Menu

  • Home
  • Stories
  • Gallery
  • Crafts magazine
  • What's on
  • Directory
    • Overview
    • Supporting craft businesses
    • Join the directory
    • Opportunities
    • Craft business resources
    • Craft business booster sessions
    • Crafting Business programme for makers
    • Overview
    • Make First
    • Education
    • Families
    • Participation
    • Craft learning resources
    • Craft careers
    • Craft School: Yinka’s Challenge
    • Young Craft Citizens
    • Overview
    • About the collections
    • How to hire and borrow
    • Exhibitions
    • Curatorial fellowship
  • Collect art fair
    • Overview
    • Our work
    • Our team
    • Governance
    • History
    • Research and policy
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • Working here
    • Contact us
    • Craft UK
    • Press
    • Overview
    • Appeals and projects
    • Patrons
    • A gift in your will
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Our supporters and partners

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Opportunities
  • Crafts Council at 50
Home
Login
Crafts CouncilStories

As told to Crafts – the most memorable quotes of 2021


ByCrafts magazine

9 December 2021

Pearls of wisdom from artists, makers, actors, chefs and more...


Crafts magazine

9 December 2021

  • Crafts magazine

Glass artist Chris Day, who spoke to Emma Park for our September October 2021 issue. Photo: Francesca Jones

As the year draws to a close, the Crafts magazine team has been reflecting on its favourite conversations of the past 12 months. We've looked back over our interviews in 2021 and picked out some nuggets of gold ...


Nkgopoleng Moloi visited ceramic artist Andile Dyalvane for the January/February 2021 issue, ahead of a travelling solo show. Photo: Antonia Steyn

'Objects help us remember where we came from, recalling the stories, the songs and the old ways.’

– Andile Dyalvane, ceramic artist, January/February

‘So many sex toys are made by men for women. They lack soul. That’s what I’m trying to bring’

– Adele Brydges, sex toy maker, May/June

‘Success isn’t judged in terms of profit anymore, but in terms of social responsibility.'

– Bethany Williams, fashion designer, January/February

"Tribal" style tattoos for me are a sign of modern men seeking something authentic in a time when the traditional male role is feeling a bit redundant'

– Grayson Perry, artist, September/October


  • Ceramic artist Magdalene Odundo surrounded by works in her studio. Photo: Alun Callender

  • We featured textile artist Jordan Nassar on the cover of the March/April 2021 issue. Photo: Pernille Loof

‘The craft world had a moment of reckoning in light of the Black Lives Matter movement – many organisations have been reflecting on where they fall short and taking steps to make long-overdue improvements.'

– Magdalene Odundo, ceramic artist, September/October

‘When people feel moved by things that are communicated by the subconscious practice – that’s what makes a work successful for me.'

– Jordan Nassar, textile artist, March/April

'
Great craft – be it a boat, sculpture or chair – emanates from the soul of the maker, and that soul is nurtured by the place and the people that surround it'

– Jeremy Irons, actor, January/February

‘Art is what can make people feel alive and human. It’s a way to process what’s happening in the world at a very complicated time.’

– Naomi Webb, theatre director, March/April


For the May/June 2021 issue, prosthetics maker Sophie de Oliveira Barata spoke to Debika Ray about challenging preconceptions of disability. Photo: Alun Callender

‘I’ve always been fascinated with blurring the boundary between what’s real and what’s not. Making body parts for people that can deceive you up close is the ultimate trickery.’

– Sophie de Oliveira Barata, prosthetics maker, May/June

‘What we make makes us, so we need to be mindful of who we are becoming as we do it. We can’t leave the human behind as technology advances.'

– Anupama Kundoo, architect, November/December

‘Steve Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness, imagination and sustained innovation. I think the same could be said of Josiah Wedgwood in his relentlessly experimental frame of mind.’

– Tristram Hunt, museum director, September/October

‘Giving people ways to connect with others through the arts is profoundly empowering and will help drive health equity in the UK and beyond.’

– Mah Rana, artist, May/June

‘When you’re sculpting with your hands, you’re almost seeing through them.'

Halima Cassell, sculptor, September/October


  • The tactile works of artist Halima Cassell, who featured in the September/October 2021 issue of Crafts

  • Designer Yinka Ilori spoke about the importance of play in our July/August 2021 issue. Photo: Andrew Meredith

‘Why don’t councils commission artists with links to a community to design playgrounds that children want?’

– Yinka Ilori, designer, July/August

'I saw Archie Brennan on TV weaving a tapestry of Brendan Foster breasting the marathon tape. It was hypnotising, like watching a Chinese chef spinning noodles.'

_ Prue Leith, chef and broadcaster, November/December

‘Pottery and ceramics are scientific pursuits. You have to know about chemistry, about physics, and be a bit of a polymath to get on with it.’

– Jacob van der Beugel, sculptor, May/June


  • For the May/June 2021 issue, writer Jon Day met artist Jacob van der Beugel, whose concrete and clay installations explore what it means to be human and our relationship with change and mutation. Photo: Emli Bendixen

  • The Ayrton Collection of furniture by Goldfinger, whose co-founder Marie Cudennec Carlisle was interviewed in our November/December issue

‘Beauty without soul or kindness isn’t so beautiful at all.' 

– Marie Cudennec Carlisle, entrepreneur, November/December

‘Through play, you learn so much about being human, but you need play that isn’t too directed and doesn’t require competition.’

– Toshiko MacAdam, textile artist, July/August

‘All you hear about are the same artists, the same white faces, and I said, “When are you going to talk to me about Black artists?’

– Chris Day, glass artist, September/October

‘People are spending much more time at home and prioritising what they want to be surrounded by. I think the demand for quality objects is going to increase.’

– Denis Shafranik, collector, January/February

Who or what has inspired you most this year? Share your creative inspirations with us on Twitter

Want to be inspired in 2022?

Subscribe to Crafts

Share

  • Facebook 
  • Twitter 
  • Whatsapp 
  • Email 
  • Pinterest 
  • ...

Read more

  • Stories

    Star makers who have played a part in the Crafts Council's 50-year history

    • 50th anniversary

Stay informed and inspired

Select an option to receive a newsletter

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Crafts Council
44a Pentonville Road
London N1 9BY

hello@craftscouncil.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7806 2500

Reg. charity no. 280956

  • Our work
  • Our team
  • Privacy policy