The emergence of inventive, impassioned designer-makers, finding ways to combine traditional techniques with new technologies, is both refreshing and reassuring in a world largely dominated by mass production. Not only are they keeping older, at-risk crafts alive, but they’re also using innovation to keep up with demand.
Roberts Kulins is a Latvian designer-maker working in Stourbridge, in the West Midlands. His one-man company U RoK Designs merges traditional woodturning by hand with concrete moulding and 3D printing to make one-of-a-kind lighting and homewares. “I believe in doing it the old way,” says Kulins. “Not only does it give me a lot of satisfaction to create, but I think that feeling passes on to the next owner of the piece.” He uses new technologies as “assisting devices”, rather than allowing them to take the lead.
Kulins admires the unique look of products made with a mixed-method approach. “I’ve been using 3D-printed moulds for about a year. It has made it so much easier and quicker to create bespoke designs, meaning I can focus on woodworking.”
It has also meant that he can innovate. One of his designs – a blown-glass terrarium – is mounted on a 3D-printed insert embedded in concrete, which allows air to get through to the plant. “I wouldn’t be able to do that so precisely without the new technology I’m using. And I can print the inlaid piece in any colour I like – bright reds and yellows make for something really unusual and modern.”
Jo Painter of Cornwall-based fashion brand MOR Wares is able to work a full-time job as well as run her business, thanks to the technology she’s mastered. “My embroidery machine and the associated software means I can add my designs, some of which need more than 5,000 stitches, on to a piece of clothing and complete an order in 45 minutes, rather than a whole day or more,” she says.
“I take joy in getting the process just right by using my knowledge of different fabrics, threads, tension and ever-improving material stabilisers to create something of beauty that’s going to last, and not pucker or destroy the fabric – which I see so often in mass-produced machine-embroidered items.”
Painter is passionate about the link between supportive machines and “a human touch” to create precision details with humour and heart.
MixPixie, too, is a brand keeping the human touch at the centre of everything it does. Its fun products are all are rooted in the emotion of the mixtape. They include bespoke mixtape CDs with personalised artwork, soundwave prints (a framed print of your favourite song in wave signal form), personalised hand-assembled vinyl record clocks, and 3D-printed soundwave keyrings.
“In my previous role at a big record company, I knew that 60% of music was bought as a gift, but it bothered me that it couldn’t be truly personalised,” says founder Buffie du Pon.
“Creating a mixtape for someone was such a special, heartfelt way of showing you cared. So we looked at ways to create compilations, art and other items with a musical element purely for one recipient.”
It’s meant travelling the world to find the machines capable of fulfilling one-off CD orders and investing in skilled staff who can develop the programmes to create them, but as du Pon says: “Nowadays, the ability to take it further is there. The only limit is your creativity.”
More than 5,000 dedicated designer makers like U Rock, MOR Wares and MixPixie are stocked on notonthehighstreet.com, where you’ll find a vast range of unique, thoughtful gifts and experiences
