 Handmade in Britain was established over a decade ago by engineer-turned-designer Piyush Suri, an advocate of everything handmade. After working for a few years in the industry, he single-handedly built his initiative to support and promote British designer-makers.
Throughout its existence Handmade in Britain has provided a platform to support and promote design and craft talent through fairs, events and pop-ups. Workshops and business mentoring are also key to Handmade in Britain’s mission to support the designer-maker communities. In addition to Handmade in Britain, he also runs Handmade at Kew, Handmade Oxford and Handmade Edinburgh. Now in its 12th year, we caught up with Piyush to gain some insights into what inspired him to start Handmade in Britain and to learn about his plans for the future. What inspired you to set up Handmade in Britain? I am a textile designer – the Chelsea Craft Show was hard to get into and was more high-end art. I wanted to create a space where handmade products could be commercial. How has the event evolved over the years? The brand now has a level of trust and attracts better quality designers. What are your goals for future events? I want to attract a younger crowd, which is why I’m looking at working with graduates from local colleges. What trends are you seeing evolve? The UK jewellery industry is booming and we’re also seeing organic textile trends with designers seeking inspiration from plants and nature. There’s a mixing of disciplines and an eco-conscious feel across the designers. What’s your current passion project? I love to spend time developing my own textiles interior brand, Penates, which is based in Provence, France. Any travel recommendations for our readers? My favourite destinations are Ubud, Bali and Oaxaca, Mexico and Copenhagen, Denmark (to eat at Noma restaurant) Elinor Seath
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 We caught up with Sanguan Parr to hear about what's been cooking in the world of Thai cuisine.
What fuels your culinary creativity? Fresh and seasonal ingredients have a big impact on my creativity - I am inspired by whatever produce is in season. Thai mangoes, for example, are only available in summer time. The way people eat has changed now too. Many diners don’t linger in restaurants for long meals so you need to be creative about cooking delicious dishes quickly. How has your cooking style evolved over the years, given you’ve now been at Nipa Thai for more than 16 years? When I first came to the UK, Thai ingredients were so rare so it was very difficult to get hold of anything other than the most basic ingredients - even fresh chillies or lemongrass were difficult to source. Over the years, I have found that diners are becoming more adventurous about the kinds of dishes they want to eat. They’re not just ordering Thai green curry anymore, although of course that’s still a firm favourite. The supplier can also provide us with more exotic ingredients now that help to create a better variety of dishes. Are you witnessing any new trends in Thai cuisine? I have started to see an increase in the use of European cooking techniques - for example slow cooking meat. There’s also a trend towards using new, unexpected ingredients in traditional recipes, such as lobster in Pad Thai. What is your idea of ‘food heaven’ and ‘food hell’? Durian is my food heaven, you either love it or hate it. I am not very keen on anything too heavy or stodgy. Who has inspired your cooking? Are there any chefs that you look up to? My mother was an extremely good cook. I used to watch her cook when I was young and she really inspired me to become a chef. I admire Mary Berry’s energy and stamina. What is an inspirational quote that you live by? Be the best you can be. What city do you find the most? -inspirational? New York – it’s buzzing, lively and multicultural. -invigorating? London – there’s always something going on and it has the world’s best culinary scene. -relaxing? British Columbia in Canada, the natural landscape is amazing. -like a home away from home? Thailand, of course!  We caught up with Darren Burn, founder of luxury travel company OutOfOffice.com, which specialises in LGBT friendly itineraries, to learn about his latest projects and what's up next on his destinations wish list.
