Making Space:Sensing Place

In October 2009, along with artist Thurle Wright, I was awarded a Making Space:Sensing Place Fellowship; part of the HAT: Here and There International Exchange Programme, managed by A Fine Line:Cultural Practice. The Fellowship includes residencies with Britto Arts in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with Arts Reverie in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, with The V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London and with The Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire. Working and collaborating with artists and craftspeople from the UK, Bangladesh and India, responding to the collections and spaces we encounter and sharing these experiences through a touring exhibition and educational workshops.

This blog, which is still developing and being added to, is a record of my experiences during the MS:SP Fellowship. Steven Follen.
www.stevenfollen.com

Friday, 12 March 2010

Kutch Jewellers

In the evening, walking back to the hotel in Bhuj, we passed a small room where a group of men were playing the board game 'Carrom'. We stopped to watch and learn and talk. It turned out they were a group of silversmiths and as we began to talk examples of their work came out, then tools and equipment, then materials and we all started to talk and explore metal.
The work they produce, mostly jewellery, includes the smaller coiled necklaces we had seen being worn and sold in the market. They showed us how they made the components.
Watch one being made here: Coiling wire.