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LDF 2011: Origin Contemporary Craft Fair

This is Origin’s second year of being part of the London Design Festival rather than a stand-alone event, and its second year at Old Spitalfields Market.

It still has a slightly different feel to many of the events on offer, appealing to a slightly older crowd, and focusing exclusively on contemporary craft. It attracts some wonderfully quirky exhibitors – these Azurer pots (above) were so organic they almost seemed to be growing!

And I’ve never seen anything quite like Clare Knox-Bentham’s creations, which are hand “drawn” using plastic extrusion techniques.

There was also a lot of very beautiful, quite understated ceramics, like Noa Ceramics’ work (above), which is hand-crafted using antique Indian printing blocks and the pieces below from Derek Wilson, Kerry Hastings and Linda Bloomfield.

Paper craft also made an appearance, the highlight being Rebecca J. Coles’ incredibly intricate hand-cut butterflies, mounted on pins.

Origin is the place to see fine metalwork, perhaps underrepresented elsewhere in the festival, so it was great to see these gorgeous examples from Victoria Coleman, Eileen Gatt and Maya Selway.

And the recessionary trend for natural, cozy and positively sumptuous fabrics continues in the work of Etka Kaul and Catherine Tough.

Katie Treggiden is covering the London Design Festival for Design Milk. Katie writes confessions of a design geek, winner of mydeco’s “Best Interior Design Blog in Great Britain” and has just released her first book Interviews, a collection of 18 interviews with designers.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.