What influences do you draw upon to fuel your creativity? I'm a brainstormer. I often find my creative juices flowing when I'm nowhere near a pen and paper. I try to meditate regularly and despite doing my best to focus solely on my breath, inevitably that's when I have the most clarity and come up with my ideas. What is your current passion project? We launched OutOfOffice.com only 10 months ago, so that takes up nearly all my time, but it's great to be working on something that I'm so passionate about - travel. I'm determined to explore every corner of this earth before my time is up, so being able to help others to do the same by using our expertise to tailor-make travel experiences is so important to me. Too many people these days just book a room and a flight rather than immersing themselves in a destination. And to be able to say we're one of the only travel companies to place an emphasis on gay-friendly travel is really important to me, too. What is your idea of food Heaven? Food Hell? Food heaven - there are too many choices, but anything with garlic usually ticks the box and anything chocolate orange flavoured is up there. A chocolate orange melt in the middle pudding - ideal. Food hell - mushrooms. I just don't understand why you'd want to eat a fungus! Inspirational quote that you live by? "It is my belief that we all have the need to feel special. It is this need that can bring out the best in us, yet the worst in us." - Janet Jackson What city do you find the most: -Inspirational? Key West -Invigorating? London -Relaxing? Sydney -Like your home away from home? New York Favourite ‘blow the bank account’ place you like to stay when you’re treating yourself? In a glass igloo in Lapland under the Northern Lights. Totally magical. Favourite restaurant in the world? The Hunt and Fish Club in New York. Favourite holiday memory? Being on an island in Fiji for a week with no phone signal whatsoever. Bliss. What are your must-have travel essentials? - Portable phone charger - Travel pillow - A comfy hoodie for long flights What is your next adventure? Next year I'll be heading to Mauritius, Key West and hopefully the winelands in South Africa. I also am desperate to get over to Japan and the Far East, but that may have to be on 2018's agenda.  What influences do you draw upon to fuel your creativity?
I love being in a super relaxing spot, somewhere in nature when I'm creating food. I'm from Australia, so this would ideally be on a warm beach, but these are in short supply in the UK. I have a really nice spot near my house in Highgate Woods, where I like to sit to think about food and the direction of cuisine at EatFirst. What is your current passion project? My latest project has been working on the perfect poached egg for our diners to re-heat at home. I created the EatFirst eggs royale. It's delivered completely chilled. It was a real challenge to nail the preparation of cooking the eggs, bearing in mind they would need to be re-heated, and not over cooked. Also Hollandaise sauce doesn't do too well when cold. So, I developed a completely butter free, healthy Hollandaise sauce. The result is a perfect eggs royale with beautiful, runny egg yolks. What is your idea of food Heaven? Food Hell? My death row meal is and always will be steak tartare. My food heaven is for sure somewhere in the Mediterranean. My summer holiday this year was on the Amalfi Coast, Capri and one week on Sardinia. The Amalfi Coast has amazing fresh seafood, burrata, limoncello, courgette flowers and beautiful fresh San Marzano tomatoes. It's amazing be able to eat these super lush, seasonal products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Inspirational quote that you live by? “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” - Virginia Woolf What city do you find the most: -Inspirational? Copenhagen -Invigorating? Marrakech -Relaxing? Sydney -Like your home away from home? London Favourite ‘blow the bank account’ place you like to stay when you’re treating yourself? Four Seasons - Saint Jean Cap Ferrat Favourite restaurant in the world? Quay - Sydney Favourite holiday memory? Swimming in the Mediterranean for the first time in Manarola. What are your must-have travel essentials?
What is your next adventure? I'm planning a trip to Scandinavia before Christmas. Amsterdam and Copenhagen are some of my favourite food cities in the world.  We caught up with scent technician Ericka Duffy to learn about what fuels her creativity and what passion projects are keeping her busy...
