photos © www.jenspreusse.at

PAST

I always…. have been appealed by colour
I grew up… going to the theatre with my father and with my mother’s care.
When I was a child… I wanted to be a diver.
I’ve never thought about myself… drawing footballers silhouettes for a newspaper.

PRESENT

Right now… I enjoy with this interview.
My favourite hobby… spending time with David.
My work means… an 80% of my regular day.
Working…. I can do the things that I imagine.
I feel like at home… when I’m with my friends and family.
On a rainy day… movie, blanket and sunflower seeds.
I couldn’t live without… doing what I like.
I’ve always wondered how… travelling through the cosmos might be.

I don’t know….. what would happen next month.
I wish I knew… other languages fluently.
Everyday I like… having an orange juice for breakfast.
I wish I could… hire lots of people.
I’m a great believer in… work.
An open secret about me… I get angry when I’m hungry.
I wish I had….. a huge budget for buying 200 g. gold pots and try and try without being worried about their costs.
A perfect day… today.
Art is something… based on the experience.
If you are going to travel… to Tokio.
I get bored when… I stop improvising.

FUTURE

Someday I hope I can… make a family with David.
I would like to be… a dancer, it’s something that’s always appealed to me since I was a child and I would like to return to lessons quite soon.
My next step is… artistic work, installations, performances, giant sculptures…
In ten years…. I see myself running J.A. part as a business, part as an artistic lab and part as a school.

PAST

I always… look into things very close

As a child, I wanted to be … My parents say that I was always doing origami pieces even before I learned how to read, they had to read me the instructions. I guess I’ve always wanted to do things with my hands.

College was… very creative

I never saw myself… working in a boring job

PRESENT

Right now… I like what I’m doing

My favourite pastime… is looking for inspiration

My work represents… beauty in the simplicity

Working… is fun

I choose to work in my medium because…I can focus on the details and make special pieces

On a rainy day…I turn the melancholy mood on.

I couldn’t live without… sunlight.

I’ve always wondered… how do you know for sure if you’re doing the right thing or not?

I wish I knew… the solution for everything

Every day I like… to go for a walk to the Retiro Park

I love … gemstones

A little secret about me… I love tiny things

I wish I could have… a huge, old studio full of tools

A perfect day… can be any day

I would travel to… Madrid, go to the Retiro Park at sunset and sit down at Alfonso XII monument

I get bored… easily and then my thoughts take the control

FUTURE

Someday I hope… I’ll have my own studio-shop/p>

I’d like to … show other people the beautiful world of jewellery

My next step is… learning something new about gemstones

In 10 years…. I hope I’ll be proud of myself

I am really impressed with your work, they are sculptures, but most of them could be jewellery pieces, have you ever thought about it?
Yes, I have thought about them as jewellery and sometimes making very simple, assembled pieces, but making sculpture is a different activity and has a kind of intention that does not include being useful.

Tell us how you began, because you used to make drawings and later, with everything that you usually collect you found a way to express your drawings?
I have always drawn on paper and have sometimes drawn from natural objects I collected. At some point I realized I was drawing sculptural forms and did not need the rectangle of the paper, or the paper for that matter. I found a black wire that looked like a pencil line and started “drawing” with that. Eventually I began to include some of the wonderful objects I had collected on walks and hikes, from the city or the countryside. I still think of most of the work as drawings. They are just paperless drawings.

You use different materials, do you treat some of them beforehand to be able to work with them?
Not usually. Work I make from natural materials can change in color or shrink and dry out. It is part of the work. I try not to work with materials that disintegrate however.

Did you develop your own technique?
I developed my “wire work” by myself, no instructors, but I did attend college and graduate school and have taken some welding classes along the way.

You use wire in its natural color, what about adding artificial coloring?
Yes, I use materials as I find them. I haven’t made much work with artificial color, although I have a huge soil collection that I sometimes use in pieces. It is very colorful.

Do you consider each piece to be unique?
Yes.

How much time can it take to create one of your works?
It can take a couple of weeks or months. Sometimes one day, it depends on the materials and size.

You design all of your own works. Do you ever accept commissions?
I do accept commissions.

You work on your own. How do you feel working alone all day long?
I love to work alone. I love solitude. I just completed a residency in North Norfolk England. It took three weeks, of which I was alone the whole time, except for interacting occasionally with my hosts. It was very productive.

How did you start to become known for your work?
I just kept reaching out, looking for exhibition opportunities and building my experience and, as a result, my resume.

How do you sell your work?
I have several galleries who sell my work.

Being an artist, how do you deal with the highs and lows?
I believe in myself and keep working.

What is the most difficult thing about your work?
It’s fragility.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
Accidents.

Which work has had the biggest success?
Work that includes stones.

What’s your dream project?
Creating an entire environment of steel rods and stones.

At the Design Schools you teach, what do your students contribute?
Students always contribute something. It constantly enriches you, as when they correctly solve a problem so as when the do not succeed. On the first case, learning is implied. On the second one is not so obvious, although it might be stronger. For a professor, it’s quite easy to distinguish among what is well solved and built and what is not. Translate it in a reasonable and argued way for a student to be accepted is not so simple. This issue might be quite demanding, due to you may be throwing hours of effort and study away, the student won’t give up easily (you have to understand that their obstinacy is almost a must).
Gaining their trust while you’re arguing about their work is a reiterative process and quite demanding which, at the end, enriches you.

I really like teaching, however, I sometimes collide with student’s motivation, which has nothing to with your teaching motivation. In your case, do your students transmit their personal motivations to their work? Do they have any external motivation?
I think that the lack of motivation you mentioned is one of the main problems that teachers must daily deal with. I have to admit that it’s something I haven’t been able to solve yet: is our commitment to supply this external drive or if it’s something that the student should include. I tend to think it should be the second option, however, due to the current picture, the social and economic context students and future professionals have ahead (and being aware of it), you cannot be so demanding with them. At the end, I try to do my best in the classroom by transmitting my passion to my profession… If by doing so I get to give them strength, it’d be perfect. If I don’t, you detach yourself from it and trust in your next lesson as a better one.

Do your students take part in your letterpress work as BunkerType?
I’d love that schools could have letterpress workshops. In fact, the most significant Design Schools in Europe own their letterpress spaces, but the truth is that in our country they’re rather unknown or useless. Every time I have the chance, at least I try to make one visit to my workshop; however, the difficulty of the process and the student’s ratio don’t help… Anyway, I try to include as many letterpress material as I’m able (basically it means how big my backpack is), which always help me to explain some issues, as analogical mechanisms are way more explanatory than any digital process. From a pedagogical point of view, it’s a useful resource not only by its loquacity, but its power of attraction onto students.

