News Release: Immediate Release

25^th July 2012

Woven Opulence

As Concrete Wardrobe’s September Maker of the Month, woven accessories designer/maker Lauren Crawford uses luxury silks and wools, sourced from traditional Scottish mills. Crawford is exhibiting a range of her beautiful and wearable scarves, brooches, wedding garters and corsages.

Crawford set up her business in 2007 after graduating with a 2:1 degree from Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee. After working in Fife for four years, Crawford moved to Stafford in 2011 after winning a PSYBT Jolomo Arts and Crafts Award, and she has just finished an artist’s residency for Birmingham City Council.

Crawford’s accessories are hand made using a combination of traditional and innovative weaving techniques. All fabrics are woven on a 16-shaft dobby handloom, before being machine felted and hand finished.  Available in rich colours and styles, her accessories feature innovative double-sided woven structures and textures, inspired by Venetian opulence and architecture. Her prices range from £5 - £150.

Of her exhibition at Concrete Wardrobe, Lauren Crawford declared, “Exhibiting at Concrete Wardrobe is a unique and exciting opportunity. It will provide authoritative exposure, endorsement and public recognition for my work and my business.” She is also looking forward to launching her new collection of unisex hand woven scarves, designed and crafted using luxury silks and super soft lambs wool yarns.

James Donald, Co owner of Concrete Wardrobe commented, “Crawford worked at my own textile company Pickone on a college placement in 2006, and it has been amazing to watch her work develop so beautifully since then. Customers will be hoping for cooler days so they can wear her lovely scarves.”

Lauren Crawford’s work will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31^st September 2012.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 10am – 6pm, Sundays 12 – 5pm.

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-owners: James Donald and Fiona McIntosh

Concrete Wardrobe has just taken stock of these lovely new laser cut jewellery pieces by Philippa Kunisch. They're big and bold, and oh so girly. Gorgeous!

Based in Edinbugh, designer Gillian Norval has been designing and hand making purses and handbags since 2005, after completing a BA (hons) degree in Printed Textiles for Fashion at the University of Brighton, she re-branded in 2011 under the name Dibujo Design.


Dibujo, pronounced di-bu-ch-o (the ch is like the Scottish pronunciation of loch) is the Spanish word for pattern and these highly patterned coasters come in sets of 4 and are available for you to mix and match as you see fit.


These exciting ceramic designs also come in the form of wall mounted clocks.

If you're looking for the perfect greeting card, come to Concrete Wardrobe and check out the wonderful designs by Mairi MacSween. Edinburgh based MacSween designs greeting cards, postcards, prints and wedding stationery. Her designs are nostalgic and very witty. The ones above are from the Patsy and Diane range. Can you spot where Patsy is riding her horse? Her other designs include ceramic animals in outdoor locations, such as a Jack Russell eyeing up a tree trunk! They will make you smile. And her postcards are only 50p!

News Release: Immediate release

June 2012

Bold Patterns, Delightful Forms

This August Myer Halliday transforms the Concrete Wardrobe exhibition space into a world of bold ceramic vessels, bowls and platters.

Halliday’s work explores the relationship between drawn and brushed line and the ceramic form. Lines are drawn in parallel or laid over each other, often in a mechanistic manner. These repeated patterns are greater than the sum of the individual lines, as meanings become associated with the pattern as a whole rather than the individual marks, like with a fingerprint, or cross-section of a tree trunk. The ceramic forms provide a context for the patterns, and set the limits within which they are expressed. Halliday’s brushed pieces are created in a more dynamic, less measured way, and establish a contrast with the line decorated pieces.

Seeing this process as a metaphor for our own lives Halliday explains, “I see a parallel between the process of pattern making and the way our own stories and biographies are created as accumulations of our interactions, routines and repetitions, expressed within our own unique contexts.”

Using white stoneware forms that are often unglazed, Halliday’s lines are drawn using stains in pencil form. The brushed pieces use the same clay body but are decorated using commercial slips and glazed with a high fired, transparent gloss glaze.

James Donald, Co-Owner of Concrete Wardrobe enthused, “Halliday’s work is both striking and original. There is a depth and detail to his patterning that comes alive on close inspection. Thanks to the Maker of the Month exhibition program we can display a large selection of Halliday’s work at one time, and fully appreciate Halliday's beautiful aesthetic.”

Halliday’s work will be on display at Concrete Wardrobe from 1^st to 31st August 2012.

Concrete Wardrobe is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm. Sunday 12 to 4pm.

Concrete Wardrobe 50a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA

ENDS

PR: Katherine Emtage. Co-Owners: James Donald and Fiona McIntosh

The new edition of Craft and Design magazine has arrived in Concrete Wardrobe today, featuring details on the Craft and Design Selected Award winners 2012. 


Come and get your craft fix to take home!