Material Matters with Grant Gibson

Bill Amberg was the first ever guest on the Material Matters podcast. The renowned leather designer is arguably best known for his bags but over the years he has increasingly worked on architectural projects with the likes of David Chipperfield at the RA and MUMA at Westminster Abbey.  He is a master of his craft and a really good bloke to boot.  In this episode we talked about his upbringing in N...

Eleanor Lakelin appeared on in the first series of Material Matters and is one of the UK’s leading woodturners, concentrating on making an array of vessels since 2011. As she explains: ‘I’m fascinated by wood as a living, breathing substance with its own history of growth and struggle centuries beyond our own. I’m particularly inspired by the organic mayhem and creative possibilities of burred woo...

Edmund de Waal is that rarest of creatures, a potter who has broken out of the crafts world into the fine art market. He also happens to be a best-selling author of books such as The Hare with Amber Eyes and The White Road as well as a lucid and thoughtful speaker and curator. His work has been shown around the world in places such as the RA, Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, the V&A and the Ate...

Celia Pym is an artist who has taken darning out of the domestic sphere and into galleries and museums. In this episode we chat about a career that has encompassed studying sculpture at Harvard via jobs in teaching and nursing – as well as a stint at the Royal College of Art – to being a finalist of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize in 2018.  One of the intriguing elements of Pym’s work is that she use...

Peter Layton is one of the pioneers of the British studio glass movement.  During our interview Peter recounts an extraordinary life that has included fleeing Eastern Europe from the Nazis and settling as an immigrant in Bradford, studying ceramics under the likes of Ruth Duckworth (and not Dickinson as your tongue-tied host accidentally said) at the Central School of Art and Design, meeting the w...

Every now and again I break the format of the podcast and speak to a critic or someone who can provide an overview of the field. In series one I featured  the New York-based curator and commentator Glenn Adamson. The fact that he also had a new book out – entitled Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects – was an added bonus.  I think it’s safe to say that we cover a fair amount of turf i...