Which is the hardest aspect of manual printing?
I would say that changing your mind in regards with the process. Being able to understand that the trial/error system doesn’t work: build a text using 24 pt Bodoni font can take an hour. Adding it to a mould and test it, just ten minutes. To realise that you need a smaller letter block, just a couple of seconds. Removing it and repeating the process with a smaller letter block, could take another hour and a half. In other words, you might need a hole morning to do something that only would take a cmd+z action on your computer.

Which aspect do you like most?
I enjoy all the process, although the most satisfying aspect could be the removal action. Anyway, if I had to headlight only one moment, I’d say that, at some occasions, the instant you lift the paper up after your first print session might be magical.

How do you see your print shop in 5 years from now?
I’ve just expanded my workshop and I had had to move all my stuff from one place to another, so I’d rather not to image many changes like this! Furthermore, I’m really glad with all the growth of BunkerType, keeping like this would be enough, although… I must say that my challenge is to show my work outside Spain. If I had to think about any improvement, would be this one!

Is there something you regret professionally speaking?
We always do things that we can regret. It’s a fact. I’ve tried to learn from all my mistakes, and luckily none of them has been fatal, so… what is done, is done!

From all the things you’ve learnt about printing, what would you headlight and share?
Gutenberg’s mobile printing invention really shocked me. We often fall in the mistake of establishing ties between famous historical characters and their success, as we relate them with their inventions and discoveries. Although, we hardly ever get to know the process that they went through to get their achievements or how these ones influenced their lives. Gutenberg’s invention radically changed our history, without it, social and cultural changes would hardly ever have been possible centuries later. However, his career was surrounded by lacks of understanding and misfortunes which he could only save by being tenant and by knowing his transcendence. Suffice it to say that the whole process started at 1440 and lasted about 15 years, which is really well informed by the numerous trials he had to deal with and that ended up by confiscating his workshops and famous Bibles.

gave us the guidelines on which we assembled our first typographical mould; it was really fun and exciting when we saw the result. It’s curious, due to we constantly do it on our computers and without giving any value at all. The manual process makes you think about what you really want to show or to say. I completely understand that this can be Jesus’ passion. It was great!! You have ti try it making a workshop at his studio!

Ana, why studying jewellery after getting your Degree in Architecture?
It happened two years ago and just by chance. I took an intensive course to learn how to work with metal and since then…

How do express your architecture knowledge through your jewellery brand LANTHANE?
Everything I design has its origin in architecture: architects that I admire, geometries, spaces, concepts… I consider my pieces as they were interacting with the body. It seems like a game to me and I always try to give another thought to the design. My pieces usually have a right position or “way of use” but the clients do with them whatever they want and I love all that.

Where did LANTHANE name come from?
Lanthane means Lanthanum in French, a chemical element whose name comes from Greek “lanthanein” which means hidden, as it is a metal element hidden inside another mineral element. Likely to Lanthanum, my passion for jewellery kept hidden until now.

What have you based your designs on? On the material, the shape or, maybe, the colour?
I usually play with abstract concepts. My collections don’t have a pre-established number of pieces. It depends on the possibilities involved in each concept, that’s the way my collections rise up. They are unfinished collections. I have sometimes added more items to a collection over time.

Does any designer inspire you?
Yes, of course, Issey Miyake for instance. I believe that everyone is a point of reference. It’s implied in our contemporary legacy.

How do your find the current market to make a living from this?
In Spain it’s quite complicated. On one hand, the crisis, and on the other one, there’s no contemporary jewellery culture outside Barcelona. It’s rising up in Madrid, but this take time. What I do notice is that most of the times, people don’t know they are into something because they haven’t seen it before. It happens to me with most of my orders.

For you, what has a piece of jewellery to express?
I design objects. They must contribute with something to whom is wearing them. But, what? That’s up to each client. They do inform me that they proudly wear them. People ask them in the street and they feel they part of it.

Are your pieces thought to be wore by all kind of people?
Yes, why not? In fact, my pieces are wore both by men and women from a wide age range and with very different profiles.

Which progress have you noticed in your work since your very first collection to the current one?
I enjoy it more and more, still being able to give a twist to my designs shocks me. My collections are quite different in between them, you may like one but not the others. However, I believe that my style is a very recognisable one although it might have no similarities at all. There is a deeper link.

Taking into consideration how long does it take to finish one piece, how do you guide yourself to price them, in order to be economically viable? Is it the hardest aspect? Do you take references from the stores which are going to sell them?
In the design process, costs and production are the bases. The last goal is purchasing the pieces and seeing them on the streets. In each collection, I make a huge effort in order to offer my best with a competitive price, having always in mind that they are limited collections.

Each piece is unique, do you name or mark them somehow?
It depends. There are some pieces which are entirely handmade and therefore, unique. However, I try to optimise to the maximum the design process in order to reduce costs. I’m very concerned about their price.

On the other hand, there are the advanced orders, which are always unique pieces that I build co-working with the client and supported by models and other tools.

Would you like to make any collaboration with a designer or artist?
Of course!

What would be an ideal order for you?
I’m lucky because at the orders I’ve received I had plenty of freedom. Clients who contact me, already fancy my style and they sometimes ask me to surprise them. Some of my collections have arisen from orders.

Which is the aspect you like most about jewellery?
Its immediacy. You think about the design and right after it’s done. It’s much faster than any architectural or design project.

Is there something that scares your right now?
I’m concerned about the elimination of middle classes and the loss of health and social welfare which is already a fact.

Is there anything you would repeat even it’s nonsense, just because of the experience itself?
Re-create Lanthane.

Jesús, since you first started to compile all the requested material for letterpress printing (printing by mobile terminal wooden and lead types), how has your life changed?
Undoubtedly my job at BunkerType has ended up displacing my professional projection, so now I must reconcile my work as a professor in all the schools I teach, with the huge amount of devoted hours needed to make this project work. This is translated into having less time for me and my family. However, the remarkable pleasure of being working in something I love and keeping on discovering new stuff day by day is a huge reward for me. Learning is something awesome that we usually stop doing when we reach a determined spot in our lives, almost without realising it. And suddenly, something catches your attention and you desire it to never stop. On the other hand, my work at Bunker has gave me the chance of knowing lots of interesting people with whom I share passion, emotions and work. A real luxury, indeed!

