Volume 16.2 features a range of contributions that consider craft through the lens of cultural ecology and reflect on the evolution of material practices across time and place. Mari Koppanen and Antti Lindfors explore the tradition of amadou-making in Romania and the material’s recontextualization in contemporary craft and design practices. Gareth Thomas examines coppicing in Wales, demonstrating how the revival of a heritage craft can foster community (re)connection and support ecological sustainability. Yuttapong Tonpradoo, Sawit Pongvat and Supansa Suwan focus on the production of cultural commodities produced through crafting with Indigenous Ton Bai Romkao in Kapong District, Southern Thailand, framed by the challenge of integrating tradition with sustainability. The evolution of a material practice is explored in Olga Beatrice Carcassi, Mohammad Hossein Zowqi and Lola Ben-Alon’s enquiry into the integration of 3D printing with soil and plant-based fibre material recipes, which are informed by traditional basketry and bridge analogue and digital craft. Ponimin, Muhammad Faizal bin Abdul Rani and Okta Viviana Asmi Nusantari present how terracotta plant vases, which combine local cultural ideas from Indonesia and Malaysia, are incorporated into interior and exterior aesthetics. The portrait by Nizam Orcun Onal and Aysenur Ceren Asmaz features the ceramic glazes of Danish artist Christina Schou Christensen. The exhibition Soft Power: Lives Told through Textile Art held at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, is reviewed by Loucia Manopoulou and D Wood reviews A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects by Robell Awake.
Review of: A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects , Robell Awake (2025) New York: Chronicle Books, 144 pp., ISBN 978-1-79722-854-9, h/bk, GBP 18.99
Soft Power: Lives Told through Textile Art , Royal West of England Academy (RWA), Bristol, 17 May–10 August 2025
Natural building materials like clay soils and plant fibres are undergoing a renaissance in ecological design and architecture. Nonetheless, design creativity and fabrication using natural materials have mostly relied on manual techniques, such as cob and rammed earth, which are limited to heavy mass assemblies in rectilinear geometries with thick straight lines. Introducing digital fabrication with diverse ranges of processing parameters to natural materials can introduce novel patterns, textures, geometries and performances. This study explores the integration of 3D printing with soil- and plant-based fibre material recipes with high fibre content, culminating in digitally designed vessels inspired by traditional basketry protocols. Computational models of basket 'wall' profile typologies, from vertical to convex and concave geometries, were evaluated for their resulting printed patterns and structural stability. The texture results achieved in this work aim to challenge the digital aesthetics dominated by petroleum-based or thermoplastic pastes. Distinct printing qualities and pattern resolution were shown to be achieved for different fibre types, from wheat straw to longer hemp and banana fibres. By leveraging digi-tal tools to reimagine ancient materials and techniques, this research aims to foster a deeper connection between constructed forms and our relationship with soil and plants as essential stewardships required for environmental agency in creative and accessible design. Exhibited in several design venues, the resulting artefacts showcase novel fusions of material surface patterns, crafted through machine deposi-tion, embodying traditional inspirations in sustainable digital design
Residential houses in South East Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, have unique forms and meanings that must be preserved in the present era. This article proposes that one method of doing so is to incorporate terracotta plant vases that combine local cultural ideas from Indonesia and Malaysia into the homes' interior and exterior aesthetics. Aesthetic elements from both countries can be presented on the vases' ornamentation. The vase creation process consists of the following steps: (1) exploring the source of ideas; (2) designing the terracotta vases; (3) processing the clay materials for the terracotta vases and creating vase forms and ornaments on the body of terracotta vases; (4) the firing process and (5) analysing the creations. This research presents examples of ornate terracotta vases that exhibit local cultural ideas inspired by the Malaysian Kelantan kite and the Garudeya story depicted on the Kidal Malang Indonesian temple relief.
Ceramic art, as a field of contemporary creativity, has witnessed many innovative approaches. Danish artist Christina Schou Christensen's groundbreaking exploration of ceramic glazes represents a significant shift in how glaze is understood within the discipline. Through her pioneering artworks, Christensen moves beyond conventional views of glaze as decoration, instead presenting it as a crucial structural element integrated into the overall form. With carefully planned experimentation in chemical composition, glaze movement and firing methods, she takes advantage of these properties to create sculp-tural forms that are both technically intricate and visually compelling. By extending the possibilities of ceramic practice and embracing the unpredictability of the glazing process, Christensen merges scientific awareness with artistic intent, elevating her work in both technical and aesthetic terms. Her approach not only broadens expressive potential but also underscores the close interconnection between material science and creative design. Through her tests with glaze formulation and kiln dynamics, she illustrates how a strong grasp of ceramic chemistry can actively influence artistic outcomes, opening fresh oppor-tunities for exploration in the field. Her work stands as evidence of the transformative role of experi-mentation, offering insights into how ceramic chemistry, mathematical logic, and design principles can intersect to shape innovative results.
