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SPOTLIGHT ON…
Painterly Charm
When Hector Coombs of Shame Studios saw interior designer Cindy Leveson’s room portraits, he proposed collaborating on rugs based on her art. Watercolours is the resulting new collection of 18 painterly handwoven rugs and runners inspired by the formal structure of traditional carpets and the freedom and expressiveness of water and pigment. Patterns and colours range from deep reds and warm corals to Delft blues and ochres. Hand-knotted in India using yarns dyed and spun by hand, the materials and technique lend the weave its subtle variations in tone and colour, giving each rug “the soul of an antique,” says Hector. shamestudios.com; levesondesign.com
Fired Imagination
New work by celebrated ceramicist Florian Gadsby
Hypnotic videos of Florian Gadsby crafting quietly elegant clay wonders at his potter’s wheel have gained him a global profile.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park is hosting Florian’s first solo exhibition in Britain, By My Hands, showing a new collection of his work until 25 February, with everything available to buy. The show shares the title of his recently published first book, which he calls “an introspective tale of a teenager finding a calling in clay”.
Iron-rich stoneware clay and traditional tools, techniques and processes are key to Florian’s precision wheel-thrown tableware and one-off decorative sculptural vessels, which he crafts by hand in his London studio. He draws inspiration from pared-back forms and simple straight-sided objects of everyday use, his subtly detailed glazes have depth, crackled and flecked with iron, with red iron oxide controlling the colours. Cook and food writer Nigel Slater, who has collected Florian’s ceramics since 2015, says: “I think of them as the changing colour of the British sky. There is something pure about them, unsullied and uncomplicated. A quiet perfection.”
Born in Norfolk, his school pottery teacher first spotted and nurtured Florian’s talent. This was bolstered by a work placement at Leach Pottery in St Ives and apprenticeships with Lisa Hammond MBE and Japanese master potter Ken Matsuzaki. ysp.org.uk; floriangadsby.com
Artisanal Blend
Damla Turgut launches new tiles
Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Damla Turgut has turned her passion for art, design and her homeland into a career, launching Otto Tiles & Design in 2014. “I realised there was a gap in the design world for a blend of my homeland’s culture and art with