How has your learning process been, the reach of materials and info about each typography? It must have been such an extensive process…
The fact is that I’ve never thought about it as a process, mainly because during the first years I was just learning without any prefixed goal. I gradually discovered, by asking as much as I could and searching among the net. It was a really slow process, but also very satisfying one. Sometimes I spent weeks on finding out something which was quite easy, but I had no rush: I just enjoyed the process. Years came by and I realised that I wasn’t doing it so bad…

Other matter was about acquiring the material. At the beginning, I only had a few families of wooden block letters and nothing else. I thought it was enough added to an old restored letterpress I got, however, the amount of blocks requested to a proper start with is impressive and I must admit that really made me impatient to it. Besides, I had no idea about what was essential, so instead of going to old print shops without knowing what to ask for, I started buying the stuff online, basically from U.S.A. And United Kingdom. Little by little I learnt about the stuff and got through my initial shame. I began to identify old print shops where I could still find unused typographical stuff which I kept adding to my current personal collection (around 150 family lead letter block groups and 50 wooden ones), so as the huge amount of blank spaces needed by assembly, printmaking… In fact, this is a never-ending process: every time I can afford it, I keep buying interesting new stuff.

Each of your series I’ve seen, show a huge background and a remarkable poetic story, your designs are your own thinking, is there any of these personal thoughts that has result too difficult to be understood?
there any of these personal thoughts that has result too difficult to be understood?
Not everyone understands compositions and drawings – nor do I think it’s necessary – but my professional (de)formation as a designer forces me to always have something to tell, so that’s why I need that background you mentioned before: without having nothing to transmit I’m not able to move a finger. Thus, – and in a different way from an usual graphic design process – I don’t longer care about the receptor, or if the message is going to be clear or not. I just try to motivate my participations and to let the typographical elements to be the main characters. That is precisely why I always fulfil my pieces with some texts at my BunkerType website that contextualise and explain them, both as regards conceptual point of view and as technical and executive one.

Does Bunker from BunkerType come from your fist workspace?
BunkerType was born in 2009, although at that time it didn’t have or need any name. At the beginning it was only a small storage-room, no bigger than 8m2. I gradually acquired typographical blocks and a small manual Boston, which I didn’t even know where to place. Thanks to my faithful neighbour who gave me the opportunity of demolishing his dividing wall, I joint two storage-rooms and doubled my business: nothing less than 18m2! As you might know, that was a real luxury for me, but being realistic, it still was a small hole deep underground. When I decided I was ready to show my work, I had to baptise my workshop and without hesitations I used “Bunker” as an old friend used to warmly call my invention.

Nowadays I have a 70m2 space at the same building, but the appearance still reminds to the first Bunker. Its spirit still remains too so the name kept unchangeable: let’s say that it is still a Bunker underground, but bigger and way more comfortable….

Which letter has a deeper meaning to you?
Some letters, especially in some wooden letter blocks, have characteristics that make them special, due to its atypical modulation, its spatial features or the absence of optical corrections present in any current alphabet, but beyond that I don’t have any special predilection to any in particular. Although, if it’s any consolation, I always looked for “a” box in order to know how a letter family looks like.

Why there is always something orange on your prints?
The truth is that there’s nothing premeditated although you might be right. In the past, texts were always printed in black, leaving red colour as a secondary ink for initials or notes, it’s probably part of my DNA; I work with really simple elements and concepts, in that sense I think that my colour palette could end up being rather skinny.

At the office we use Abel typo, any history behind it?
There’re thousands of typographies! No, I don’t have any extra information related to that font, although I recommend you to carefully observe to letter “g” on a big enough body: it’s worth looking!

You run workshops at your letterpress workspace, do people get hooked and continue with their training?
I don’t plan the workshops as a training element faced to printing profession. When I was young I worked in a print shop and I learnt about its difficulties. The operators at that print shop started learning about the business since their young beginnings, promoting from 5th grade trainees to 4th, 3rd,… until reaching the category of Officer, in which they must had to promote until 1st Officer. When someone intends me to explain about printing profession, I always talk about this story.

On the other hand, what I do try to transmit through the workshops is the amazing feeling of physically working with letter blocks, in a tangible manner. There are so many different concepts, origins or conventions, used on typography – and logically applied to digital typography too (the one used by our computers) – which are way more comprehensive and logic explained by the traditional system. You’ll only need to place an “S” from any wooden alphabet inside a typographical form: first of all, you’ll realise that it’s a reversible piece and you might ask yourself if placing it in one direction or in other really matters. After that, as you print it, you’ll probably observe that something is not properly working and you’ll try by turning the letter block up and down, showing the complex system of corrections and visual compensations used in graphically building each letter block (in this case, a light elevation over the central axe which divides the letter and compensates the visual weight of the superior body over the inferior one). Another even easiest experiment: pick a geometrical alphabet whose “O” letter has a circular shape (for example, Futura font) and compare two letter blocks that contain both “O” letters. If you keep turning these two blocks and confront them, you will find out that the block which contains them is not a perfect square. This characteristic – which might well be unnoticed in the digital system – is strongly shown in the mobile system and allow us to understand how optical corrections are needed to show circular elements (as a paradox, in order to show a circle as it is, we must do a slight width decrease). Finally, something as simple as the size: we all know that a typographical body is measured in points, but… what is a point? What does it mean that a letter is 36pt height? Which is the measurable distance on a letter? All these answers unknown by a majority of designers, might be explained just by holding one lead type… In brief, I’ll never end…

What the most attractive aspect for those who attend your workshops? And about you, to give them?
Actually, both workshops and online shop, arose for making BunkerType self-sufficient: the idea was adding new material from the workshops and the purchase of online sales, although I’m afraid that my impatience and eagerness were stronger. Anyway, workshops are other way of sharing my activity down in the Bunker and knowing interesting and very grateful people. Mainly designers, professionals or students, artists and people who are keen on the field, join the workshop in order to find out more about something that they barely know before, just by reading on books. The fact is that they build a nice and warm work atmosphere and when they are absorbed on the work it’s hardly impossible to throw them out! Something that I’ve learnt through all these years is that we tend to be so used on working on the results rather than on the process that when this order is inverted, we lose track of time. This is a very satisfying feeling.

What would you say to encourage people to sign up for a letterpress printing workshop using lead and wood mobile typos?
Sorry about saying this so sincerely, but if someone needs any external motivation to attend any of these workshops; I rather say they should stay at home…

It will continue… and we’ll show you the mini workshop we attended to!!

