The Capital of Craft
Welcome to The Capital of Craft, where we talk with makers and thinkers about what it means to be a maker and how it can change your life. I’m your host, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker, craft addict, maker and event producer. Please join me as we delve deep into the stories and lives of makers, of all kinds, every Thursday.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Alex Finberg
04/25/2024
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Alex Finberg
The Capital of Craft 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Season To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Craft Festival Bovey Tracey in June, here is the 4th season of The Capital of Craft hosted by me, Sarah James MBE. I am the director of Craft Festival and Find a Maker. Alex Finberg was the recipient of Craft Festival's Making It Award 2023 and debuted at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey that year. In our podcast we find out more about his career. Trained in psychology, his entry into woodworking came about from working on therapeutic projects. I loved learning more about Alex's life and his passion for the outdoors. He talks with me from his Devon home.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Kate Strasdin
07/20/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Kate Strasdin
The Capital of Craft LIVE from Cheltenham Town Hall: Bonus Podcast As a bonus podcast, listen to Sarah James MBE talk to Dr Kate Strasdin about her critically and commercially successful latest non-fiction book, The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes. The book is investagative journalism meets fashion and social history and is a brilliant read. Sarah and Kate talks about the fascinating story of how she found the diary and the lengths she went to to piece together the life and times of Mrs Anne Sykes. Dr Kate Strasdin is a senior lecturer at , where she teaches contextual studies for Fashion Design, Fashion Photography, Fashion Marketing and Performance Sportswear Design. Sounds quality reflects a live setting. @katestrasdin @craftfestival @thecapitalofcraft
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keith Brymer-Jones
07/06/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keith Brymer-Jones
The Capital of Craft with Keith Brymer-Jones and Marj Hogarth. To celebrate the end of our good friend, Keith Brymer-Jones', storming national tour, we are releasing a podcast to end Season 3 of The Capital of Craft. Recorded live earlier this year at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall, Keith is in conversation with his partner Marj Hogarth, talking in great depth, with humour and poignancy about his life, growing up in London to Welsh parents. Becoming (as well as a dancer and singer) an accomplished and prolific potter, before being "discovered" by Love Productions and asked to be a judge on The Great Potter Throwdown. The series has gained a hugely loyal following, almost entirely due to the warm and emotional interactions between Brymer-Jones and the contestants. The show is now the 2nd most popular show on Channel 4 after Bake Off! Marj and Keith have just completed a successful, 22 date national theatre tour, where they brought Keith's book, Boy in a China Shop, to life. Huge Congrats Keith and Marj. Sound quality reflects a live environment.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sue Pryke
04/21/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sue Pryke
Recorded Live at Craft Festival Cheltenham March 2023 The Capital of Craft Podcast with Sue Pryke Sue Pryke is an award winning homeware designer and ceramicist with over three decades of experience. Sue talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker infront of a live audience at Craft Festival Cheltenham at the Town Hall in March 2023. Sound qaulity reflects a live setting. We talk about Sue’s work and her new book, Design and Create Contemporary Tableware, which is co-authored by Linda Bloomfield. She has a wealth of experience lecturing, delivering design in both consultancy, production and in-house roles, to international and High Street retailers and restaurants including IKEA and Marks & Spencer and The Newt. She was awarded the Homes & Gardens Ceramic & Glass Designer Award in 2014 and was a judge on Season 3 of The Great Pottery Throwdown. In recent years, Sue has concentrated on studio production of her own ranges, selling these directly at trade and public specialist craft events. You can meet Sue Pryke at from June 9-11, 2023. You can follow us on Instagram You can watch our films on You follow us on Facebook You can follow Sue Pryke on Instagram
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The Capital of Craft | Hilary Burns MBE
04/13/2023
The Capital of Craft | Hilary Burns MBE
Our latest podcast features the brilliant basketmaker, Hilary Burns MBE. Hilary is one of the UK's most respected makers. Recipient of Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year in 2018, she was also awarded MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021, in recognition of her dedication to her craft. She talks with me, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker from her Devon home. We talk about her earliest memories of making and what keeps her exploring the possibilities of creativity. Hilary has been curating one of our most loved features at Craft Festival, Out of the Woods, for a number of years. You can meet Hilary at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from June 9-11, 2023. You can follow us on Instagram You can watch our films on You follow us on Facebook You can follow Hilary Burns on Instagram
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Lauren Aston
03/23/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Lauren Aston
This weeks podcast is with the brilliant, Lauren Aston. We met at her home and chatted about how she started out her chunky knit empire, with Craft Festival playing an important role in her starting her business. IAlways good to hear! You can follow us on Instagram You can watch our films on You follow us on Facebook You can follow Lauren Aston on Instagram
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keeley Traae
02/08/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keeley Traae
Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker meets with lecturer, designer and maker Keeley Traae. We met at her home in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK. Keeley has had a varied and illustrious career in design having worked for ceramic industry giants Wedgewood and Royal Doulton. She set up her own making practise, Keeley Traae Design in 2020. She has extensive experience in ceramic design, design management and evaluating market trends. In her own practise, she is now known for her dististictive use of colour and shape, specialising in 3D Printing techniques. Keeley is also a senior lecturer on the Staffordshire University 3D Designer Maker BA (Hons) course and Product, Furniture, Ceramics BA (Hons). The course is a mixed material course and so she has the opportunity to work with students not only with their ceramic designs and making processes but also with many other materials and objects. Working alongside the amazing course leader Timothy Forrester and other design and industry experts, she thoroughly enjoys sharing her knowledge, skills, and over 25 years of experience with the next generation of creatives. @keeleytraae_3d @craftfestival @find.amaker
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery
01/26/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery
The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with visual artist, potter, curator and lecturer, Peter Bodenham from St Dogmaels Pottery. Peter trained in Ceramics and 3D in the mid 1980s at Camberwell School of Art. In the mid 1990s he completed an MA in Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan. Peter lives near Cardigan and runs St.Dogmaels Pottery in West Wales. He is an experienced educator having worked with a number of UK Universities. Informing and framing his ceramic practice are a range of sources including the processes of walking the coast, swimming along its shore, gathering objects, materials and studying its intertidal ecology and geology. Images, motifs and gestural marks brushed or drawn into the surface of both his functional pots and the sculptural vessels can be seen as direct traces of his phenomenological experience. @st.dogmaels_pottery @craftfestival @find.amaker
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Jennifer Collier
01/09/2023
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Jennifer Collier
Season 3 of The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker, gallery owner and teacher, Jennifer Collier. We talk about her practise and how she moved from textiles to paper and how her gallery, Unit Twelve, founded with her partner Iain Perry, has moulded her making life. Paper pioneer, Jennifer Collier, creates exquisite sculptures from vintage recycled materials in conjunction with stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers serve as both the inspiration and the media for the work, with the narrative suggesting the forms. Through this marriage of unlikely materials old papers are transformed into something truly unique, delicate and complex. Most recently Jennifer has been collecting rarely used, heritage stitches and discovering how to translate the art of lost stitches onto paper, as these techniques are an important part of our creative heritage and she wants to continue to invest time in them to keep them in the present, offering them onto future generations. Jennifer is giving new life to things that would otherwise go unused, unloved or be thrown away. Jennifer completed a BA (hons) in Textiles (Print, Knit and Weave) in 1999 at Manchester Metropolitan University, is internationally exhibited, and has had her work featured in over 60 magazines and over 15 books to date. @paperjennifer @unittwelve @craftfestival @find.amaker
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Becky Prior from Prior Made
12/07/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Becky Prior from Prior Made
Season 3 of The Capital of Craft Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with maker and shop owner, Becky Prior. They speak from her shop, Prior in Cabots Circus in Bristol. Becky's journey as a maker is interwoven with stories of overcoming great personal setbacks and is truly inspirational, told with great humanity and humour. @priorshopbristol @priormade @craftfestival @find.amaker
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keith Brymer Jones
11/18/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Keith Brymer Jones
Welcome to Season 3 of The Capital of Craft. Earlier in the year at Craft Festival Cheltenham, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker interviewed potter and Pottery Throwdown Judge, Keith Brymer Jones in front of a live audience. We talk about his autobriography "Boy in a China Shop", his Welsh roots and the journey from Highgate to becoming a treasured TV Potter. We'll be opening the doors of Craft Festival Cheltenham on Saturday November 26-27th. Next March, Keith will be joining us again at Craft Festival at Cheltenham Town Hall. @keithbrymerjones @craftfestival @find.amaker
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | James Donald from Pick One
03/03/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | James Donald from Pick One
In the final episode of Season 2 of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James of Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with weaver and educator, James Donald from Pick One. They speak from his workshop in Coburg House in Leith, Edinburgh. James talks about his journey into textiles and his early life in Brechin in Angus, which as well as having access to countryside and freedom, it also established his love of music and dancing at the iconic nightclub, Flicks. James is joining us at Craft Festival Cheltenham from March 11-13th at Cheltenham Town Hall. @pickoneweave @craftfestival
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Nicola Thomas
02/17/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Nicola Thomas
This week on The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker chat's with Dr Nicola Thomas from University of Exeter. Nicola Thomas is Professor in Historical and Cultural Geography at the Department of Geography, University of Exeter. Her research interrogates the ways in which geographical perspectives can help make sense of ‘craft’. This includes the relationships between places, materials and makers; the role of craft communities; the connections between craft and justice movements, and the embodied, material and social entanglements within craft. Nicola sits as a Trustee and Director of two arts organisations, Kaleider and Double Elephant Printworkshop, enabling her to take her research back into the sector. Her own passion for engaged research has led her to develop a strong co-design methodology within her research practice, working in partnership with organisations like the Make South West, Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen and the Crafts Council. @craftfestival @njt_craftgeographies
