Material Matters with Grant Gibson
131 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 40 ratingsIn Material Matters, host Grant Gibson talks to a designer, maker, artist, architect, engineer, or scientist about a material or technique with which they’re intrinsically linked and discovers how it changed their lives and careers.
Follow us on Instagram @materialmatters.design and our website www.materialmatters.design
The Material Matters fair will run from 18-21 September 2024 at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, as part of the London Design Festival.
Material Matters is produced and published by Delizia Media Ltd.
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Episodes
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby – from plywood to (recycled) plastic.
January 29, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBEdward Barber and Jay Osgerby of Barber Osgerby are renowned industrial designers who have worked for the likes of Vitra, Knoll, Magis and Flos, as well as working on installations for brands such as BMW and Sony. In this episode the intention was to chat about the role plywood played in their nascent careers with Iskon Plus. However, we ended up chewing the fat about (among other things): meeting at the Royal College of Art and nearly being kicked out; not slagging off Richard Rogers; th...
Corinne Julius on a life in design and a love of craft.
December 18, 2019 12:00 - 49 minutes - 34 MBCorinne Julius is a London-based journalist, broadcaster and curator who was born into design. In this episode we discuss the history of her family firm, Hille, which revolutionised British furniture design after the Second World War, pioneering work from the likes of Robin Day and Fred Scott; her difficult time at the Royal College of Art and why she eventually felt compelled to leave; how she fell into journalism; and her introduction of craft to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Importantly too...
Sebastian Cox on food and furniture.
December 11, 2019 12:00 - 47 minutes - 32.7 MBSebastian Cox is a young London-based furniture designer, who founded and co-directs his eponymous company. He is renowned for his use of traditionally coppiced hazel. In this episode he talks about his ambitious new manifesto, Modern Life from Wilder Land, that sets out a more sustainable future for food production in the UK. We chat about how we need to radically shift the way we use land; reducing our reliance on meat; how our woodlands need to be more effectively managed; and why des...
Barnaby Barford on ceramic.
December 04, 2019 22:00 - 53 minutes - 37 MBBarnaby Barford is a London-based artist and satirist. He has work in the collections of the V&A, Crafts Council and The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina. He initially came to prominence with work that often turned the mirror onto contemporary culture. In this episode he talks about his relationship with the material that brought him to prominence, ceramic. However, that’s only the start. Because he also discusses his feeling that he never quite fits in; his fascination with the Bri...
Laura Youngson Coll on vellum.
November 27, 2019 14:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBLaura Youngson Coll is an artist and sculptor based in London. In this episode we talk about her relationship with vellum. Historically the calf’s, or goat’s skin, has been used to write on. The Magna Carta, for example, was inscribed on it as, for centuries, were the laws of this land. However, Youngson Coll, who has featured in Jerwood Makers Open and was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize in 2017, manipulates the material to create extraordinarily intricate art works. Her piece...
Laura Youngson Coll on vellum.
November 27, 2019 14:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBLaura Youngson Coll is an artist and sculptor based in London. In this episode we talk about her relationship with vellum. Historically the calf’s, or goat’s skin, has been used to write on. The Magna Carta, for example, was inscribed on it as, for centuries, were the laws of this land. However, Youngson Coll, who has featured in Jerwood Makers Open and was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize in 2017, manipulates the material to create extraordinarily intricate art works. Her piece...
Andrew Waugh on CLT – or cross-laminated timber.
November 20, 2019 17:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBAndrew Waugh is the co-founder of award-winning architecture practice Waugh Thistleton. In this episode we discuss why he decided to design tall buildings out of wood – or cross-laminated timber to be precise. In a wide-ranging conversation he lays out in no uncertain terms the issues the construction industry faces over sustainability, what it needs to do to avoid environmental calamity, and how CLT can provide some of the answers. En route he touches on the perceptions of the material a...
Andrew Waugh on CLT – or cross-laminated timber.
November 20, 2019 17:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MBAndrew Waugh is the co-founder of award-winning architecture practice Waugh Thistleton. In this episode we discuss why he decided to design tall buildings out of wood – or cross-laminated timber to be precise. In a wide-ranging conversation he lays out in no uncertain terms the issues the construction industry faces over sustainability, what it needs to do to avoid environmental calamity, and how CLT can provide some of the answers. En route he touches on the perceptions of the material a...
Bethan Laura Wood on laminate.