What influences do you draw upon to fuel your creativity? I am inspired by the Situationist movement. I take a walk with no destination each day when I am conceptualizing ideas. I also enjoy visiting second-hand shops just for the sheer knowledge that you never know what will be on the shelves, or how it will be arranged, so you will end up having items grouped together in ways that defy logic - a 1950s telephone beside a 1980s bottle of perfume, for instance, which helps spark creative thoughts. When I travel, I always visit supermarkets and art galleries; I learn a lot from both of these places. I also visit a library at least once a week. Music is an incredibly important part of my work and my life. I make mixes depending on projects, seasons and moods. I am also inspired by design. My father built a lot of the furniture in my childhood home, and we’d often collaborate on wild ideas. Each of my siblings and I had huge, oversized, treasure chests with secret compartments, bespoke to each child. He painted murals across our houses and his art work was influenced primarily by fairy tales, which has trickled down to me, too. The first film I saw in the cinema was a reissue of Snow White, which is his favourite film. He has painted and drawn Snow White in many different incarnations. What is your current passion project? My current on-going passion project is working with Courvoisier, fusing together my two worlds - fine spirits and perfume. Courvoisier is such an aromatic liquid, and as such, it’s been a pleasure designing scents that respect this olfactory history. For this project, I not only work with the fine people at Courvoisier, but I am able to collaborate with other great creative minds, like perfumer Euan McCall, who I worked with to design candles and incense to enhance the Courvoisier experience. It is my passion project because I am encouraged with Courvoisier to be imaginative and creative, which is the realm I operate best in. Further, as I work with spirits, it is delightful to work and taste such fine cognacs as part of my workday. What is your idea of food Heaven? My idea of food Heaven is my grandmother’s home any Sunday evening. My grandmother is Italian-Canadian and has hosted dinner at her house for the last 68 years or so. Our large family, neighbours, and friends drop by, which means she is catering for dozens of people every week! In my 36 years of Sunday dinners, my grandmother has never burned anything - the pastries and cakes are perfect and fresh pasta is always on the table. There are no kitchen nightmares. I love being surrounded by people I love who in turn love me, and I enjoy the many conversations and good-natured 'arguments'. Throughout the evening the drinks flow and the plates keep appearing all night. What is your idea of food Hell? As enjoying a meal ultimately relies on the atmosphere the food is served in, I would say that my idea of food hell would be in any restaurant that seems stiff, stuffy or snobbish in either décor or service. Inspirational quote that you live by? 'Barn’s burned down - now I can see the moon.' - Mizuta Masahide (1657-1723) a Japanese poet, doctor and Samurai What city do you find the most:
Favourite ‘blow the bank account’ place you like to stay when you’re treating yourself?
Favourite restaurant in the world? My favourite restaurant in the world is Chinese Traditional Buns on Dundas Street Toronto. It serves remarkably refined dim sum, with prices that cost less than fast food. The family that run it work hard and their selection of dim sum is vast. I once ate there 11 times in one week! Favourite holiday memory? My favourite holiday memory was flying to LA on a whim with my siblings and my mom when I was a teenager to see what the LA scene was all about. My mom is pretty 'rock and roll', so it was a fairly exciting trip. I’ve since been on tours with musicians and bands, however, the trips with my mom still feel the most wild! What are your must-have travel essentials?
What is your next adventure? I am an avid train traveller and have just taken some beautiful train rides across North Wales. My next adventure will be a train journey across Russia in the winter.  Somewhere between photography, cinema and fiction comes illustration. Carmen García Huerta was selected by Taschen as one of the 100 best international illustrators.
Her world is both unmistakable and surprising, with a unique attention to detail. Carmen’s work straddles two styles: the stylised and chic in her more commercial work, and a predilection for curved lines and the beauty of imperfection in her more personal projects. In this interview, we hear from the artist herself on music, motherhood and Madame Bovary… What is fashion illustration for you? It’s quite an evasive notion for me, something like the minimal unity of elegance. A subtle yet, at the same time, complex expression of the whole web of design, trend, fabric, texture, attitude, sociology. In my case, the object gains a force and loses volatility, as my drawings are very consistent. What is happening beyond illustration in the world of Carmen García Huerta? Well, I am single, which I need – it is vital for my work. The only presence which does not change me or which even, at times, motivates and stimulates me is that of my daughter when she visits me in the studio, but only for a short time. I always have music on. I usually listen to intimate tracks by composers from classical to neo-folk, unless I have an urgent deadline. Then I put on power rock or epic soundtracks to speed me up a bit. When you were little, what could keep your attention for hours? I was a very quiet child, introverted and dreamy. I spent a lot of time immersed in my father’s graphics library, where he had lots of books by strip cartoonists from the ‘70s, clearly for adults as they were about politics or soft porn. Perhaps that wasn’t the most appropriate for a child, and I didn’t understand anything that I was reading about, but I am very grateful to have had access to those as that is how I learnt to draw and get engrossed in reading. Leaving technology aside, what objects do you think are most representative of this era, which will be recognised when looking back from the future? Now there is a return to the home-made and the artisanal, in perfect harmony with technology. But I don’t know what to say, everything that comes to mind is electronic. So, if I can’t mention a smartphone, I would say a selfie. I can’t think of anything which better expresses here and now. If you could create the image of a character from a novel or film in your illustrations, who would it be? Madame Bovary. In fact, that’s what I’m about to do. Source: SPN: the go-to digital resource for all-things Spain. Full article as published on SPN by writer, translator and journalist, Silvia Terrón. http://read.spnmagazine.com/  What influences do you draw upon to fuel your creativity?