Celia, why jewellery after having finished a degree in Architecture?
There are many ways of thinking Architecture, and the one I’ve always liked the most is the content one, with a justified minimum answer based on details, not so much the magnificent works with huge shows. In my final degree project, which was an ideal project for me to do, I already experimented with this world of details, planning a building which grew along the time by a series of different pieces anchorage in different positions. The most important part was designing the mechanism, its joints… beginning from the smallest parts in order to make it grow.

This is just a look into Architecture, but it also can be applied to jewellery and I love that.

5. How do you express your architectural knowledge through your jewellery brand MIGAYO?
Architecture and jewellery have one thing in common which is that they are both used. They are at the service of people so their shape must be coherent with their needs.
My philosophy is that beauty is a result of finding solutions in a smart and simple way.

The multi-faced bracelet is an example of this way of working. Its form is pure and minimalist, its folding angles flow with the wrist shape, working or writing while wearing it much easier. Its closing system is included in the design, it’s not an extra element and it’s designed by using metal tension. This simple element is in harmony with the entire piece and becomes the focus of it.

6. What is your inspiration for designing your collections? The material? The shape? The colour?
It has more to do with the structure. For instance, in “Organisms” collection I play with natural, organic and soft shapes cut in the wax blocks, that I afterwards melt into metal moulds. In “Minimum” collection, the silver thread allows me to shape and add details… Right now, I’m exploring the metal tiles folding which will end up in another collection.

Are you inspired by any designer in particular?
I usually check on relevant jewellers work such as Kazumi Nagano or Giovanni Corvaja, whose pieces have an apparent simple balance, while hiding a complex perfect technique. I also search for inspiration in other fields of activities like industrial design or even architecture.
I always find inspiration by going through the history of jewellery. In the past, a piece of jewellery had a significant symbolic power, meaning protection, hierarchy or membership in order to make a difference. I often write some opinion pieces on my blog about Etruria jewellery, classical Greece or Art Nouveau pieces.

5. What is your ideal dream work you could see yourself having in five years from now?
I’d love to keep a balance between made-to measure jewellery and collections like I do have right now. I’d also like to have a list of clients that would allow me to build all the pieces from a collection in noble metals (silver, gold and platinum). Actually I make each piece in silver or brass, gold is only used for special orders.

Is “made-to measure” for special orders the best way of expressing yourself in the world of jewellery?
It does for me. Adapting the piece to someone’s needs and personal background brings out a different and complex creative thinking, which I really like. Besides this symbology I was talking about earlier; the meaning of this kind of jewellery is powerful.

For you, what does a piece of jewellery have to express?
I think that a piece of jewellery goes with the person and it must be coherent with their style because it’s the key element that defines it.
The way we express ourselves through our aspect is quite curious. How do we choose the clothing, shoes or complements that we wear in order to be comfortable and transmit a determined image? You need all the elements; depending on your likes and dislikes you might chose one pair of shoes among others, but you’ll definitely wear them because you need to. On the other hand, jewellery is a special element, wear them or not, it’s optional. Their symbolic meaning helps you to express yourself and to make you feel nice and comfortable with them.

Are your pieces made for all kinds of hands? All kinds of people? Or are you thinking of a certain personality?
My pieces are simple and delicate; they create focus of attention to those parts of the body. They aren’t the main characters, so it could be said that they are thought for people who don’t hide behind big pieces of jewellery, but rather search for what’s natural and handmade.

What does colour mean to you?
I search for happiness, an effortless sensation and that also happens with colour. I like a natural colour palette, with earth tones, metal tones, and untreated gems… I try to keep away from stridency in shape, so also in mechanisms and in colours.

You design the pieces and you also build them…did the learning period take you a long time or is it in constant evolution??
Previous knowledge is needed. But after reaching them, it’s a perseverant individual evolution in which you learn and even develop techniques from your needs and your jeweller style. This is a very interesting period, refining building solutions that might have failed in the prototype piece.

How does the fabrication process go about?
Knowing how long it takes you to make a finished piece is highly important in order to fix the final price rate. On one hand, there is the design process length, tests and models, which I don’t measure because it might be irrepressible, but on the other hand, I do for the fabrication process. I try to measure each part of the process, however, this is a hand-made production and you must be aware of the existence of possible mistakes that can delay you and pieces that might sometimes break.
Mainly in jewellery, working with valuable tools and pure materials, you have to work quietly and carefully, forgetting a little bit about the timetable.

Each piece is unique; do you name them or mark them in any way?
I should have a better system to name them, actually. The official name is how I call them through the design process. Unresolved task!

What have been the worst and best experiences in your professional life up until now
The worst one was the incertitude before I decided to take the plunge. The best one was meeting somebody in the street wearing a piece of jewellery that I had hand-made.

Would you like to make a collaborative work with any designer or artist?
Yes, of course. I think joining forces between different disciplines is something creative and rich, so I’m open to any possibility.
I find there is a big relationship between jewellery and clothing to defining somebody’s style. I’d love to do a collaborative work with a fashion designer like Jorge Acuña or Amaya Arzuaga.

What would be your ideal order?
Those pieces that go with a special moment in somebody’s life are the perfect types of orders. The design process is even more beautiful when you know that the piece is attached to a feeling or experience.

What are the toughest and the best aspects in your work?
The one I like the most is the handmade part, being quiet at my workshop working with the pieces, mainly with prototypes, doing research and trying to stay true to the original idea I had in mind.
The hardest aspect is finding where MIGAYO takes place, how my brand should appear while still keeping its essence.

Is there something that scares you right now?
I’m afraid of bad reviews of my pieces. I know this is something you have to take for granted, you cannot satisfy everyone; however, this is something quite personal because it’s your idea, your design and your manufacturing.

Is there something you would repeat even if it was nonsense, let’s say just for the experience?
Moving to Kuala Lumpur. While I was working on my final degree project, the opportunity of moving there to work at an architectural office for a year came up. Moving alone to a country that I didn’t know anything about meant a stop in my career and in my degree (in fact, after coming back I restarted my final project).
At the beginning it was quite hard, but it turned out to be a unique professional experience in terms of personal gain of knowledge, it allowed me to stop, think and take a look. I met wonderful people completely different from me; some of them had gone there in order to radically change their lifestyles and others were natives from all different cultures from Malaysia.

