Kate Brewer, founder of Look Like Love, profiles a different new designer every week. With the tagline “support, nurture, promote” echoing confessions of a design geek’s own “discover, champion and inspire” and a similar commitment to advocating for emerging talent, the parallels between Look Like Love and confessions of a design geek are clear. Watch out for her features every Thursday afternoon. This week’s designer? The playful ceramicist Jode Pankhurst.
A fundamental part of Look Like Love is to continually seek out new talent, which sounds obvious, based on the premise of the company, but in-between the New Talent Search, a Summer of degree show scouting, and managing the current crop of designers, there is always a desire to look for a few hidden gems throughout the year. Usually an organic process, discovering an emerging designer could come from the plethora of social media outlets, or a direct email to Look Like Love, which are always lovely to receive.
Initially, when Look Like Love was set up, building these individual relationships always started with research. This opened up a platform of events, showcases and like-minded organisations that existed outside the more well-known shows. One such platform that has stood out over the last few years has been the Crafts Council Hot House programme. Mentioned a few weeks ago when writing about designer Kate Colin, (a recent addition to Look Like Love), they hand-pick some of the best emerging designers in the UK with an extended mentoring programme to not only develop designers’ skills, but to engage their business brains as well.
In a recent scout of talent through the Crafts Council’s website, one such designer stood out for her playful approach to ceramics. Edinburgh-based designer Jode Pankhurst uses her love of illustration to create a painterly finish to her ceramics. Bold and predominately monochromatic, her style of work has a quirky and playful appeal that doesn’t feel over-thought or rushed in its creation.
What makes her collections work, is that you can really sense the enjoyment she takes in the process from inspiration to creation. The free hand brush strokes compliment the simple vessels, and Jode has extended the playfulness to include ceramic ornaments and jewellery into the mix. There is a wonderful personality to her work, making it appealing to the masses as well as to ceramic purists. Each piece is made by hand, fired and glazed, with the free-hand brush marks applied before a further firing sets the final design.
What has been exciting over recent years, certainly in the world of ceramics, is the level of experimentation that emerging talent has brought to the specialism – whether that’s going against convention and using fabric dyes to colour work in the case of Emma Buckley, the pains-taking precision of creating a perfectly straight line by Sophie Cobb, or the almost alien aesthetic of work by Eva Radulova. Jode Pankhurst is in good company, mixing a freehand approach and a bold illustrative touch, she jostles perfectly in a world of up-and-coming ceramic designers with something to shout about.
One of Look Like Love’s recent ‘One-to-Watch’ designers, find out more by visiting Jode Pankhurst.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- look like love :: jennifer stafford
- look like love :: studio haran
- look like love :: catherine macgruer
- look like love :: rowenna mason
so simple but very nice
nice post