For contemporary craft fans who like hand-made jewellery, original textiles and surprising innovations in all things related to craft, get down to Origin: The London Craft Fair at Somerset House ASAP. Organised by the Craft Council this is a two-week festival with a changeover between week one and two which is an indication of how much there is to see and experience. (There'll be no activity on Monday 13 when teh changeover happens so don't plan to go on that day)
There are nine artists staging Origin Interventions, placing their large-scale works using materials and processes in an new and unusual ways throughout the exhibition space - watch where you're walking! Talks, demonstrations, opportunities to participate proliferate and there are two stand-out things to mention...
Firstly, there is Crafting Space, a curious live textiles installation by Alinah Azadeh, which will be a huge circular structure woven from ribbons contributed by visitors during the course of Origin. Viistors can write their responses to Origin on the ribbons and add them to the structure that will grow like a big ball of thought-twine over the next two weeks - follow the progress of the artist and the artwork on Alinah Azadeh's blog. And if adding your ribbon isn't quite enough craft for you, how about making some pom-poms for world peace with comedienne Amy Lame? Change the world just one ball of wool!
A ticket to Origin also gets you £2 off a ticket to Wouldn't It Be Nice... also at Somerset House. Read more about it in our Wouldn't It Be Nice review...
Origin: The London Craft Fair at Somerset House, 7-12 October and 14-19 October. For more information and tickets, go to the Somerset House / Origin website.
Image of twilit Somerset House by Coffee Lover from the Londonist Flickr pool