What is it like to take part in design markets and fairs like Mercado Central del Diseño in Madrid, in Matadero Madrid?
This is a really good experience, these kind of events are perfectly organised, give you visibility and let you meet other designers whose work is highly interesting and full of illusion. That is very helpful.
There’s another kind of consumption, more deliberate, where people buy with love, they are interested in what’s behind each piece. I love telling them about the whole process, this is something that they enjoy and gives great value to the piece that they’re buying. Due to this, I’ve documented everything on my

We have seen your work, and it is really attractive. Working with different materials, clay, wood and concrete, how do you define your work?
Materials are the foundation of my exploration as an artist. That said, I see myself as a clay artist that uses other materials to give context to my work in clay. For example, I think we can better understand what a rough red clay is and means when it is paired or grouped with a piece of oak or a shiny strip of brass. For the same reason I love seeing my work in someone’s home where it inevitably interacts with other objects that are used or collected.

Do you explore and fabricate by yourself?
Yes, the craft of making my own work is very important to my practice. All of the micro decisions that happen along the path of production are what uniquely makes my work my own. The feedback I get from working the material with my own hands allows the work to grow and continue to develop. In the spring of 2013 I graduated from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville , IL, USA with a MFA in ceramics. This was a major achievement for me and became a launching point to become a self-sustaining artist. Because craft is so embedded into my practice, I spent almost six months converting an old brick garage into a functional studio space. I purchased almost all of my equipment used and restored everything into working condition. I’m very proud to call the space my own as it allows me to do most everything from woodworking, welding, sandblasting and clay work independently.

In your work, part of it is functional, and part of it is sculptural, which do you prefer more?
That’s a tough question for me. In many ways I see both pottery and sculpture as part of a whole, aside from the obvious, you can’t drink coffee out of a 100-pound sculpture. But the concepts that I apply to my work are in both modes of working. I think about minimizing my forms’ attributes to bring a sense of clarity to the work and I think about my use of material and conveying information through the material choices and pairings. To answer your question I think I am currently very much interested in sculptural vessels rather than tableware that I suppose falls right in the middle of function and sculpture. Working this way I can explore surfaces that may not be ideal for serving food from, but offer a uniqueness not always seen in everyday life. If one needs to, you could always toss your hat or keys into one of these types of pots.

What do colors mean for you?
Color, for me, is rooted in the material. I work with a lot of different clays: red, white, black, grey, brown and mixtures of all of these. If I can, I let the clay speak for itself in terms of expressing color. I have been doing a lot of testing to build attractive layers of slips, oxides and commercially available pigments. I also collect natural clays and organics that can burn out in the firing. Sometimes I use glaze in my work, but I seem to prefer opaque and matte glazes that appear integrated into the clay itself.

You teach ceramics at St. Louis Community College Forest Park, is there anything that you try to teach to your students, that you did not learn at school?
As a young teacher, school is still very fresh on my mind and I can very clearly remember the successes and failures as I explored the medium in the academic setting. I also remember introductory ceramics being very structured where emphasis is placed on repetition to learn the fundamentals of craft. While I still see plenty of value in this approach, I have begun to allow and encourage students to have a bit more freedom while starting out. I want the students to discover on their own terms, and while this sense of discovery is underway, it is my job to offer feedback and suggestions. I also try to encourage the acceptance of their perceived mistakes and to sometimes embrace and use these mistakes to their advantage. Lastly I try to teach students that our work does not need to be perfect, and that small nuances in form and surfaces can make their work stronger.

What does teaching mean for you?
Teaching for me is simply an ongoing conversation with the students where I bring my experiences and they bring theirs. Together we work on growth.

What is the process for a ceramic design until it is ready to be sold?
I usually work in a small series. I’ll often start off making a handful of a type of form, each with slight formal variations like proportion, scale, and surface differences. I like to see these through the process and evaluate them after they have been fired. After I have this finished information, I try to make more utilizing the best results until I am very happy with the work. Sometimes I am never quite satisfied and I’ll keep going through the processes.

How did you begin? Did you have any commissions to work on?
As a general “maker of objects”, I always seem to have plenty of projects to work on, some being commissioned work. Currently I am developing a line of ceramic vessels that are all fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln. I’m doing a lot of new testing and I hope to have plenty of new work to showcase in the summer of 2014.

Was it hard? Have you ever been discouraged?
I’m highly motivated right now to finish the aforementioned line of ceramic vessels, but along the way I have had my fair share of setbacks. Some of the surface testing I have undergone has given me unfavorable results, but it only motivates me to keep working at it.

What would be your ideal project?
I really enjoy seeing my objects in spaces, such as living or working spaces. I would love to work with other designers where together we can find appropriate settings for my work to reside, even if it is simply for a promotional photo shoot. I learn from this type of engagement, where context informs the work and visa versa.

Do you dedicate time in your work to publications or other types of media to make yourself known and increase sales, or do you have someone that helps you?
As an emerging artist, I am still working on this element of the picture. Right now I am actively photoblogging both my work, other great ceramic works, and architectural spaces. In the past few months of doing this I have generated a lot more interest in what I do, but I also feel like I am doing my part to spread the word on handcrafted clay work and how this craft fits into the modern world. You can check it out at phillipfinderceramics.tumblr.com

Which is the most difficult thing in your work?
I struggle the most with focusing on a single mode of work. In graduate school for example, I wanted to show that pottery, sculptural vessels, and sculpture can all work together both formally and conceptually. My thesis exhibition showcased all of these modes of work together in a cohesive platform. Now, with a shift into studio practice and teaching, my biggest struggle is to hone in on the best ideas, and produce within reasonable parameters. I think, in time, my portfolio will continue to engage with this diversity of sorts, but in the mean time I think a single mode of work will bring strength to what I do as an artist.

What do you like more from your work?
I have to remind myself to live in the present, although I have great ambitions as a clay artist. Generally, I want to make more work and grow a larger audience.

Tell us how a normal day in your work is.
On the days that I can work a full day in my studio, I try to get an early start. My wife Janelle is also a teacher. She shakes me awake early and my role is to get up and make us both espressos. After she is out of the door I check my emails and my photo blog. I try to make daily contributions to the blog. Following this I’m out to work in the garage studio. Sometimes I squeeze in a jog first. I try to get to the studio from early morning to 5pm, but sometimes I get caught up in domestic duties, and my studio time is extended late into the night. This winter has been my first stretch of work in the new studio, and because it is quite chilly out there, I have been doing a lot of hand building techniques that don’t require getting wet like it does on the potters’ wheel. I cycle through days of primary construction and days of where finishing touches are the main focus. I am also reading a book right now called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. If you are interested in the routines of artists and how they structure their day to day lives, I would highly recommend it.

