Interior design
Last week’s Linley Summer School was an artful way to address the growing disconnect between design and craftsmanship, says Mary Miers
Mary Miers finds craft being celebrated at the Linley Summer School in Wiltshire
IT’S dovetailing day at the Linley Summer School. Only the cooing of wood pigeons and the gentle rhythm of handsaw on wood breaks the silence as eight students set about their task for today: the perfecting of a dovetail joint. No screeching of modern machinery, no choking dust, just the hush of intense concentration as ageold skills are fine-tuned in a 13th-century barn.
Soaring overhead, the astonishing cruck-beam roof of elm proclaims the materials and skills that have given Britain its outstanding reputation for craftsmanship. What better inspiration for art dealer Johnny Messum and owner Lord Margadale, who last year established Messums Wiltshire—a multipurpose Arts centre dedicated to handmade objects— here on the edge of Tisbury.
It’s the perfect setting in which to engage a group of furnituredesign students in the techniques and materials that are being lost to their formal education. The monastic feel of the barn echoes the atmosphere of Parnham College, the former school for craftsmen where David Linley trained in the early 1980s, before setting up his design house specialising in wood and marquetry in 1985. Much of the Parnham ethos permeates the Linley Summer School, which he established last year to offer students an opportunity to work at the bench with master craftsmen.
Since the 1950s, the philosophy taught by Ruskin and Lethaby, that ‘design and workmanship should be so closely allied that one may hardly know where one ends and the other begins’, has been largely ignored by educational establishments, despite the success of John Makepeace and others in reviving the tradition of the designer-maker.
Craft and design have become more and more segregated at art schools, with students having less contact with materials as they spend more time doing computer-aided design (CAD). William Warren, a tutor on the summer school, accepts that CAD is a vital part of modern design, ‘but the notion that you can replace an understanding of materials, making skills and structure with a 3D render is very wrong’.
Between 2007 and 2013, the number of crafts courses in the UK fell by 46%. Paradoxically, however, as more institutes close and craft workshops find it more difficult to obtain good apprentices, there’s been an upturn in the number of people wanting to learn craft skills. And not just among students: many professionals are now diversifying, with bankers and executives looking for a change of direction.
Luke Hope, who worked in advertising, has become the Edmund de Waal of wood, best known for his exquisitely carved spoons, and even Daniel Day-lewis has taken up woodcarving.
Of those who attended the summer school last year, three went on to work in Linley workshops and several others applied to do apprenticeships. This year’s students say they want to gain a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of materials so they can transfer that knowledge into more commercial design work. To this end, they’ve toured the arboretum at Fonthill to learn about growing and managing trees, as well as visiting Matthew Burt’s workshop in Hindon.
Tutors include Jonathan Rose, a marquetry expert and fine furniture-maker, and guest lecturers range from Gareth Neal and John Makepeace to the leather craftsman Bill Amberg.
The Linley Summer School complements other activities at the barn, including exhibitions (last year, the focus was clay, this year wood, next year stone), makers’ festivals, public workshops and performances, all aimed at helping people rediscover the language of making.
As a follow-up to the summer school, a series of walk-in workshops taught by various makers will run from August 24 to 27. ‘Material: Wood—design & Inspiration’, an exhibition of works by artist/sculptorcraftsmen including Thomas Heatherwick, John Makepeace and Fred Baier, runs until September 3—visit www. messumswiltshire.com