When I need inspiration, I put on Pachabel’s Cannon in D, fix myself a Taiwanese Oolong, and let the creativity flow. What is your current passion project? Lalani & Co’s new tea infusionware has just been manufactured and released. We could have imported, but instead we decided to work with the British ceramics industry. It’s been a pleasure to design them in London with ceramic artist Linda Bloomfield, make them in a traditional factory in Stoke on Trent and create a piece that’s beautiful and functional for all tea drinkers. What is your idea of food Heaven? Food Hell? Heaven is salmon sashimi. Hell is a plain cheese pizza. Favourite tipple? I’m literally tea-total! The vintage 2010 black tea from Big Island Tea Garden in Hawai‘i is one of the most amazing things I ever drank. We have the 2015 in our collection. It will age beautifully. Signature fragrance? I have two. Tabacco Toscano by Santa Maria Novella and Vetiver by Le Labo. How do you unwind? I confess, I rarely do. I’m forever alert. Favourite feel good song? Por Una Cabeza, Craig Ogden’s arrangement of it. Inspirational quote that you live by? 'Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great' - J.D. Rockefeller  Tells us a bit about yourself...
At university while studying three-dimensional design, I became fascinated with how you could combine (set) gemstones and metal. It was this fascination that was the start of a love affair with jewellery design. I believe that my non-traditional jewellery background is what's captured the attention of my customers and retailers. They love how I approach each ring as a micro-engineered piece, paying attention to every minute detail and ensuring that each view is considered, balanced and beautiful. What influences do you draw upon to fuel your creativity? It's more of an intuitive process than anything else. I can see a change in my style as my life experiences change and I am aware of certain themes that run through the collections – such as fluidity, the importance of the sense of touch etc. Of late, there has also been an homage to the classics, whereas this did not exist in the first few years of my career. What is your current passion project? Working on the Cannelé Twist, which is proving to be a real hit with retailers and customers. This range has a twisting fluted theme running throughout and is a classic approach – with the inimitable AG ‘twist’! I have created an engagement ring, wedding ring and cufflinks and I'm now in the throws of creating other elements to add to the collection. '10 in 10' - We ask our favourite innovators, creators, movers & shakers, 10 questions in 10 minutes or less... What music do you listen to when: -You want to unwind? None – quiet please! -You're hosting a dinner party for friends? Perhaps some jazz – depending on the guests! -You're in the mood to dance? As a 40 year-old, I can feel that i am trying to hold on to my youth. Heavy Bass Dubstep gets me jumping all over the kitchen! What are your must-have travel essentials? Books, no laptop, shorts, flip flops. Favourite travel companions? Back in the day, a good friend who i met doing kung fu. But now, it's the Missis, my boy, and of course my trusty hound, Wilbur! What life lessons (if any) have your travels taught you? Be open to change. In fact, embrace it! What city do you find the most: -Inspirational? Tiruvanamalai. -Invigorating? Capetown. -Relaxing? Rural France. -Like your home away from home? Rural France. Top travel tip? Talk to everyone! What's your soul food (e.g. food that makes your heart sing)? Loving plantain fried in coconut oil with a little rosehip syrup, at the moment! Favourite tipple? Tipple days are over. It used to be tequila, but it wasn’t much to do with enjoying the taste! How do you like to unwind? Meditation. Inspirational quote that you live by? Not so much a quote, but more or a reminder, “I am awareness.” To view Andrew's work, visit: www.andrewgeoghegan.com Cocktail rings - http://www.andrewgeoghegan.com/the-collection/rings/cocktail-rings Engagement rings - http://www.andrewgeoghegan.com/the-collection/rings/engagement-rings A.A. Miln |
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