DES Talks with Susanna Beaumont

• The Hugo Burge Foundation - celebrating making & creating in the Scottish Borders

  The Hugo Burge Foundation is a brilliantly energetic and ambitious charity supporting the arts and crafts. Located in a green and lush stretch of the Scottish Borders, near to the town of Duns, the Foundation was launched last year and celebrates the life of the late Hugo Burge, a dynamic and passionate entrepreneur and supporter of creativity. Over the last 10 years of his life, Hugo turned his home here on the Marchmont estate, into a buzzing haven for makers and creators. Orbiting a beautifully restored steading and a glorious walled garden, the Foundation is home to chair makers, The Marchmont Workshop and the Marchmont Silversmithing Workshop as well as numerous studio spaces and accommodation pods which host an ongoing and vibrant residency programme for makers, artists, writers and performers. Join us as Susanna enjoys a roving conversation with the Foundation's CEO, Lucy Brown; silversmithers Scott Smith and Katie Watson and head gardener Toby Loveday, to talk the joy of creativity and future plans.  ***Thank you for exploring DES Talks! Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate. We are new to this game and keen to reach as many listeners as possible, far and wide. Huge thanks again to those who have helped make this first series happen. In particular, thanks to Malin for the music accompanying our DES Talks and Ryan Scott for recording and editing. Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through podcasts, exhibitions, conversations and commissions. Production Ryan Scott Music Malin

  --------  

  57:46

  --------

  57:46
• The Marchmont Workshop talk chair making, rush seating & the early years

  The Marchmont Workshop's Rich Platt & Sam Cooper are celebrated as the saviours of the rush-seated chair. A centuries-old art, the craft of rush seating was by the late 20th century in steady decline. Rich & Sam's journey in rush-seated chair making began in 2018 when they became apprentices to Lawrence Neal, one of the last remaining rush seaters in the UK. In 2020 thanks to an invitation from the philanthropist, Hugo Burge, they opened their own workshop in a former Robert Lorimer-designed garage on Hugo's Marchmont estate in the Scottish Borders. Eight years on, they recently took on their own apprentice, Isaac Uden.  Following in the footsteps of the great Arts and Craft furniture makers, Philip Clissett and Ernest Gimson, Rich and Sam craft both time-honoured classics and explore and create new designs. As to the rushes, annually, the decidedly hands-on Rich and Sam, don their waders and head south to cut rushes from a Warwickshire river. On returning to Scotland, they dry the rush which is then woven into seats of chairs predominately made from locally felled ash and oak. And their order book is packed.The Marchmont Workshop are currently exhibiting in Ash Rise, a touring exhibition celebrating the ash tree presented by the Scottish Furniture Makers Association. https://themarchmontworkshop.com/https://www.hugoburgefoundation.org/Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through podcasts, exhibitions, conversations and commissions. https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/Production Ryan Scott https://www.ryanscottfilm.com/Music Malin https://www.instagram.com/malinlewismusic/

  --------  

  43:24

  --------

  43:24
• Chris Dobson & Guy Philips talk the making of Monolith and the joy of Scottish timber

  Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working life, delights, influences and ideas. In this episode, Susanna talks to architect Chris Dobson and Guy Philips, founder of Highland Heritage Woodworks who discuss the making of Monolith, a bold beauty of a bench sited in the grounds of Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. Melding together the brutal honesty of 1970s concrete bus shelters found on the Isle of Lewis and the handcrafted & time honoured Orkney chair, Monolith is a sheltering bench for our contemporary age. Designed by Chris in response to Design Exhibition Scotland's open call to design a park bench in 2022, it was fabricated by the Aberdeenshire based Highland Heritage Woodworks, a pioneering sawmill on the Dunecht estate, west of Aberdeen that celebrates the good use of locally-felled trees. Made of Douglas fir from the Glen Dye estate, the bench is made using CLT, cross laminated timber, a process that both Chris and Guy believe has huge potential to be used more widely. Chris Dobson is an Edinburgh-based architect. He is a director at 3D Reid who are currently working on the renovation of Edinburgh's celebrated store, Jenners. https://www.3dreid.com/project/jenners-edinburgh/Guy Philips is founder and CEO of Highland Heritage Woodworks. Formerly a geologist, he established HHW in 2022 alongside master carpenter, Armands Balams. https://woodworks.scot/Mount Stuart House and grounds on the Isle of Bute are open to the public. This year they are celebrating 25 years of presenting exhibitions, commissions and installations of contemporary art. Monolith is situated to south of the house. https://www.mountstuart.com/Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through podcast, exhibitions, conversations and commissions. https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/Production Ryan Scott https://www.ryanscottfilm.com/Music Malin https://www.instagram.com/malinlewismusic/

  --------  

  40:46

  --------

  40:46
• Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong talks jewellery, geology and the gathering of stones

  Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working lives, delights, influences and ideas. Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong is a Glasgow-based designer and maker who explores geology and rock formations. Curious about materials both ancient and modern, she studied jewellery and silversmith at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2013. Inspired by an interest in responsibly-sourced raw materials, her jewellery collections seek to celebrate both the commonplace and the precious and tell stories about time and place. https://www.stefaniecheong.co.uk/https://www.instagram.com/stefaniecheong/https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/Production Ryan Scott https://www.ryanscottfilm.com/Music Malin https://www.instagram.com/malinlewismusic/

  --------  

  44:44

  --------

  44:44
• Frances Priest talks ceramics, delighting in the decorative & firing up

  Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series of conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working lives, influences and ideas. In our first DES Talks, Susanna chats to Frances Priest, the Edinburgh-based artist maker and designer who works in ceramics. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, Frances talks through her early years, her delight in working in clay on both the large and small scale and the sheer joy of the decorative. Frances shares thoughts on materials and making and her collaboration with garden designers Duncan Hall and Nick Burton on the Silver Gilt awarded The Down's Syndrome Scotland Garden for this year's Chelsea Flower Show. http://www.francespriest.co.uk/https://www.instagram.com/francesprieststudio/https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/Production Ryan Scott https://www.ryanscottfilm.com/Music Malin https://www.instagram.com/malinlewismusic/

  --------  

  46:15

  --------

  46:15

More Arts podcasts

Trending Arts podcasts

About DES Talks with Susanna Beaumont