An advice?
Pay attention to what other artists are doing around the world and try to keep up the momentum of your own work.

Your Jewelry work is in constant evolution, do you try to reflect in your work the evolution that you feel in your personal life?
The evolution is more informed by the work itself. After I complete a new piece, I think about how I can further explore something that I like about the piece. For example, maybe the way the light is filtering through the shape, or the movement of the piece worked very well. Then I take what intrigued me about the finished piece, and further develop the concept in the next.

That being said, there is no way to avoid personal influences in one’s work. Sometimes pieces are very directly influenced by personal experiences and exposure to things in my environment.

I grew up in Northwestern Pennsylvania; abandoned factories have long inspired me. They are like hulking cathedrals. Gritty, mysterious, immense and dark, yet they are strangely fragile and delicate at the same time. This inspired me to start working with diamond sheets and dark oxidized silver. The diamonds are captured in crude settings, and are like delicate windows that punctuate each setting and capture light. The windows allow light to pass through each diamond, irregularly shaped and flawed with inclusions, streaks of grey, black and yellow. Ultimately, I am searching for the materials in the jewelry to be simultaneously harmonious and perplexing.

How did you begin? I would like you to tell us how someone who finishes her studies, just begins its own company, or works first in another studio….
In 1980 I earned my associate’s degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, The School for American Craftsmen. From there I went on to study at Rhode Island School of Design and received my BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing in 1983. I took a year in between and studied with two different goldsmiths in Worcester, MA.
After graduating from RISD, I applied to an American Craft Council show, and was accepted. At exactly the same time, I was honored to also be accepted into a “New Talent” exhibition at Artwear in New York. I had to hire help to cover my booth in order to attend the opening in New York.
I still to this day cannot believe how these events occurred in tandem, it certainly gave me a jump start early on.

Have you ever discouraged?
I think everyone has their ups and downs, but I try to be working in the studio as much as I can (typically 5 days a week). This helps me push through less inspired times.

How would you define “jewelry”?
I hate the term “Art Jewelry”. I think jewelry can be inspired, sculptural, conceptual, and beautiful, or even ugly. I am not a big fan of work that looks like wearable sculpture, pieces that look more like they should be “on the wall,” or simply better served as sculpture. Pieces like that strike me as trying too hard. I believe in wearability.

To name a few jewelry artists whose work challenges the “art jewelry” field, in my opinion, Otto Künzli, Karl Fritsch, Warwick Freeman, Thomas Gentille, Katja Prins, Gerd Rothmann. These artists work has a transformative power and integrity that is beyond definition.

You fabricate by your own your designs, handmade; Do you have any favourite type of metal to work with?
I love working with silver for its malleability, and I typically work in gold for conceptual reasons.

Why did you identify yourself to metal and no other materials? Although when you make your jewelry, you use other materials, does it depend on the idea you are working on?
It very much depends on the idea, and the best way to express the concept or mood of the piece. I do use alternative materials if it fits in conceptually into the work. My souvenir installation in 1999 was constructed out of found/collected objects and alternative materials.

In some of your designs, you hide things inside that can slightly be seen through the perforated metal, why?
I like to create beautiful objects which take unexpected materials framed in the context of the power, seduction, and purity. My forms are often minimal in structure, yet resonate in both the organic and machined worlds.

My pieces often contain an interplay between interior and exterior. For example, in my perforated pieces, hundreds of tiny holes provide a glimpse of 22k beneath the surface. The gold is concealed by the form, and revealed by the perforations.

This tension is fascinating to me, and really lends a life to the work. Refined shapes alternately cage, contain, and reveal beautiful interiors. I make strong, simple, sculptural objects that are complex and layered, discovered over time.

Your work is also based in geometrical forms and you do not use colors, how would you define your work?
I am heavily influenced by sculpture, not so much jewelry. The work of Wolfgang Laib, Martin Puryear, Louise Bourgeois, to name a few, have left a strong impression on me. I strive to make my work have a sculptural quality.

I have made pieces that involve color. You can see the Queen Bee Brooch, a tribute to Madeleine K. Albright.

It is a work of passion to develop your own brand. Are there other brands that inspire you?
I work very intuitively. I admire and collect beautiful objects, both functional and decorative, from vintage to contemporary. It is difficult to say that there is one specific “brand” that inspires me.

For whom do you fabricate these pieces? Do you ever imagine the final client?
Not really.

Do you fabricate by commission?
Occasionally.

Which would be an ideal commission?
A commission that both financially supports me, while completely trusting in my aesthetic vision to give full artistic freedom. But isn’t that what everybody wants?

Which ones have been the best and the worst moments of your professional life?
Best: Winning two National Endowment for the Arts grants; in 1988 and 1992.

Worst: Going through periods of very tight financial times, because work may not be selling at the moment. This detracts from creating, and is generally spiritually consuming.

How would you like you see yourself at age of 60’s?
Keep on keeping on (as they say in America). I have been working my whole career to build a solid reputation, while at the same time taking risks to challenge myself. It can sometimes be incredibly scary and uncomfortable, but the more you do it and earn success, the more freedom it affords you to make what you really want to make.

Which is the most difficult from your work, and what you like more?
Least: Paperwork, logistics, administration, etc…
Most: Being in the studio creating.

Which is the best advice that you have received? And the one you will give to?
When I was a student at RISD, my professor Louis Mueller, on many occasions would point to something in a piece and say “What is that there for?”

I think I would say the same.

Natalie, how do you define your work?
My work marries a functional, aesthetic, and conceptual approach to metal. I work with concepts of adornment to create pieces that use the body to engage in conversations that draw directly from my personal life.

I was trained as a jeweler years ago, which brought me to understand the intricacies of creating work that is personal to each person wearing it and expresses parts of their life. These small works evolved into large scale installations and explorations of space, and detailed works on metal to contrast with difficult ideas of infestation, resilience, and the perception of ‘flaws’. Throughout this series of works, underlying it was a focus on the aesthetics of materials as they related to each other. Resins, concrete, and plaster were paired with fine silver, brass and copper to create a relationship between materials that served to express my personal narrative.

