If you happen to be in Exeter, England over the next few days, you should make a beeline for the Craft Festival on the Cathedral Green.

Click on pic for a larger image. Photo by John Evans.

Exeter’s Summer Festival, which organizes the Craft event, runs until the 10th of July. There are a number of highlights on the Art front.

Internationally famous artist, Theo Jansen will exhibit his world famous “strandbeests” at Princesshay and the Spacex Art Gallery.

John McDermot and Raya Herzig will also show their exhibition Aftermath at Exeter Castle. And there are several excellent exhibitions at Exeter Phoenix too.

In conjunction with the exhibition of Theo Jansen’s work, Spacex has co-produced a major new piece by the artist.

This work is a twin version of his last work, named Ventosa Siamesis. Each of the twins will be approximately 45 feet long. Under the guidance of the artist, this enormous creature will explore Exmouth beach from 25–27 June, before arriving in Exeter’s city centre, to be part of Exeter Summer Festival.

Theo Jansen will be present to demonstrate how his new creation works throughout the weekend. The work will be sited in Princesshay Square from 11am – 5pm each day. At times when he is not present, others will be operating the sculpture.

The artist will also be giving a talk about his work on Friday 2 July at 7.00pm at Exeter Central Library £6 (£4 concessions). Tickets will be available through Spacex. Booking is essential: telephone 01392 431786.

Photographing a city is made much easier by the new generation of compact digital cameras. They are light and easy to strap to a belt, have their own zoom and flash facilities built in, and you only need some spare batteries to be in business, without having to lug heavy camera bags around with you.

Photographing your own city is a good way of building an archive of a rapidly changing cityscape, or just recording historic buildings for posterity. The local press may also be interested in using your collection from time to time, so there’s even the possibility of a future business.

At Syntagma, we’re beginning a photo exercise around our headquarters in the glorious city of Exeter, Devon, England. Here’s an example :

The Cathedral Close at Lunchtime — April

We are building a photo archive of Exeter over the summer months, in different lights and from different angles. The whole is designed to convey the gorgeous picture-book quality of this very ancient town.

I’ve found the best way to approach this project is by walking rather than driving around. When you walk, you’re free to divert down any interesting byway that may be impossible in a car.

I’m using a good quality compact digital camera : Advent 8MP, which I can slot onto my belt, plus a spare set of batteries.

Two things I’m looking for : the picturesque and the quirky. Both yield interesting images that others will want to look at. Here’s an example of the picturesque :

Lunchtime in an Elizabethan setting

The next pic is definitely quirky. It’s Parliament Street, Exeter, which is little more than 2 feet in width. There hasn’t been a parliament in Exeter for a good many centuries, but the Council still keeps it up — just.

Super-slim Parliament Street, Exeter

Why don’t you try photographing your own home town?

You can see the whole of this set of images on our Flickr Photostream.

Crafters everywhere love a good craft fair. One of the best is Origin – the London Craft Fair, which is based in one of the UK capital’s finest old buildings, Somerset House.

Origin replaces The Chelsea Crafts Fair, which the Crafts Council ran for 26 years as Europe’s leading craft event. Here’s how the organizers describe it :

“The Crafts Council launched Origin: The London Craft Fair in October 2006. The event brings together over 300 of the most innovative and influential international designer-makers and is a rare opportunity to meet these makers and buy their work. Objects on show range from fashion accessories to functional and decorative objects, with the opportunity to commission one-off works of contemporary craft. Glass, ceramics, jewellery, metal, furniture, paper, basketry, wood and textiles are all represented, making the fair a true celebration of the unique and the hand-made. Origin takes place annually in Ben Kelly’s specially designed pavilion in the Somerset House courtyard.”

Exhibition Information
Week One: Tues 2 October – Sun 7 October 2007, Week Two: Tues 9 October – Sun 14 October 2007

If you missed Origin 2006 you can still view the list of Exhibitors 2006 or contact us to purchase the catalogue for £6 plus P&P.

Exhibitor application packs for this year’s Origin can be downloaded from Apply for Origin 2007.

Origin enquiries – Email: origin@craftscouncil.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2512
Press enquiries – Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2580