
Jun 24, 2020•53 min•Season 6Ep. 5
The fourth ‘lockdown special’ episode of Material Matters features the excellent Fernando Laposse. The up-and-coming designer has made his name in recent years with his colourfully beautiful veneer, Totomoxtle, which is made from the husks of Mexican corn grown in the tiny village of Tonahuixtla. The product was included in last year’s exhibition Food: Bigger than the Plate at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as being shortlisted for the London Design Museum’s Beazley Designs of the Year ...
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 4
The third 'lockdown special' of Material Matters features the radical knitter Freddie Robins. The common perception of knitting is that it’s a gentle, mindful activity. A thing you can do quietly in front of the television to relax after a hard day. Well Robins’ work is the antithesis of all that. It’s frequently dark, and always provocative. Her subject matter encompasses death, loss, religion, depression and challenges the perceived hierarchy of the art and craft worlds. It is work meant for t...
May 12, 2020•51 min•Season 6Ep. 3
The second ‘lockdown special’ episode of Material Matters features the excellent Sheridan Coakley. The entrepreneur cut his teeth as a modern furniture dealer before founding the iconic SCP – or Sheridan Coakley Products – in London’s Shoreditch during the mid-eighties. The manufacturer and retailer burst onto the nascent British design scene with pieces by Jasper Morrison and Matthew Hilton. In 1991 it produced the latter’s Balzac armchair, which has gone on to become a bona fide classic. Over ...
Apr 22, 2020•52 min•Season 6Ep. 2
This is the first special ‘lockdown’ edition of Material Matters. As regular listeners will be aware, we usually record our interviews in the studio or workshop of our guest but, because of the virus, this wasn’t able to happen. So instead this show was done over the internet with the brilliant Gareth Neal. The London-based designer and maker has exhibited pieces across the world and has work in the collections of the V&A and the Crafts Council. Over the course of our chat, Gareth talks abou...
Apr 08, 2020•58 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Junko Mori is one of the world’s leading metal artists, who has work in the collections of The Goldsmiths’ Company, The British Museum and numerous others. The Japanese born blacksmith is renowned for her extraordinary work in mild steel or silver that aggregates hundreds of individually forged elements to create pieces that are often inspired by nature in general and cell division in particular. As she has said: ‘The uncontrollable beauty is the core of my concept.’ We talk about growing up in ...
Mar 05, 2020•57 min•Season 5Ep. 6
It’s safe to say that ceramist Malene Hartmann Rasmussen is a one-off. I vividly remember first seeing one of her pieces in 2011. ‘If I Had a Heart I Could Love You’ was tucked away in a corner of an exhibition. At its centre was a wood burning stove but instead of logs there were clay hearts sizzling in the fire. Phallic wooden stumps grew out of the walls, while on the floor a pair of ceramic snakes appeared to be taking a distinctly Machiavellian interest in a nearby squirrel. It was obviousl...
Feb 26, 2020•43 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Car designer John Barnard is a Formula 1 legend. If motor sport is an orchestra of materials then John is its Simon Rattle. Over a garlanded career he worked for Ferrari (twice), Arrows and Prost. But his reputation was forged at McLaren, where he created the first car with a carbon fibre chassis. Lighter and safer, it won a lot of races too. More recently he has been working on a range of carbon fibre furniture with Terence Woodgate for British manufacturer Established & Sons. In this episo...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Daniel Charny is a design educator, curator and a creative consultant whose practice, From Now On, has worked with the likes of the Design Museum, developer U+I, and Heatherwick Studio. However, he is arguably best known for co-founding Fixperts, an organisation which in the words of one writer ‘started out as a simple way of celebrating and clarifying the ingenuity and problem-solving power of design’. Since then though it has become rather more than that. In this episode we talk about the impo...
Feb 12, 2020•57 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Shelley James is a globally renowned glass artist with a fascinating tale to tell. She was ensconced in the corporate branding world – working for the likes of Imagination and Landor – before an injury to her head, sustained in a bicycle accident, completely changed her life and perspective. After a six-year (yes, six-year) period of convalescence, she decided to leave the business world behind and study printmaking. However, after a trip to the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, she became sm...