How do you begin?
I begin by observation. I am always looking at how a building is constructed or how cracks form in a sidewalk or how ants build their colonies. I am fascinated with the world around me in a physical sense, which is why I work in a variety of materials. The physical prosperities of materials and the way they can be manipulated are how many of my decisions are made in terms of form, color, and size.

The choice to work with precious metals has been because of their inherent strengths and weaknesses. I value silver, both for its culturally relevant quality and for its beauty. I employ copper for its strength and abundance. I am interested in creating something beautiful and desirable. As I continue to explore these personal narratives through these metals, themes that relate to my life as a mother begin to come through. My initial interest in small, intimate works, is finding a new source of expression that allows me to create intimate pieces that explore the relationships I have to my children.

When you were a kid, what was your dream job?
I wanted to be an architect when I was younger. I played with Legos and built tall structures and then knocked each one of them down to see which form was the strongest. I was always building objects. When I was nine I entered a Valentine’s Day Card Contest and I won first prize for my 3D heart/card.

In your “shifting” series you use precious metals, but in another series like “red dot”, you use resin. Are you more comfortable now with precious metals?
It is not a matter of being comfortable with precious metals but rather knowing what materials the piece calls for. While I was undergraduate student I worked for a commercial jeweler doing bench repairs. I learned a great deal about working with gold and other precious gems. Precious metal has a way of making an object feel overly important. I like to play with the perceived value society puts on precious metals and use those metals at certain time to better express my ideas.

Your “traveling” work reminds me of Marian Bijlenga’s work in some way, which was your inspiration?
“travelling” happened as a result of cutting up a stencil for another piece. I was using the forms to press copper into the negative spaces and then realized that the stencil was more interesting. I was also looking at Cornelia Parker’s work at the time and love the repetition she creates with some of her installation pieces.

Which is the idea you want to give through your “red dot” work?
At the time I created “red dot” I had just finished graduate school and was working out of my home studio when I created “red dot”. I began working with resin while in school and was seduced by the transparent qualities of the material and the options for changing the color of the material. The piece took shape while I was installing the piece. I have always been interested in the repetition of a single form to create a larger structure. We see this a lot in the world of biology, and I am specifically interested in emergence.

Who in the industry do you admire?
Ana Lopez – not only for her work but her ability to balance work, life and studio.
Louise Bourgeois – for her longevity and honesty in her work.
Billie Jean Theide – her work continues to change and grow with her, even with having great success with her earlier bodies of work.
Cornelia Parker – her installations are breath-taking along with the way she manipulates her materials giving them a new life.

You work by your own, do you feel good working alone all day long?
I am a Professor of Sculpture at Brookhaven Community College in Dallas, TX, so I get a lot of interaction with students and colleagues. When I am in my studio, I am by myself, which is a rare thing in my life, and so I really enjoy that time to create without having to answer questions or talk out my process. I am also working on a collaborative community project with Lesli Robertson called “The Mother Load”. This collaboration has worked well because I get to work closely with another colleague and we are able to keep each other motivated and compliment each others working styles.

What about the money? Do you always succeed in making it work?
As I mentioned earlier, I am a Professor at a community college and so I am able to create work without relying on selling my work. This can be a double-edged sword because it takes time away from my studio work but the pressure to create work for other people is not there.

It is a work of passion to develop your own brand. Are there other brands that inspire you?
I have always wanted to be a maker of things. I find energy and fulfillment in creating beautiful, complex and thought provoking pieces. I have not thought of my work in the terms of making my own brand. Although I enjoy the challenge of designing and creating production work I am not currently working towards creating a brand as a goal.

Who do you surround yourself with?
I live with my husband and my twin 2 year old toddlers in Dallas, TX. I continue to stay in contact with my peers’ from graduate school and my co-workers at Brookhaven College. It is necessary for me to surround myself with other artist and creative people to help keep the momentum going. I think a lot of artist surround themselves with creative thinkers, not only for support but to challenge each other and help push the work further.

For whom do you fabricate these pieces? Do you ever imagine the final client?
There are many times I am working on a commission piece and the client is the first thing on my mind. In these situations my thought process changes, there are a few more restrictions and rules that are set in place. When I am in my studio I do not think about the final client. There are so many other decisions that I am making and so in order to keep my head clear I keep the idea of a client or buyer at bay.

Which would be an ideal project?
I don’t really know how to answer this question because I don’t think in those terms. I always have a few projects going at once. When I am stuck on one problem then I begin to work on the other project. Currently working on Mother Load Project, Trestle Designs, a concrete and silver jewelry line, and one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces for an exhibition. So for now, these are my ideal project.

Which ones have been the best and the worst moments of your professional life?
I am hoping my best is yet to come! As an artist I have certain goals I want to obtain, such as galleries I want to exhibit in and magazines I want to be published in, but I try to keep my focus on the work. The hardest part about being an artist for me is the low after the high of having an exhibition. That is why I try to always have something on the horizon to work towards.

What is next for you?
I am currently working on 2 major projects for this spring. One is a group exhibition where I will be displaying 3-5 works from a new series of studio jewelry pieces. The second is an exhibition of “The Mother Load”, a project that engages with mothers who are also professional artists, we are currently working on exhibition venues at the Dallas Museum of Art, at the Center for Creative Connections.

How would you like to see yourself at age of 70’s?
I would like to see myself surrounded by my family and friends while working in my studio preparing for my next exhibition.

Which is the most difficult from your work, and what you like more?
The most difficult part of my work is finding the time to make my work. Balancing family, teaching and studio time is a challenge. I love working through the problems and finding solutions in a piece. I love when I am in the middle of working on a project. The hardest part for me is the end. It is almost like a relationship that I don’t want to be over. Sometimes I will set a piece aside when I am almost finished with it just so I can have a little more time with it to see if there is anything else it needs.

Which is the best advice that you have received? And the advice that you will give to?
The best advice I got was from a fellow artist friend of mine who told me that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. This was at a time where I was feeling a little lost with my work and wanted to start over. He told me to look back at what I had done to help me move forward. There are times when being an artist can be intimidating because there are so many choices. For my work, I need limits and rules… and then I can break them.

Y finalmente….. su “mdby paper image”….

