I am delighted that a selection of my brush jewellery is included in the Grain + Fibre: Wood and Paper in Contemporary Craft exhibition at Ruthin Craft Centre.
Wood and paper – intimately connected in origin and character – have long been essential to human life, both practically and creatively. This exhibition celebrates their deep material relationship and their enduring presence not only in our homes and histories, but also in the realm of artistic expression.
Used for millennia, wood has provided structure, warmth, and function from shelter to furniture, from tools to fuel. Paper, first developed in second-century BCE Asia, emerged as a refined, versatile by-product of wood and plant fibres, radically transforming the ways we communicate, document, and share ideas.
In the arts, these materials transcend their utilitarian roots. The craft arena continues to explore the tactile and expressive possibilities of wood and paper; shaping, layering, carving, folding, and assembling them in innovative ways. Wood offers weight, texture, and permanence; paper brings lightness, delicacy, and adaptability. Both invite transformation and speak to themes of nature, impermanence, memory, and craft.
Today, in an age dominated by the digital and the synthetic, the handmade qualities of wood and paper take on renewed meaning. Their organic presence offers a counterpoint to the virtual, and their sustainability resonates in an era urgently seeking ecological balance.
This exhibition brings together works that highlight the aesthetic, conceptual, and sculptural potential of these intertwined materials, inviting you to reconsider their place not just in our daily lives, but in the imagination of contemporary craft.
Curated by Gregory Parsons
Exhibitors: Lesley Barnes & Ross McAuley / Jennifer Collier / Mandy Coppes-Martin / John Crossley – All in the Making / Fung & Bedford / Jack Havelock Bailey / Francesca Kay / Greg Kent / Emma Lawrenson / Jo MacDonald / Natascha Maksimovic / The Marchmont Workshop / Dominic Pearce – Cornish Woodsmith / Kate Rochester – Hanbury Press / Jane Sedgwick / Julia Stephenson / Takahashi McGil / David White
Location:
RUTHIN CRAFT CENTRE, THE CENTRE FOR THE APPLIED ARTS
PARK ROAD
RUTHIN
DENBIGHSHIRE
LL15 1BB
Dates and Times:
24 January - 22 March 2026
OPEN: TUESDAY – SUNDAY 10AM – 5.30PM
FREE ADMISSION
FREE ON-SITE PARKING
