Our ‘Cultural Round Ups’ spotlight 5 Sussex exhibitions, events, or performances which have recently caught our attention. This month we’re focusing on something a little different. In May, we were delighted to host The Makers Directory ‘Spring Meet Up’ on our terrace, so for this post we’re highlighting 5 makers on the directory who have caught our eye.  

About the Directory

The Makers Directory is a comprehensive, searchable online directory established to celebrate the local makers in this astonishingly creative patch of Sussex. The directory covers a wide range of disciplines and showcases makers and artists from around Lewes and Eastbourne, enabling buyers to connect directly with local makers, for mutual benefit. 

The Makers Directory has been a fantastic resource for our Arts Programme, introducing us to new makers and artists for exhibitions, label collaborations and Makers Markets. We have already worked with Makers Directory creatives such as Judith Alder, Jo Myles, Will Nash and The Baron Gilvan, and we’re confident we’ll be connecting with many more for future projects.  

Meet the Makers

Rachael Trewin, Liv & Flo 

Rachael Trewin’s sculptural ceramics are tranquil and delicate. Her studio is in Eastbourne, the meeting place between the South Downs and the sea. From the surrounding landscape, she collects natural objects worn by ocean and weather or deckled by lichen, incorporating them into her pure porcelain pieces. The clean lines of the ceramic are contrasted by the organic forms and textures of the natural elements, making them wonderfully tactile. Rachael’s practice celebrates simplicity and balance, creating elegant pieces which reference and respond to nature’s small, beautiful details.  

Nicholas Mellor, Melver Design  

Nicholas Mellor’s furniture and lighting is inspired by the clean lines of modernism. His pieces explore an intersection between geometry, natural materials, and bold colours. In his light fixings, the solid materials are graphically intersected by light, the negative space transformed into crisp, glowing lines and geometric shapes. Nicholas is interested in exploring qualities of light, using Parian Porcelain to hold the illumination. The delicacy and purity of this material diffuses the light, allowing it to radiate with a soft glow. The fragility of the porcelain is juxtaposed with the solidity of the wooden casing. In many of his designs, Nicholas exacerbates this dynamism by adding coloured Valchromat to the veneers, exploring complementary and harmonic colourways.  

Deborah Manson - Felt Collections  

Deborah Manson’s vibrant textiles examine the interplay between material, colour and shape. Her textiles are steeped in the colours of landscape, as she uses natural dyes to create her dynamic pieces. These are often made from her own ‘dye garden’ of plants such as Weld and Woad, which create bright yellow and dusty blue, whilst other colours are sourced from foraged plants like nettles. These pigments are fragile and permeable, fading gently with time, reminding Deborah of our impermanence on earth and our responsibility to tread upon it lightly. She uses fabrics which have history, gathering them from friends and family or finding them at markets or charity shops. The past lives of the fabrics add another layer of meaning to her work, which celebrates the familial and the domestic. Quilts and wall-hangings have historically been dismissed as menial crafts in comparison to the ‘fine arts’, but for Deborah there should be no distinction. Her work can just as easily bring life and comfort to a home or hang on a gallery wall.     

Tom Palmer, Tom Palmer Studio

Tom Palmer describes his work as ‘sculptural design’ and his pieces lie somewhere in between the functional and the decorative. The work often starts with a function and then is considered for how it transforms the space in a larger way. It is light which underpins Tom’s work, although it spans many forms and materials. He comes back to materials which hold illumination, whether that’s the glow of alabaster, or the deep chisel marks that create small, shining basins in his timber moon screens. He wants the work to change with the movements of the sun and the rotation of the seasons. Tom is not a maker who is interested in the static, not one material, not one angle, neither functional nor decorative. He lives in the blend, the shift, creating work which reveals itself the longer you look.   

Richard Mason

Richard Mason’s mesmerising mobile sculptures explore balance. These dynamic pieces command space whilst being sleek and small in volume. Richard uses found materials to make his elegant mobiles, contrasting ethically sourced tropical woods with shining brass wires and chains. His sculptures move gracefully, the simple forms revealing themselves as they turn and shift. There is a duality to these sculptures, as Richard has created a tension between weight and lightness, simplicity and dynamism, solidity and ephemerality. His pieces work particularly beautifully with directional light, the strong geometric shapes creating reverberating sculptural moments through shifting shadows and glinting reflections.  

Christmas Makers Market 

In related news, we are thrilled to announce the return of our Christmas Makers Market! This year, it will take place on Saturday 30th November between 10 am and 4 pm.  

If you’re a Sussex maker and would be interested in having a pitch, please send an email to kate.reeveedwards@artelium.com with a short description of your work, up to five images, and links to your website and social media.