Award-winning Clare has designs on cup successFor immediate release: 5th June 2007.
Chesterfield student Clare Gage has been highlighted as one of the UK’s design stars of the future in a leading international awards scheme.
Weaving, embroidery and jewellery were the unlikely inspiration for the set of porcelain cups which have earned Clare, 21, the Hon HMT Gibson's Charity Trust Award of £1,000 and Dudson and HR Johnson Award of £1,000 in the prestigious RSA Ceramic Futures Awards. Her graceful combination of the four crafts created a stunning, unique approach to ceramics and has paved the way to launching her career as a designer maker back in Chesterfield after she completes her three year course at the Cumbria Institute of the Arts next month.
“I was very surprised when I found out that I'd won, very! It has
been brilliant, everyone at college have been pleased for me and I'm very
grateful for the money, it will be extremely useful,” said the former Chesterfield St Mary’s Catholic High School pupil.
Clare will put most of the money towards the studio and workshop she is setting up in her home town and where she will start up commercial production of the cups, which will resemble the texture of weaving and knitting, with stitching, button and beading details.
And far from being regimented in shape and size, the cups will be an eclectic mix, reflecting the assortment of mugs found in most people’s cupboards. “The cups will
work together as a collection but will show variety and individuality,” stated Clare’s design proposal to the award judges.
She also had to make a nerve-wracking presentation to a panel in London before discovering she had been successful. Clare was delighted to discover that she has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of her achievements in the award scheme.
Passionate about pottery for more than a decade, Clare first discovered the joys of handling clay at Chesterfield’s Hunloke Centre on family pottery courses with her dad, Dominic, who is himself an accomplished potter, while her mum, Deirdre, is a textile artist with her studio, Woolgathering, at historic Eyam Hall in the Peak District.
After leaving school, Clare began her BA (Hons) Contemporary Applied Arts degree course in Carlisle, studying jewellery, textiles and ceramics.
She plans to spend some of her RSA award on a visit to Finland where “they have a great craft industry, and I really like the style of their work, both in ceramics and textiles”.
And as well as looking forward to setting up her new venture, Clare will have the satisfaction of knowing that her award-winning work will shortly be on display over the world wide web on the RSA Design Directions Awards online exhibition, www.rsadesigndirections.org
Contact details: email clare@claregage.com
Caption for attached photo: Clare holding one of the award winning cup designs in the gardens of Eyam Hall.