From iron, wood and clay

From iron, wood and clay

From iron, wood and clay Noemi Filetti

Dedicated to all the makers

Norah

“When I am cutting the willow I am thinking about what will all this willow will be made into, who will I teach with this willow, what will they make.

And it’s just a lovely process, me making things and then passing on my skills to other people�

“People like making things, I think, the more high-tech we become, the more people want to do things with their hands�

John

“Most of my work is on old books.

My customers generally are either private book collectors or book dealers, so they are bringing an old book that has been damaged and I repair it.

That is really how I spend most days�

“I went to the London College of Printing in 1979, so I am coming up to my 40th year�

Simon

“The trickest part is not the decoration, is getting the basic shape right�

“I don’t regard myself as a creative person, I am a craftman who makes nice things, but I don’t regard myself as being creative.

But the more I do it, I think to myself “maybe I am just a little bit creative”.

I don’t know... And does it matter? ”

Shane

“Blacksmiths are too clever to let it die out”

“I find blacksmith very magical, you work with all the elements all day long, it’s very energetic.

Your steels, they come from the earth, you have got fire, you have got air blowing into it and you are quenching them in water.

You put your spirit into it as well, if you want to think about the fifth element”

Dave

“In any piece of timber there is the image you want�

“I don’t like the word artist, I prefer the word maker”

Kevin

“To eat of your own plate you have made and to drink your own wine from a mug you have made is lovely.

It makes the things taste better�

“The immidiacy of turning, you can make something in five minutes.

If I want to eat of a plate, I make a plate, if I want to drink out a cup, I make a cup�

Through this project I aim to celebrate the art of hand making.

I collaborated with six different craftmen based in England and each of them has amazed me with their passion, skills and commitment to their craft.

I decided to shoot this series on film and self-develop it. Since my goal is celebrating the crafts, I had to be a craftman myself as well and the slow process of analogue photography increased my feeling of ownership toward my project.

This line of thinking made me also decide to self-bind this book, that John kindly and patiently showed how to do.

When I started this series, I believed that I was documenting something that was disappearing, but these people made me reconsider my assumptions.

As Norah said: “the more high-tech we become, the more people want to make things with their hands�.

In order of appearence I want to say thank you to Norah Kennedy, John Richards, Simon Haywood, Shane White, Dave Johnson and Kevin Baldwin.