Susanna Beaumont's lively exploration of making and creating. She talks ideas and inspiration, materials and process and the joy of creativity with brilliant artists, makers and designers from across Scotland.
https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/
Welcome to DES Talks, a podcast that celebrates creative ideas and energy. In this episode Susanna meets the artist Clare Woods in the garden of her studio in north Herefordshire. They talk about her recent collaboration with Edinburgh's Dovecot tapestry studio to weave three tapestries. Entitled The Smotherers, The Take Over and The Volunteers, the tapestries are woven in a wondrous array of greens and depict intensely beautiful undergrowth and weeds. They are soon to go on display at London's Garden Museum. Clare who initially studied sculpture is a celebrated artist. Her luscious…
Welcome to DES Talks, a podcast that celebrates creativity and people from across Scotland. In this episode Susanna visits Dovecot, a tapestry studio in the heart of Edinburgh. Founded in the early 20th century and very much inspired by the Arts and Crafts powerhouse William Morris, today Dovecot is celebrated for its ambitious collaborations with leading contemporary artists, such as Linder, Alberta Whittle and Chris Ofili to create outstanding tapestries. Susanna chats to Dovecot's director, Celia Joicey and master weaver, Naomi Robertson. They discuss Dovecot's early history and its…
Welcome to DES Talks. In this episode Susanna explores Hospitalfield, an extraordinary 19th century Scots Baronial cum Arts and Craft house with a glorious walled garden that is dedicated to contemporary art and ideas. Located on Scotland's east coast a skip away from the North Sea and the town of Arbroath, Hospitalfield was built by Patrick and Elizabeth Allan-Fraser as their home. Arbroath-born Patrick who studied art at Edinburgh of College of Art was determined that Hospitalfield become a home for artists, building light-filled studios in 1901. Over a 100 years later, Hospitalfield today…
Welcome to this conversation exploring Pier Arts Centre, an outstandingly beautiful art gallery on Orkney, an archipelago off the north of mainland Scotland. We talk about its celebrated collection of British Modernism and a recent gift of over 60 contemporary arts works of huge international significance. We also remember the artist Christine Borland who sadly died last month. Her exhibition Divine Imperfect was held at the Pier in 2012. Susanna speaks to Pier curator Andrew Parkinson about the life and times of the late Margaret Gardiner, whose gift of over 60 artworks in the 1970s was the…
Welcome to our conversation with two artists who work with fabric, thread, form and colour. The Edinburgh-based Louise Bennetts and Laura Lees both delight in textiles and stitching, frequently inspired by the architecture that surrounds them, weaving in memory of place and the urban landscape. In their conversation with Susanna, they share stories from their early years - Louise studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Royal College of Art; Laura studied tapestry at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee - and how moving from Scotland to London and back to Edinburgh has inspired a delight in…
Welcome to a recording of a discussion held at the National Galleries of Scotland, celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of the Edinburgh-born geologist, writer and farmer, James Hutton (1726–1797), and the exhibition inspired by Hutton, Earth Matters at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The panel discussion explores Hutton's influence on contemporary creative thinking and art. Glasgow-based designer and maker Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong who works with found rocks and soil and Dr Katie Strang, curator of rock and minerals at The Hunterian, Glasgow, discuss their ideas and…
Welcome to this conversation with Tania Kovats and Siobhan McLaughlin, two outstanding artists who have a deep curiosity in land and sea. We explore their ideas and influences and talk mapping, colour, geology, landscapes and the past and the present. And in particular we chat about their work in two exhibitions currently on in Edinburgh - Tania is showing in Earth Matters, an exhibition inspired by the life and work of the Edinburgh born geologist and farmer who was born 300 years ago this year, which is at Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, while Siobhan is showing…
Catch up with a panel discussion recorded at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket last month marking Earth Day. Chaired by Susanna 'glancing backwards into a time that far predates us' is a lively conversation celebrating two exhibitions: Ilana Halperin's What Is Us and What Is Earth (Fruitmarket) and Earth Matters (Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and the life and work of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born geologist and farmer who was born 300 years ago this year. Artists Ilana Halperin and Louise Bennetts , writer and performer Karine Polwart , and soil scientist Colin Campbell…
Welcome to DES Talks, our podcast exploring creativity across Scotland, presented by Susanna Beaumont. She looks forward to sharing with you inspiring conversations with some of the most adventurous, curious and brilliant designers, artists, makers and curators. We talk ideas and inspiration, challenges and influences, the contemporary and the historic. In this episode, we explore the life and work of the brilliant artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham with Rob Airey, director of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and Mark Cousins, the renowned Edinburgh-based Northern Irish filmmaker. We discuss…
Welcome to DES Talks, Design Exhibition Scotland’s lively exploration of making and creating. We talk ideas and inspiration, challenges and influences and of course the joy of creativity with artists, makers, designers and curators from across Scotland. In this episode Susanna meets makers Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade in their workshop within Glasgow Ceramic Studio. We talk about their recent residency at the Hugo Burge Foundation in the Scottish Borders where they collected wild clay and explored a landscape once farmed by the 18th century revolutionary thinker, James Hutton and author of the…
