Ketel One: Shortlist

Design | 25 Jan 2013

Bethan Wood, UK. Bethan's craft exemplifies modern craftsmanship as her pieces combine the materials of the modern city with Baroque marquetry technique. Wood explains how she mixes 'high-end 'Memphis' laminates with those used in your local kebab shop' to create complex surface patterns

The Ketel One Legacy Prize Fund recipient plans to use the money to purchase more specialist tools, and aims to employ interns to assist with larger pieces. Wood explains how she will also fund a new project that will 'document the changing face of the 'front yard' in Homerton'

Daniel Heer, Germany. Heer's craft is one that has been handed down to him through four generations of saddlers. After teaching the sadler craft abroad, Heer turned his focus to creating horsehair mattresses and other leather goods in his Berlin studio

Heer explains that through modern crafting techniques horsehair mattresses are experiencing a bit of a comeback. Heer 'wraps the natural materials, which forever characterize the horsehair mattress, in exquisite fabrics, this has the effect of creating a newly defined surface and puts the horsehair mattress in a new context.'

Sheryl & Lukasz Leysner & Miller, Germany

Helen Bird, Australia. Helen has transformed the humble food vending bike into a modern day object of functional beauty with her company Pearler

Bird's re-working of the food vending bike typifies the work of a modern craftsperson, giving an old tradition a new lease of life

Marcos Kaiser Mori specialises in creating hand-crafted musical instruments. He learnt his craft in both Hungary and Spain where he lived and worked with traditional craftsmen. Mori refrains from using power tools or synthetic materials and instead uses traditional techiques and creates glue and varnish from 18th Century recipes

Mori explains that he will use the Prize Fund in order to publish many years worth of research and interviews that he has conducted with traditional artisans. Mori also plans to use the fund to take on a residency in Japan where he can learn new techniques from craftsmen who are the last representatives of their specialist craft

Meet the Ketel One Legacy Prize Fund recipients

Recipients of the Ketel One Legacy Prize Fund were announced during Modern Craft Project exhibitions this Spring, where the work of the recipients as well as all the shortlisted applicants was on show.

Congratulations to Bethan Wood, Daniel Heer, Marcos Kaiser Mori, John Pomp, and Helen Bird who were all named as the Prize Fund recipients for their country.

To select the Prize Fund recipients readers voted for their favourite Modern Craftsperson online, these votes aided the final decision which was made by a panel of locally sourced designers, marketing experts and top-class business professionals that included Bob Nolet, Executive Vice President, Ketel One; Tony Chambers, Wallpaper* Editor-in-Chief; and Jeremy Lindley, Global Design Director, Diageo.

After the recipients were announced we travelled the globe to meet each modern craftsperson in their home town. Now you can hear all about their Modern Craft Project experiences by watching the interviews in our video section.

Ketel One: Shortlist

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