Editor's letter - Belongings

Hello Crafts Council members,

Welcome to your new, quarterly, online magazine. It’s one of many brilliant, new things we’re launching this month. You’ll probably have noticed some changes to our website and we’ve also spoken to you about changes to our membership

Our theme for the next three months is Belongings, something our contributors have chosen to interpret in many different ways. There’s so much for you to be inspired by. Take a trip to Japan with Corinne Julius and discover the artisans who make everyday items for homes, but who are also taking centuries of tradition in new directions. Read about Jude Rogers’ quest to discover the incredible stained glass of Thomas Denny, or Katie Treggiden’s investigation into the importance of Cornish hedging to the county. Writer and mobile maker Phineas Harper looks at what it means for a piece of art to belong in a specific space, whilst the founders of Black Girl Knit club, Sicgmone Kludje and Vea Koranteng, discuss about what it means to create a new community.

In Belfast, Conale looks at how craft is helping to shape a new identity for Northern Ireland, while Francesca Perry examines how makers are helping to open up doors and dialogue in Britain’s country houses. Riya Patel interviews curator and ceramicist Emma Louise Payne about why she has chosen to turn a house into a temporary gallery and Polly Dunbar dives into the forgotten legacy of Leicester needlewoman Mary Linwood.

We’ve also taken seven lessons from American photographer Sally Mann on how creative practice can belong as a part of a day-to-day life, sitting alongside the distractions we all face. We also asked our members, and those of the Craft UK network, to submit pictures of small items that create a sense of home in the studio. My only wish is that we had the space and the capacity to include every shot, but the resulting collaborative photo essay will resonate with anyone who works in space that is a home away from home.

Often, when we read online, we are at the mercy of algorithms that push the most blandly popular  or horrifying controversial pieces towards us. We are doing something different. This collection, and our future collections, are created with you - the Crafts Council member - in mind. This is a space for you and it’s curated as thoughtfully as any of your exhibitions.

We hope you enjoy reading as much as we have enjoyed making. We belong together.

Anna Fielding, Crafts Council Associate Editor.