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 British class system; why he creates pieces to understand the world around him; his desire to make life difficult for himself; and how his hatred of shopping spawned the extraordinary Tower of Babel installation that wowed crowds at London’s V&A in 2015. 

We also hear plenty about his current obsession with the apple and his 2019 show at the David Gill Gallery, MORE MORE MORE. It’s an interview that manages to be both personal and wide-ranging. 

You can learn more about Barnaby and his work here: barnabybarford.co.uk. While the link to his gallery is here: davidgillgallery.com.

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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 have been inspired by lichen and the 19th-century biologist Ernst Haeckel. However, her most poignant work came in response to the death of her partner Richard from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

She discusses her background; coming into contact with vellum for the first time; how it changed her art; and why the material allowed her to make sense of tragedy. A little like her sculptures, it’s delicate, poignant, emotional and moving.

You can learn more about Laura and her work here: laurayoungsoncoll.co.uk

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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 worries around wooden buildings post-Grenfell.

Not only that but he also explains how growing up in Milton Keynes led to his fascination with cars (he’s the proud owner of an electric one now); ponders on why he was such a lousy student; unpicks the influence British Library architect Sandy Wilson had on his career; and remembers what it was like designing hyper-fashionable bars and clubs in Shoreditch during the ’90s, while finding time to hang out with a generation of artists that became known as the YBAs. 

There’s some important stuff in here. You can learn more about Waugh Thistleton’s work here: waughthistleton.com

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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 different in Shrewsbury; how being teased at school encouraged a sense of style that she has described as ‘Buckaroo meets Russian dolls’; and why her dyslexia may have encouraged a fascination with pattern.

 We also hear about her mother’s collection of fake fruit, which can’t be a bad thing. It’s a fascinatingly personal story from a genuinely unique design talent.  

You can learn more about Bethan and her work here: bethanlaurawood.com

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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 he started his small but perfectly formed company in Walthamstow that not only wants to make the best jeans in the world but is also attempting to persuade consumers to rethink how and why they buy things. Blackhorse Lane Ateliers employs local machinists and offers shared ownership to each employee. Its factory building also houses craftspeople working in artwork restoration, fashion design, weaving, and even contains a pop-up restaurant.

It’s wonderful stuff that encompasses the importance of repair and how memory can be stored in the materials we wear.

You can learn more about Blackhorse Lane Ateliers here: blackhorselane.com

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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; starting Blueprintmagazine from his Docklands flat; taking over the Design Museum in difficult circumstances; and the decision to move the museum. 

After controversy over allowing an arms dealer to use the space for a corporate evening, we also talk about how our arts institutions should be funded in the future. It is by turns eclectic, insightful and fascinating, from one of design’s most important voices. 

You can learn more about the Design Museum here: designmuseum.org

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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 mythology, water and the human body, discovering how they have become threads through her sometimes dark but always extraordinary pieces.

During a remarkably frank interview the artist discusses how she only realised she was dyslexic in her late-thirties; what it was like growing up in Norfolk; her decision to drop out of interior design and become a fine artist; her close relationship with the pigeon keepers that provide her raw material; and why her pieces have nothing to do with taxidermy…

You can discover more about Kate and her work here: katemccgwire.com

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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-Trent. Not only that but he explains the craft behind manufacturing and how you can ‘hear’ if a factory is working efficiently.

 Arguably most importantly, he discusses identity and an epiphany he had at a crossroads in Shanghai that led him to re-discover his Chinese heritage. Also did you know that his father used to be Bruce Lee’s dentist?

You can discover more about Peter and his work here: peterting.com and Ting-Ying can be found here: ting-ying.com

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For this episode Material Matters travelled to Paris to chat to up-and-coming designer Marlene Huissoud about her relationship with propolis (or bee glue) – a substance made up of wax and resin that bees collect from vegetation and use to seal the honey frames inside their hive. 

Working the material a little like glass, the Central Saint Martin’s graduate has created a series of cooly dark, vaguely threatening, vessels as well as a number of other objects. 

During our chat we discuss what it was like growing up with her beekeeper father in the Alps; coming to study in England; why she decided recently to leave London for the French capital (in a word, Brexit); the reasons behind her decision to train as a nurse; creating pieces from her kitchen; and what she’s up to at during the 2019 London Design Festival.

You can find more information on Marlene and her work here: marlene-huissoud.com

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Tom Dixon is one of the biggest names in design with ‘hubs’ in New York, Hong Kong SAR, China, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

In this episode we sat down in his King’s Cross complex to discuss his days welding scrap metal into pieces of baroque furniture but we got into quite a lot more besides. There’s his appearance on Top of the Pops, for example. And the time when some furniture he’d produced for shoe designer Patrick Cox fell apart at a dinner party. We hear what London used to be like in the ’80s and why he might have been the bass player for Pink Floyd. 

He also talks about his decision to join Habitat, setting up with his eponymous brand, and the importance of food to his practice… as well as answering the biggest question of all: what exactly is the scent of Tom Dixon? You’ll have to listen to find out…

To learn more about Tom go to: www.tomdixon.net

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