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Tanja Ufer
02/16/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Tanja Ufer
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft Podcast, Sarah James from Craft Festival talks with Find a Maker member and jeweller, Tanja Ufer. Based in Brighton, we chatted whilst Storm Eunice did it's worst. You might hear her in the background. Tanja's makes beautifully constructed and abstract jewellery. Born and trained in Germany, Tanja moved to Sheffield to complete her MA Studies and has lived in the UK ever since. You can meet Tanja at Craft Festival Cheltenham, March 11-13. @craftfestival @tanjaufer
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | RAMP
02/10/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | RAMP
This week on The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker chat's with award-winning ceramic duo RAMP. Based in Silverton, Devon, Make South West members and regulars at Craft Festival, they talk about their career in making. R.A.M.P, which stands for Roop & Al Make Pots, is a creative partnership between Alice Hartford and Rupert Johnstone. Roop specialises in the throwing of pots and Al’s focus is on the decoration.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Paul Wearing
01/27/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Paul Wearing
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from and talks with ceramic artist, . We discuss his two year long project, Material Matters, an Arts Council of Wales funded project that originated from an invitation from Ruthin Craft Centre to deliver a solo exhibition in 2020. We also discuss his meticulous material experimentation and how important field research is for his practise. Brought up in Swansea, Paul has been based in Cardiff since graduating from Cardiff Metropolitan University. He is also a leading member of Fireworks Clay Studios based in the City Centre. His solo exhibition, Flux & Poise is currently touring and can be visited at Find a Maker member, , Swansea until March 12, 2022. His work is stocked in leading galleries around the UK and he exhibits regularly at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Justine Burgess
01/20/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Justine Burgess
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with willow grower, basket maker and member, Justine Burgess from West Wales Willows. Justine is based amongst the mountains near Brechfa in deeply rural Carmarthenshire, West Wales. She grows a variety of willows that she weaves into baskets and teaches workshops at various times of the year. She also sells willow cuttings to grow your own willow.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | William Barsley
01/13/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | William Barsley
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with woodcarver and Find a Maker member, William Barsley.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Katie Allen
01/06/2022
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Katie Allen
In this week's The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with shepherdess & maker Katie Allen from Loopy Ewes.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sigrid Verschraeghen
12/30/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sigrid Verschraeghen
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival & Find a Maker talks with clothes designer/ maker Sigrid Verschraeghen from her home in Silverton, Devon.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Brett Payne
12/23/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Brett Payne
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with silversmith, Brett Payne from his home in Sheffield.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | John Williamson
12/16/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | John Williamson
In this week's episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah James from Craft Festival and Find a Maker talks with Dartmoor based woodsman, charcoal maker and stave basket maker, John Williamson.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Anne Morgan
12/09/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Anne Morgan
In this week's episode, Sarah chats with jeweller and gallery owner, Anne Morgan.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Ben Partridge
12/02/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Ben Partridge
Season 2 of The Capital of Craft
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Laura Thomas
11/25/2021
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Laura Thomas
Welcome to Season 2 of The Capital of Craft.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sarah James
12/24/2020
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Sarah James
In our Christmas Special of The Capital of Craft podcast, Dr Kate Strasdin talks to Craft Festival Director, Sarah James about her life in making.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Kate Strasdin
12/17/2020
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Dr Kate Strasdin
In our latest episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah from Craft Festival talks to Dr. Kate Strasdin, Fashion Historian and Lecturer in Fashion History and Theory at Falmouth University and Visiting Lecturer at DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai, China.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Carlo Briscoe
12/13/2020
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Carlo Briscoe
In our latest episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah from Craft Festival talks to one half of Reptile, Carlo Briscoe.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Jim Parkyn
12/10/2020
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Jim Parkyn
In our latest episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah from Craft Festival talks to sculptor, artist and clay-mation specialist Jim Parkyn.
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The Capital of Craft Podcast | Arwyn Jones
12/03/2020
The Capital of Craft Podcast | Arwyn Jones
In our latest episode of The Capital of Craft, Sarah from Craft Festival talks to potter, Arwyn Jones.
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