This article examines the fungal material known as amadou across two contexts: the vernacular craft of amadou-making in the Romanian village of Corund, a tradition that persists among a small number of local families, and contemporary arts, with a critical view on the recontextualization of this material in an artistic and commercial setting. Employing a multispecies ethnographic approach alongside insights from arts and design involving amadou, we investigate the relationship between amadou-makers and the tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) integral to this craft. Special attention is paid to the sensory attributes and affordances of amadou, which frequently evoke profound feelings of attachment, and their remediation and intersection with contemporary design practices. We propose that the sense of attachment evoked by amadou serves as a material-sensorial anchor for both amadou-makers and their craft tradi-tion, as well as in broader human-fungus relations involving contemporary design.
For the local communities of Thailand, traditional craft is a potential vehicle for sustainable economic development. This is a qualitative investigation to study the previously unreported characteristics of the Ton Bai Romkao, an Indigenous plant species unique to Phang Nga Province in Southern Thailand, and the development of the plant into cultural commodities for tourism and local sustain-ability. The research area for this investigation was Kapong District, Phang Nga Province, Southern Thailand. The research on Ton Bai Romkao aimed to identify the characteristics of the plant, under-stand its local significance and explore the potential for its development using traditional knowledge in the Andaman provinces. Through document studies, structured and unstructured interviews, participant and non-participant observations and focused group discussions, it was clear that the Ton Bai Romkao plant plays an important role in local economic development and cultural sustainabil-ity. The results revealed that Ton Bai Romkao can be propagated from seed and is planted within community forests. Once the plant has matured, local villagers use the leaves to create everyday products. The leaves are valued for their thickness, durability and flexibility. This investigation confirmed the suitability of Ton Bai Romkao for the creation of conical hats and potential develop-ment of more products.
Heritage crafts have experienced a revival in recent years, driven by a growing demand for authentic-ity, sustainability and meaningful engagement. Despite this resurgence, systemic barriers, including the decline of vocational education and a cultural disconnect between urban settings and rural crafts, have excluded many working-class urban young people who once formed the backbone of these trades. This case study examines a community-driven heritage initiative centred on the restoration of an urban hazel coppice adjacent to the historic Hafod/Morfa Copperworks in Swansea. Co-produced by Swansea University, local stakeholders and educational institutions, the project aimed to equip participants with rural heritage coppicing skills whilst restoring a small hazel coppice using traditional methods through an immersive coppicing programme. Participants engaged in traditional crafts such as dead hedging, hazel stool cutting, tool maintenance and sustainable land management, under the guidance of a tradi-tional coppice worker and experienced volunteers. By combining hyper-local project accessibility with practical, hands-on skill-building within an intergenerational support network, the initiative success-fully addressed the participants' self-identified barriers to learning. This co-produced approach allowed the project to achieve high levels of participation and satisfaction, enhancing confidence, well-being and community pride, while also inspiring further workshops and volunteer activities. By employing a co-production framework that brought together community input, statutory authorities and tradi-tional expertise, the project provides a replicable model for introducing rural heritage skills into urban environments.
Review of: The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters , Barbara Burman (2023) London: Reaktion Books, 288 pp., ISBN 978-1-78914-719-3, h/bk, £15.95
Review of: Locating Menswear Forum , Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, The Space, Liverpool, Sevenstore, Liverpool, 4–5 JULY 2024
Gedog batik products not only have high artistic and craftsmanship value but are also a representation of the traditions of Tuban itself. The current condition of these traditional artefacts is unavoidably experiencing intervention from modernization in the form of trends, technology and market tastes, which demand innovation to maintain their existence. However, this is challenging because modernization is considered to have the potential to threaten the uprooting of the virtues of tradition itself. In 2018, the concept of a traditional artefact innovation pyramid was produced as a guide to bridge the ‘gap’ between tradition and modernity so that we can collaborate to create innovation. This research was carried out by applying the phases in the pyramid guide innovation of traditional artefact concept: (1) conducting a preliminary study to determine the fundamental ground of tradition forming the identity of the tradition and validating using triangulation of data sources; (2) qualitative hybridity analysis by comparing the traditional values of Gedog batik cloth with the factual conditions which have undergone several interventions to produce recommendations for innovation strategies and (3) the strategy is realized into a prototype through the process of exploring the design of the work. It should be possible to produce tradition-based craft products that meet trend needs and are in demand by the market.
