every somewhere

About the Makers

Ash and Plumb
Ash and Plumb (Barnaby Ash and Dru Plumb) work together from their South Downs woodturning studio in East Sussex, UK, crafting unique, one-off sculptural and functional vessels from responsibly sourced green (unseasoned) oak. Their practice draws on ancient, archetypal forms for inspiration, but the stretch of land that joins together their living and creative spaces holds most meaning for them.

Often referencing Neolithic archaeological clay forms unearthed around Britain, they seek to translate these early vessels into a contemporary visual language that conjures a sense of unexpected familiarity. Equally, they celebrate British and European craft history, playfully translating these traditions and techniques into a contemporary vernacular of their own design. Ash shapes and hollows the vessels on the lathe before working in collaboration with Plumb to achieve the characterful charred, eroded and aged surfaces unique to their practice. The works are often combined with Plumb’s stitchwork repair which employs fine waxed cotton threads to celebrate and mend any natural fissures and imperfections.

Both makers are largely self-taught. Ash is a recipient of the QEST Turners’ Company Scholarship and they have jointly exhibited at the Collect Art Fair, London, UK. Other recent exhibitions include: ‘Rhyhtm and Flow,’ Gallery 57, Arundel, UK; ‘Into the Woods,’ Watts Contemporary Gallery, Surrey, UK; ‘Archetypes,’ The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, UK.

Lizzie Farey
Lizzie Farey is a contemporary willow sculptor and artist based in Galloway, Scotland from where she creates delicate, intricate structures capturing a still moment, distilled and ordered. Her intimate forms hint at the process of creation and the points of tension in the work. The maker’s hand is ever-present in the visible twists and turns of her woven material. Farey plants, tends and harvests a range of willow for both texture and colour herself, which is then worked together with ash, birch, hazel and larch from nearby forests, marshlands, moorlands and hedgerows. Farey has informed her artistic vernacular through an extensive knowledge of her materials and an innate desire to engage with the rhythms of nature and the balance between order and chaos.

Each work is built up slowly over a period of weeks; contemplative by nature, these pieces communicate a sense of calm. An outward expression of our internal thinking, emotion and desires, Farey’s work provides an inner safe place, a sanctuary where she can develop ideas and reach out to others.

Born in Singapore, Farey has been based in Scotland’s rural South West for the last 30 years. She trained in fine art and stained glass before turning to basketry in 1991, planting a field of willow cuttings sparking a passion for working with natural materials and forms found in nature. Farey’s work is represented in public and private collections including: National Museum of Scotland, UK; Edinburgh City Art Centre, UK; and Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, UK. She has exhibited in the UK and internationally, with galleries including: ‘Song of the Willow,’ The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; ‘WATER/LAND,’ Fen Ditton Gallery, Cambridge, UK; ‘50/50: Chronicling Fiber Art for Three Decades,’ browngrotta arts, Wilton CT; and ‘Green & Fruitful – Wild & Wet,’ Yew Tree Gallery, Morvah, Cornwall, UK. She was guest artist at the Cheongju International Biennale in South Korea in 2011.

Naomi Mcintosh
Naomi Mcintosh is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland, UK. Mcintosh employs a holistic approach to her work. She aims to capture and share the experience of being in a constantly changing, beautiful and expansive landscape through her practice, a location she fully inhabits as artist, gardener and runner. By being in tune with the environment, she explores the passing of time, seasonality and the ever-present experience of nature. For every project, drawing is the starting point—precise geometry, repetition, pattern making—followed by architectural model making techniques, such as laser cutting, steam bending and wood turning to explore the qualities of line in three dimensions.

For her new series of work, ‘Charting Water,’ she took inspiration from the nearby River Dee’s flow, imagining what could be happening under the surface of the river by reading patterns on the surface of the same stretch of water. Made from beech wood, sourced from the Cairngorms, ‘Charting Water’ appears to constantly flow and move, mapping how the same view of the river will never be the same. Mcintosh will also show a collection of suspended sculptures that emulate the interplay of structure, light and shadow found in nature.

Mcintosh studied Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), London, UK, before gaining a master’s degree in Design from Central Saint Martins, London, UK. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including: ‘Collect,’ London, UK; Museum of Arts and Design, New York NY; Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, Canada; and Victoria & Albert Museum Dundee, Scotland, UK on the ‘Design Relay’ project as the lead designer for the City of Aberdeen. Her work has been showcased in many UK galleries, such as, the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK; Marchmont House, Berwickshire, UK; and Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK.

Maria Sigma
In December 2022, textile designer and weaver, Maria Sigma was invited by Make Hauser & Wirth to be Somerset’s inaugural artist-maker-in-residence. During this time, her research focused on discovering new patterns within the varied local landscape and sourcing natural materials from the Durslade Estate. Sigma’s new body of work develops themes from her ongoing collection, ‘Apricity – The Warmth Of The Sun In Winter’. Her wall pieces focus on texture and materiality, each one a woven landscape which embodies a unique harmony of form, a constant exchange between processed and raw materials.

Sigma’s approach is based on creating beautiful textiles through zero waste design and craftsmanship, high quality and sustainable natural fibres being key to this philosophy. She strongly believes that the importance of weaving must be highlighted. Fabrics reside in the everyday and inhabit almost every corner of a household, creating a sense of something familiar and beloved; they create a boundary between us and nature, the culture of the body and the external world.

Sigma studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, UK and since she graduated in 2014, has developed her own weaving practice in London, UK. In 2015 – 2016, she was the recipient of Cockpit Arts ‘Clothworkers’ Award. In 2017, she achieved investment support from The Prince's Trust and Virgin Start-Up Scheme. Sigma regularly hosts her ‘Weaving From Waste’ workshops which teach participants the techniques explored in her book ‘Weaving: the Art of Sustainable Textile Creation,’ published in 2020. She has exhibited as one of Design Nation’s twenty makers of ‘Exceptional Craft for Exceptional Times’ at Collect Art Fair, London, UK (2021); London Design Festival, London, UK, in partnership with Teer & Co at Planted (2021). Her recent collaborations include: Candice Lau x TOAST (2021); Selfridges, London, UK (2021); and London Craft Week at COS (2022).

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Image: Installation view, ‘every somewhere,’ Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2023. Photo: Dave Watts