Mehrin Miah says: “The theme of my work is based upon my South Asian heritage and the Islamic arts. I find mixed mediums very interesting and use a variety of forms in my illustrations, screen printing and heatpress work, and I like combining these elements together.”

Designers on the Edge…

Student Emma French says: “I am exploring ways of making ‘pretty’ things out of waste materials.”

‘EDGE – We Made It’ is an exhibition of contemporary craft by second year students on the Designer Maker BA course at East Sussex College, Hastings. The exhibition runs from 1–8 March and in the absence of a real-world opportunity to exhibit, the student designers have created an online exhibition. Erica Smith spoke to Linda King – one of the 11 students participating in the online show.

All students have had to be extra creative and resourceful in the last months and this is certainly true for the two-year BA Designer Maker students studying for their University of Brighton accredited degree in the Higher Education department at East Sussex College, Station Plaza, Hastings.

The covid pandemic has meant that the work experience module had to be entirely re-invented. As the students had been working in isolation, online at home, the experience of uniting to make work, create content and use social media to promote themselves was proposed as the alternative to work placements.

Linda King, one of the students, said: “At the moment, we are all ‘introducing ourselves’ and our work through the Edge Hastings on Facebook, and Edge – We Made It on Instagram with ‘works in progress’. The actual exhibition goes live this Monday afternoon. The social media sites are specifically for this exhibition and we will close the sites down on Monday 8 March.”

The Designer Maker BA encourages students to look at crafts with a new perspective. As part of the degree course, students are encouraged to explore ‘batch production’ – creating five or more items which are all ‘the same but a bit different’.

The current environmental crisis has also been a strong influence on several of the students who are looking at ways to produce new items using sustainable production techniques.

Linda King working on her sustainably sourced small batch production.

Linda said that the course had been a catalyst for her to adapt her art practice to become as mindful as possible about using found and recycled materials. She said, “Like gardening, the art industry is full of chemicals and plastic. There is a new movement within contemporary craft to forage, use natural dyes and make your own ink. It’s a punk attitude – you find what you need to make what you want”.

Linda’s batch product is a series of rolls to hold paint brushes made from old roller-towel material.

The virtual exhibition runs from 3pm on Monday 1 March to 6pm on Monday 8 March. You can visit it by following these links on Instagram and Facebook.

Also in: Arts News