In the tradition of creative practices’ embodied knowledge and research, this article narrates my experience of trauma due to becoming suddenly disabled. The article relates how engaging with stitching helped me deal with the sudden loss of a leg, cope with my new condition as a disabled person, repair my wounded self, find my feet in a new world and open pathways of new knowledge and consciousness. The article makes a strong case for the transformative potential of craft and craft-making by way of three complementary arguments that contribute to expanding and deepening research into the nature of craft widely, and of stitching specifically. Firstly, it argues that stitching – and more widely craft – is a language in its own terms that allows expressing oneself before and beyond verbal language. Secondly, in offering the possibility to make sense ‘through the hands’, to reconfigure and, thus, repair one wounded self, stitching transformative power goes well beyond its therapeutic nature as it is conventionally defined. Thirdly, it shows that stitching can open the doors onto a different type of knowledge that comes from a source other than the intellect or the rational mind, thus becoming a way of knowing in its own terms and a mode of learning ‘other ways’.
This article examines a design research intervention aimed at revitalizing the critically endangered craft of traditional linen making in Castelões, Portugal, through a design-led mediation approach. The study critically reflects on the notion of innovation within traditional industries and explores how collaborative efforts can ensure cultural continuity while adapting to change. The methodology includes identifying cultural and territorial values, engaging local practitioners and co-developing resources to preserve and communicate the heritage of this centuries-old craft. The article discusses how ethnographic research methods have helped foster trust and facilitate dialogue with the community, enabling a participatory framework that aligns design actions with the practice’s cultural identity. Findings indicate that innovation, in this context, is best construed as an adaptive and reflective process, balancing issues of tradition and contemporaneity without imposing design or technological norms. The article further details significant outcomes of the mediation process, including the reactivation of the practice base, the establishment of new community facilities, and the initiation of networks and immersive learning programmes. The intervention highlights the potential of design as a catalyst for positive narrative transformation in declining craft cultures, enabling their integration into contemporary cultural and economic contexts.
Volume 16.1 features a variety of contributions that explore the transformative power of craft, highlighting its cultural, material and personal significance in shaping identities, connecting the past and present and offering possibilities for sustainable futures. Chaterjee et al. reflect on the struggle to sustain the heritage craft of linen making in Portugal. Shaw’s Portrait showcases the work of the last remaining lapidaire in France. Writing on batik, Ciptandi and Utami Bastaman similarly discuss the challenges of maintaining traditional practices amidst an ever-changing craft landscape, suggesting that transformation is inevitable. Ferraro illustrates a mindful way to navigate the unknown, by reflecting on her personal experiences and stitching practice, whilst Setyawan explores the transformative experiences of working with clay. Themes of self-exploration and identity are also present in a book review of The Point of the Needle: Why Sewing Matters (2023) and the Locating Menswear conference review. The review of the Green Making | Materials | Objects exhibition and the Remarkable Image further explore craft’s transformative potential in relation to sustainability.
The use of clay and ceramic mediums in contemporary art has received considerable attention in relation to their materiality. Materiality is generally understood within a given cultural perspective, referring to the perception of the physical qualities of an object that are related to its purpose, meaning and value in society. This representational possibility has attracted the interest of many artists to the mediums of clay and ceramic. However, material culture cannot fully explain material phenomena or their relationship to humans. The only way to understand a material is to be directly involved in making with it, as physical interaction with the material provides a deeper understanding and connection that cannot be achieved through cultural interpretation alone. Albert Yonathan Setyawan, an Indonesian artist based in Japan, is renowned for his predominantly clay and ceramic works. He creates palm-sized objects that are replicated innumerable times and installed in symmetrical patterns. Setyawan’s works exhibit spiritual dimensions through the use of repetition, order, meditation and transformational qualities. This article applies a phenomenological approach to understanding Setyawan’s practice through an examination of these objects and his experience with his materials. This article likewise discusses how making activity intercedes in the relationship between human artists and their materials. It also explores the way that making has contributed to Setyawan’s artist–maker sensitivity and knowledge of both material properties and the logics of specific forms and methods, as well as the metaphorical possibilities that shape the aesthetic qualities and concept of a given work. Interestingly, Setyawan’s practice is linked to various aspects of past human activity. The article concludes that an artist’s making influences attitudes, ways of thinking and the understanding of practices and the environment. In Setyawan’s practice, materials and making become active ways of engaging with the world and with the self.
Review of: Green Making | Materials | Objects , curated by Polly Macpherson, The Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, 20 July–24 August 20