November 13, 2019 23:00 - 53 minutes - 36.8 MBBethan Laura Wood is a London-based designer, who creates pieces for industry and the collectible market. In this episode she talks about her love for the material that made her name nearly a decade ago – laminate. A wide-ranging (and occasionally hugely intimate) discussion touches on the Royal College of Art graduate’s fascination with turning the ubiquitous into the precious, as well as focussing on her love of colour. However, she also tells us about her childhood growing up a little...
Blackhorse Lane Ateliers' Han Ates on denim.
October 02, 2019 23:00 - 46 minutes - 32.3 MBHan Ates is the founder of the London-based craft jeans company Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, whose mantra is to ‘think global but act local’. During our interview we discover what it was like leaving Istanbul for London in the late ’80s; how he started his career in clothing on the floor of his uncle’s factory as a presser; the problem of running his own business; and why he became disillusioned with the world of cheap fashion and decided to open his own restaurant instead. That all happene...
Blackhorse Lane Ateliers' Han Ates on denim.
October 02, 2019 23:00 - 46 minutes - 32.3 MBHan Ates is the founder of the London-based craft jeans company Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, whose mantra is to ‘think global but act local’. During our interview we discover what it was like leaving Istanbul for London in the late ’80s; how he started his career in clothing on the floor of his uncle’s factory as a presser; the problem of running his own business; and why he became disillusioned with the world of cheap fashion and decided to open his own restaurant instead. That all happene...
The Design Museum's Deyan Sudjic on magazines and museums.
September 25, 2019 22:00 - 42 minutes - 29 MBAt the time of recording Deyan Sudjic was the co-director of the London Design Museum. Although he has since stepped down from that role he remains a prolific author, essayist and curator and has been one of the most important figures in British design since the early ’80s. Over the course of our chat we touch on an array of subjects, including: becoming an Oz Kid in the ’70s and the obscenity trial that ensued; growing up with his Yugoslavian parents; why he was a useless architecture stu...
Deyan Sudjic on magazines and museums.
September 25, 2019 22:00 - 42 minutes - 29 MBOnce every series I dispense with the show’s material-based format and devote an episode to someone with an overview of the field. And I can think of few people with more knowledge about design and architecture than Deyan Sudjic. The former Blueprint and Domus editor is currently director of the Design Museum London, as well as being a prolific author, essayist and curator. Over the course of our chat we touch on an array of subjects including: becoming an Oz Kid in the ’70s and the obsceni...
Kate MccGwire on feathers.
September 18, 2019 22:00 - 45 minutes - 31.6 MBKate MccGwire is an award-winning sculptor whose installations have been shown around the world, including Harewood House in Yorkshire, The Harley Gallery at Welbeck, Messums Wiltshire, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida and Galerie Haas AG in Zürich. In 2018 she won The Royal Academy of Arts, Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture. In this episode the Royal College of Art graduate talks about her fascination with feathers. Not only that but during the interview we also unpick her profound inte...
Kate MccGwire on feathers.
September 18, 2019 22:00 - 45 minutes - 31.6 MBKate MccGwire is an award-winning sculptor whose installations have been shown around the world, including Harewood House in Yorkshire, The Harley Gallery at Welbeck, Messums Wiltshire, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida and Galerie Haas AG in Zürich. In 2018 she won The Royal Academy of Arts, Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture. In this episode the Royal College of Art graduate talks about her fascination with feathers. Not only that but during the interview we also unpick her profound inte...
Peter Ting on Blanc de Chine.
September 11, 2019 16:00 - 49 minutes - 33.9 MBPeter Ting is a ceramic designer, art director and the co-founder of gallery Ting-Ying. In this episode he talks about his life-long relationship with Blanc de Chine, to coincide with a new installation on the material that opened at London’s V&A Museum in 2019. And it transpires he has quite a bit more to say too. We discuss growing up in Hong Kong and moving to an English public school at the age of 16; how he discovered clay in the first instance and why he decided to work in Stoke-on...
Marlene Huissoud on Propolis (or bee glue, yes, bee glue).
September 04, 2019 22:00 - 48 minutes - 33.2 MBFor this episode Material Matters travelled to Paris to chat to up-and-coming designer Marlene Huissoud about her relationship with propolis (or bee glue) – a substance made up of wax and resin that bees collect from vegetation and use to seal the honey frames inside their hive. Working the material a little like glass, the Central Saint Martin’s graduate has created a series of cooly dark, vaguely threatening, vessels as well as a number of other objects. During our chat we discuss what...
Tom Dixon on welding (and other things).
August 28, 2019 22:00 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBTom Dixon is one of the biggest names in design with ‘hubs’ in New York, Hong Kong SAR, China, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. In this episode we sat down in his King’s Cross complex to discuss his days welding scrap metal into pieces of baroque furniture but we got into quite a lot more besides. There’s his appearance on Top of the Pops, for example. And the time when some furniture he’d produced for shoe designer Patrick Cox fell apart at a dinner party. We hear what London used to be like...