Welcome to DES Talks, lively conversations celebrating creativity from Design Exhibition Scotland. In this episode Susanna explores the life and work of the outstanding artist Donald Locke who studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s. Born in Guyana in 1930, Locke's work in ceramic, on canvas, in sculpture and film meld together materials, ideas and politics. It's radical, powerful work. Locke died in 2010. Susanna is joined by Brenda Locke, Locke's wife and manager of the Donald Locke Estate and curator Tiffany Boyle. Tiffany, co-founded of the curatorial agency Mother Tongue,…
Welcome to DES Talks! In this episode Susanna is out and about in Edinburgh's port Leith, which lies to the north of the city. It is where the Water of Leith from its source 20 miles south in the Pentland Hills, flows into the Firth of Forth and the onwards into the North Sea. It was once a place of ship building, trade, sea transport and travel - a place of glass works and bottling, soap factories and barrel makers and warehouses. Today many of these former spaces have been transformed into artist studios and workshops. There’s Coburg House Studios, Cyan Clay Works, SilverHub Studios, Mote…
Welcome to DES Talks In this episode of DES Talks, Susanna explores the exhibition Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine, which is currently on at V&A Dundee until April 26th, 2026. To discuss this beautiful and powerful exhibition, Susanna is joined by Thread Memory curator Rachel Dedman, writer, art historian and since 2019 the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at V&A, London; together with two contemporary practitioners whose work features in Thread Memory. Aya Haidar is a London-based Lebanese artist and Leena Nammari, is a Palestinian artist and printmaker based…
Welcome to DES Talks, our lively exploration of making and creating from across Scotland. In this episode we celebrate Harvest . A showcase of work by 80 makers and designers, Harvest is a thrilling new initiative from Craft Scotland . From furniture to jewellery, ceramics to basketry, woodwork to glass, Harvest is an ambitious exhibition which champions both rich craft traditions and the energy, innovation and skill of contemporary makers from across Scotland. Harvest celebrates the power of the hand to craft and create, to fashion and form and to work with an inspiring array of materials.…
He was visionary, energetic and exacting. He delighted in colour, texture and the great outdoors. He pushed boundaries and challenged conventions. In our latest DES podcast , we chat to Gráinne Rice about all things Bernat Klein , the Serbian-born textile designer and artist who for over 60 years lived and worked in the Scottish Borders. Gráinne has long immersed herself in the life and work of Bernat Klein . She first came across the designer and textile manufacturer in 2001 as a young researcher and has since gone on to acquire many of his exquisitely tailored outfits. She talks to Susanna…
Cara Guthrie is a studio potter based in the town of Dunkeld, Perthshire. Born and raised in Scotland, she first studied Human Geography before a chance encounter with clay at a pottery taster class in London in her late 20s convinced her that this was the material she wanted to further explore and work with. Cara went on to become an apprentice in the celebrated studio of KHWurtz in rural Denmark before returning to the UK where she worked with the Anglo-Japanese, Cumbria based potter, William Plumptre. Back in Scotland, she set up a studio in the Pentlands, a range of hills just south of…
The Hugo Burge Foundation is a brilliantly energetic and ambitious charity supporting the arts and crafts. Located in a green and lush stretch of the Scottish Borders, near to the town of Duns, the Foundation was launched last year and celebrates the life of the late Hugo Burge, a dynamic and passionate entrepreneur and supporter of creativity. Over the last 10 years of his life, Hugo turned his home here on the Marchmont estate, into a buzzing haven for makers and creators. Orbiting a beautifully restored steading and a glorious walled garden, the Foundation is home to chair makers, The…
The Marchmont Workshop's Rich Platt & Sam Cooper are celebrated as the saviours of the rush-seated chair. A centuries-old art, the craft of rush seating was by the late 20th century in steady decline. Rich & Sam's journey in rush-seated chair making began in 2018 when they became apprentices to Lawrence Neal, one of the last remaining rush seaters in the UK. In 2020 thanks to an invitation from the philanthropist, Hugo Burge, they opened their own workshop in a former Robert Lorimer-designed garage on Hugo's Marchmont estate in the Scottish Borders. Eight years on, they recently took on…
Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working life, delights, influences and ideas. In this episode, Susanna talks to architect Chris Dobson and Guy Philips, founder of Highland Heritage Woodworks who discuss the making of Monolith, a bold beauty of a bench sited in the grounds of Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. Melding together the brutal honesty of 1970s concrete bus shelters found on the Isle…
Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working lives, delights, influences and ideas. Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong is a Glasgow-based designer and maker who explores geology and rock formations. Curious about materials both ancient and modern, she studied jewellery and silversmith at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2013. Inspired by an interest in responsibly-sourced raw materials, her jewellery…
Welcome to DES Talks, a new podcast from Design Exhibition Scotland where Susanna Beaumont celebrates making and creating in a series of conversations with designers, craftspeople, makers and artists, who share insights into their working lives, influences and ideas. In our first DES Talks, Susanna chats to Frances Priest, the Edinburgh-based artist maker and designer who works in ceramics. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, Frances talks through her early years, her delight in working in clay on both the large and small scale and the sheer joy of the decorative. Frances shares thoughts…
About DES Talks
Susanna Beaumont's lively exploration of making and creating. She talks ideas and inspiration, materials and process and the joy of creativity with brilliant artists, makers and designers from across Scotland.
https://www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk/
DES Talks is a English arts & books podcast from Susanna Beaumont. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
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