Feb 05, 2020•53 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby of Barber Osgerby are renowned industrial designers who have worked for the likes of Vitra, Knoll, Magis and Flos, as well as working on installations for brands such as BMW and Sony. In this episode the intention was to chat about the role plywood played in their nascent careers with Iskon Plus. However, we ended up chewing the fat about (among other things): meeting at the Royal College of Art and nearly being kicked out; not slagging off Richard Rogers; the 'toxi...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Corinne Julius is a London-based journalist, broadcaster and curator who was born into design. In this episode we discuss the history of her family firm, Hille, which revolutionised British furniture design after the Second World War, pioneering work from the likes of Robin Day and Fred Scott; her difficult time at the Royal College of Art and why she eventually felt compelled to leave; how she fell into journalism; and her introduction of craft to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Importantly too, we exa...
Dec 18, 2019•49 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Sebastian Cox is a young London-based furniture designer, who founded and co-directs his eponymous company. He is renowned for his use of traditionally coppiced hazel. In this episode he talks about his ambitious new manifesto, Modern Life from Wilder Land , that sets out a more sustainable future for food production in the UK. We chat about how we need to radically shift the way we use land; reducing our reliance on meat; how our woodlands need to be more effectively managed; and why design is ...
Dec 11, 2019•48 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Barnaby Barford is a London-based artist and satirist. He has work in the collections of the V&A, Crafts Council and The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina. He initially came to prominence with work that often turned the mirror onto contemporary culture. In this episode he talks about his relationship with the material that brought him to prominence, ceramic. However, that’s only the start. Because he also discusses his feeling that he never quite fits in; his fascination with the Britis...
Dec 04, 2019•54 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Laura Youngson Coll is an artist and sculptor based in London. In this episode we talk about her relationship with vellum. Historically the calf’s, or goat’s skin, has been used to write on. The Magna Carta, for example, was inscribed on it as, for centuries, were the laws of this land. However, Youngson Coll, who has featured in Jerwood Makers Open and was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize in 2017, manipulates the material to create extraordinarily intricate art works. Her pieces hav...
Nov 27, 2019•37 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Andrew Waugh is the co-founder of award-winning architecture practice Waugh Thistleton. In this episode we discuss why he decided to design tall buildings out of wood – or cross-laminated timber to be precise. In a wide-ranging conversation he lays out in no uncertain terms the issues the construction industry faces over sustainability, what it needs to do to avoid environmental calamity, and how CLT can provide some of the answers. En route he touches on the perceptions of the material and worr...
Nov 20, 2019•44 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Bethan Laura Wood is a London-based designer, who creates pieces for industry and the collectible market. In this episode she talks about her love for the material that made her name nearly a decade ago – laminate. A wide-ranging (and occasionally hugely intimate) discussion touches on the Royal College of Art graduate’s fascination with turning the ubiquitous into the precious, as well as focussing on her love of colour. However, she also tells us about her childhood growing up a little bit dif...
Nov 13, 2019•54 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Han Ates is the founder of the London-based craft jeans company Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, whose mantra is to ‘think global but act local’. During our interview we discover what it was like leaving Istanbul for London in the late ’80s; how he started his career in clothing on the floor of his uncle’s factory as a presser; the problem of running his own business; and why he became disillusioned with the world of cheap fashion and decided to open his own restaurant instead. That all happened before...
Oct 02, 2019•47 min•Season 3Ep. 6
At the time of recording Deyan Sudjic was the co-director of the London Design Museum. Although he has since stepped down from that role he remains a prolific author, essayist and curator and has been one of the most important figures in British design since the early ’80s. Over the course of our chat we touch on an array of subjects, including: becoming an Oz Kid in the ’70s and the obscenity trial that ensued; growing up with his Yugoslavian parents; why he was a useless architecture student; ...
Sep 25, 2019•42 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Kate MccGwire is an award-winning sculptor whose installations have been shown around the world, including Harewood House in Yorkshire, The Harley Gallery at Welbeck, Messums Wiltshire, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida and Galerie Haas AG in Zürich. In 2018 she won The Royal Academy of Arts, Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture. In this episode the Royal College of Art graduate talks about her fascination with feathers. Not only that but during the interview we also unpick her profound interest in...
Sep 18, 2019•46 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Peter Ting is a ceramic designer, art director and the co-founder of gallery Ting-Ying. In this episode he talks about his life-long relationship with Blanc de Chine, to coincide with a new installation on the material that opened at London’s V&A Museum in 2019. And it transpires he has quite a bit more to say too. We discuss growing up in Hong Kong and moving to an English public school at the age of 16; how he discovered clay in the first instance and why he decided to work in Stoke-on-Tre...
Sep 11, 2019•49 min•Season 3Ep. 3