Adam Nathaniel Furman on making waves.
May 29, 2019 21:00 - 47 minutes - 21.7 MBAdam Nathaniel Furman is an artist and designer based in London. His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York, Milan, Rome, Eindhoven, Minneapolis, Portland, Kortrijk, Tel Aviv, Veszprem, Mumbai, Vienna and Glasgow as well as his home city, and is held in the collections of the Design Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association. He has also played a fundamental role in the recent re-appraisal of post-modernist architectu...
Mourne Textiles's Mario Sierra on hand-weaving.
May 22, 2019 23:00 - 36 minutes - 16.7 MBMourne Textiles is a rather brilliant hand-woven textile company based in Northern Ireland. It was founded by Gerd Hay-Edie after the Second World War and quickly went on to create pieces for the likes of Robin Day, Terence Conran, Liberty of London and fashion designer Sybil Connolly, becoming a staple of British modernism. After some difficult years, it has re-emerged from the doldrums and appears to be in fine fettle under the aegis of Gerd’s grandson Mario Sierra. In this episode Mari...
Laura Ellen Bacon on willow.
May 15, 2019 21:00 - 44 minutes - 20.6 MBSculptor Laura Ellen Bacon weaves extraordinary structures out of willow. Her work has been shown in venues such as the Saatchi Gallery, Chatsworth, New Art Centre, Somerset House, Sudeley Castle (for Sotheby’s) and Blackwell – The Arts and Crafts House in Cumbria. Meanwhile, in 2017 she was a finalist of the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize at the V&A and was selected for Jerwood Contemporary Makers in 2010. In this episode she talks about growing up on a fruit farm in Derbyshire; her childhood o...
Simone ten Hompel on silver.
May 08, 2019 21:00 - 44 minutes - 20.2 MBSimone ten Hompel started her career as an apprentice blacksmith but has gone on to become one of the most influential metal artists in the world. Over the years she has had a major retrospective at the Ruthin Craft Centre and shown her work at fairs such as Collect at the Saatchi Gallery and What is Luxury? at London’s V&A. In an extraordinary interview she discusses: her ‘alternative’ East London studio; getting her first tool box at the age of six; her childhood in West Germany; her abi...
James Shaw on plastic.
May 01, 2019 22:00 - 47 minutes - 21.8 MBJames Shaw is an up-and-coming designer who has made a name for himself through his use of that most controversial of materials – plastic. Using a gun-like mini-extruder, he produces sausages of the material that he subsequently manipulates to create a huge variety of products – from candlesticks to tables. His work is an attempt to change its perception, to persuade people to treasure plastic, rather than using it once before burying it in the ground, During this episode we investigate o...
Kate Malone on clay.
April 24, 2019 22:00 - 46 minutes - 21.1 MBKate Malone is one of Britain’s most important ceramicists, with pieces in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Manchester Art Gallery and the V&A, to name just a few. She works in many different areas, from nature-inspired gallery pieces to batch production mugs via public art and architectural commissions – as she puts it rather wonderfully, her projects range in value from £25 to £1.5 million. In a discussion that can only be described as wide-ranging, we talk about he...
Bill Amberg on leather.
January 22, 2019 05:00 - 31 minutes - 14.2 MBBill 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 Northampton (did you know his mum used to work with Alvar Aalto?), learning his trade in Austral...
Bill Amberg on leather.
January 22, 2019 05:00 - 31 minutes - 14.2 MBBill 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 Northampton (did you know his mum used to work with Alvar Aalto?), learning his trade in Austral...
Celia Pym on darning.
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 31 minutes - 14.7 MBCelia 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 uses the process of darning and the objects that are brought to her to get to know people. As she ...
Edmund de Waal on porcelain.
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 40 minutes - 18.5 MBEdmund 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 Ateneo Veneto in Venice. His first set design featured in the 2017/18 Season at the Royal Opera House f...
Peter Layton on glass.
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 35 minutes - 16.1 MBPeter 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 wildly influential glass artist Harvey Littleton while he was teaching in the US, and burning hi...
Eleanor Lakelin on timber.
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 29 minutes - 13.3 MBEleanor 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 wood. This proliferation of cells, formed over decades or even centuries as a reaction to stress or...
Glenn Adamson on material intelligence.
January 22, 2019 00:00 - 35 minutes - 16.5 MBEvery 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 in our conversation: the relationship between academia and craft, the role of museums in our dig...