Do you remember LINDSEY ADELMAN? Today i want to show you another great colletion that they hace developed, “Catch Collection”, and we asked Lindsey to explain us the idea of this great collection

The concept began with playing with the typical chandelier hierarchy of chain and a glass fixture. I wanted to enlarge and announce the chain links and allow the glass to hang in slumping bits within it. The Catch Suspension is a modular system with flexibility for any number of glass pieces to hang from the milled canopy contraption. Each piece of glass is unique, dictated by gravity and the way it behaves while being blown through the water-jet cut brass link in the hot shop. The floor lights combine this same strict language of brass square tubing with the sensual melting glass. They also resemble some sort of high-end hand-cuff grasping fair smooth flesh. Yes, they are made to order in my NYC studio. The collection is designed for Nilufar Gallery exclusively, and Salone 2013 was the first time I have shown with them.

Photos by Lauren Coleman

Photo by Robin Broadbent for Wallpaper* magazine

What do you think of it? Isn’t it great???

“Catch collection” available through Nilufar Gallery

Catch collection sketch of Lindsey‘s for the collection.

Catch collection sketch of Lindsey‘s for the collection.

Process photos of their glass blower, Michiko Sakano, blowing hot glass into the water-jet cut brass forms.

Getting to the end of the year….I show you a very special work by SIMONE TEN HOMPEL, based on metal, let’s see what you think about it, I hope you like it, it is great!!

Simone, after studying jewellery and silversmithing, and a MA at Royal College of Art, you decided to focus on metalwork, which was the key that pushed you to it?

After I had finished an Apprenticeship in black smithing I did study jewellery at the FH in Düsseldorf, but when I started at the RCA I focused on metalwork and ever since I have not really done jewellery. Having finished Düsseldorf I knew that I had not got to the stuff which was still within me and I simply looked for a different challenging space where I could develop from within and through stimulating debate.

The key for making is in the hand or in the desire to work -sometimes hard and long, sometimes against the restriction of the body- the metal material seems to have been there for working with me always. I believe so.

Did you have a mentor or someone that has guided you?

As I am an excellent dyslexic, I should think that this illness was my mentor. With 11, I and my illness made an arrangement and ever since, we work together. The arrangement therefore was: I’m not good at reading and writing but I am allowed to make stuff with my hands. In that way I owned some form of recognition.

Most of your production is based on spoons, as the first and the last thing we use in our life, it is a metaphor……

Yes and no, The metaphor is for the beginning and the end, therefore Alpha and Omega as a baby we learn to use how to eat with a spoon and we may use that ‘tool’ the spoon most likely as the last implement.

So you really are a writer, that instead of using paper, you use metal…

I do think of metal as my first language and then, I speak English and German.

There for, I see it, not as writing but as a voice. It is a negotiation between hand, heart, head and material. The content of its voice is reporting back from a store, that memory is either in the molecules or embody.

The stuff = memory, stuffiness, and sorry if it is not a proper word, but its content, how it feels, what I hold from it, how I make use of that information or data, the materiality = the substance flesh and blood or just a person with all that this person remembers.

It is a very spiritual concept, about the meaning of spoons, what are your basics in life and work? Do you even divide them in those two areas?

The first principle of the spoon is like a hand and an arm. Sometimes joined, sometimes morphing into one or the other. One is not recognizable without the other. The handle of the spoon and the spoon bowl are one. Would you think about spooning something into your mouth is work and the acted of eating from the bowl represents life?. That moment when the food is lifted and travel until your mouth. Both handle and bowl, as life and work have a belonging.

Do you write the story of each spoon or object somehow? It will be a good work about metal language …..

It is inscribed in the work and therefore for an onlooker to be read as a deciphered.

What does metals give you that perhaps you have not found in other materials?

There is a dialogue between the metal and myself. Wood may smell better, ceramics is malleable, but metal has an empathy with the capacity of forgiveness. However, I work with all sorts of material only, not that closely.

Metal is a hard material, does it take too much energy from you when you are working on them? Or you take the energy from the metal?

It’s a matter of technique; therefore work’s method does not need to be hard or strenuous. When metal is worked with its changes and becomes hard, it is not over work, as it would crack, because if it gets softened by heat, the work can continue. Therefore I have to read the metal, its conditions and act accordingly. Different properties require different reaction. The energy can flow either way between us.

Do you have any favourite type of metal to work with?

By now I possibly understand silver best. Like chocolate, it comes in different varieties. It can be rich in flavour, texture and smell. I work with gilding metal also, it has similar properties that I understand and it is my advantage

Do you design all your objects before you begin to create them? Or you have the idea in mind, and you just work with the material?

There is no formula to work. Sometimes it is material driven, other times it starts with a memory, then it could be an issue around function. I am interested in solving good problems. The juxtaposition between them, content driven issues and problem-solving solutions hold my attention and get my thinking.

You have never glazed any piece?

Here and there I have worked with a bit of enamel. The main metal can maintain its own, pure and simple with all the varieties of colours.

What about colours, you do not use them, tell us if there is any reason, or you just want to show the aim of the metal.

There are different material with colours and ornate colours within metal. Sometimes I put this side by side, the otherness of materials and colour.

Do you fabricate by commission?

Yes

Each piece is fabricated by hand, so each piece is a unique piece; do you mark them in some way?

All my pieces are hand marked, different kinds of marking and recognition.

For whom do you fabricate these pieces? Do you ever imagine the final client?

Yes, there is a dialogue and imagination ongoing whilst I work.

How do you deal, as an artist, with the highs and lows?

Not sure. I like to make and then I keep going. The making occupies the mind very well.

Do you work by your own, do you feel good working alone all day long?

I share the workshop with two other people, but I also feel good working for days on my own.

Which would be your ideal project?

I once made a piece with 108 spoons. That held my attention. I would like anything that has an open end, a space for discoveries about materiality and form. It seems i like variations and multiplicity.

What about the money? Do you always succeed in making it work or is it something that’s not so important to you?

Money is important, but when I make, I don’t think about it. However it is a sign of recognition.

Do you spend time in your work to publications or other media to make yourself know and increase sales, or you have someone to help you?

I do all the work in my business. Therefore I try to do a bit of all, but I like best to make.

Which is the most difficult thing in your work?

All things that deal with writing. After all, I am a very good dyslexic.

And the one you like more from your work?

Everything that involves my hands, making and think.

Which one has been your biggest success?

What writing on making? That’s a no-brainer I am a maker. The body of work I made which was subsequently reworded with prizes like the Jerwood in 2005 or the Bavarian Stats Priese in 2012.

Tell us, how a normal day in your work is?

I don’t like to have that sort of pattern.

What is beauty for you?

When you look at my book ‘inside’ you might get the gist of where my beauty lies.

An advice?

Make from the heart using head and hands.