New Designers 2012

I loved going to new designers as you see so many good ideas and designs, its so exciting to see the new and unexplored. One of the pieces that I liked because it worked so well was 'Slap it' created by Joseph Begley. www.jospehbegley.co.uk who try's to push the boundaries between the interaction of humans and objects, using a sense of playfulness and humour. His first piece is some soft plastic buttocks that can be placed on objects around building such as tables of walls, this then tempts the public to go and have a cheeky harmless interaction with the buttocks, giving them a slap, which they then light up, reacting to the humans actions in a positive way. The experience is aimed to make people smile, which when I was around them this seemed to certainly work, people were drew to the light and being able to have this unique tactile pleasure with something which would normally be quite rude to do to a human. I think this is the main reason why is was so successful, is its welcoming you to do something which is normally taboo, its exciting and a little bit nerving for the average person, but you get drawn in by the playfulness of it all.

One ceramicist that I saw that I really admired was Angeline Bates, who takes her inspiration from the natural world, which I also do a lot. Her colours were so beautiful and fluid and light and natural. The shapes she used looked so organic and you could see exactly where she took them from, using both glass and ceramics.

A textiles artist that I really admired is Kristal Erga who was exhibiting in the one year on part of the new designers, she has now set up Erga Design www.kristelerga.com. She uses all textile and fashion scraps to create her work as she feels that we now create too much waste and we should recycle more. Her work is a beautiful example of this, using old leather and she also creates her own silk organza. Her designs are for large scale wall pieces, these are attached using magnets on each puzzle plate, so the customer can move the plates around to create their own statement wall piece. I also thought that it would have been good to have all the flowers on small magnets as well so that the customer can also move those around too. 

Another textile artist that I admired was the work of Zhiqiao Zheng, also in the one year on exhibition. She is inspired by technologies in lighting, transformation and colour change, her work is all about natural and man made fibre optics. She weaves metal wires and optic cables into organic and geometric shapes for many genres of art, fashion, accessories, lighting, sculpture and interior design. Every piece looked so gentle and intricate, your eyes are immediately drawn to the light emitting from these pieces.