Emily Lovett BA (Hons) Three Dimensional Design 2020

I'm a mixed-media craft maker with a focus on metal; particularly pewter in my past few projects. I hoped to broaden peoples' understandings and expectations of the over-looked material, by modernising it's aesthetic, forms and the processes used to do this. The malleability of pewter is the characteristic I tended to exploit and by pressing, forming, rolling and bending the metal I fabricated fascinating haptic and visual textures on it's surface.

My designs take aesthetic inspiration from urban textures, and are often architectural, graphic and sometimes industrial in appearance. Like in Manchester's architecture, I like to combine the old and new in my making process - I juxtapose traditional metal-smithing skills with Computer Aided Manufacturing techniques: specifically laser cutting and engraving. Adapting and modernising processes in this way allows me to produce pieces with clean edges and lines to embody my signature style.

Unit X and the making restrictions associated with lockdown pushed me to consider the form and function of the pieces I will be making and developing in future. Instead of spending time experimenting in the workshop, I focussed on taking a form ornamented with a process I knew to be adaptable and familiar to me, and designed a broad range of pewter homewares including candle holders, book ends and a vanity stand. Objects for the home, whether functional or not, will provide the backbone of my practice, but I'd also be interested in large scale comissions which allow me to push my skills and knowledge of my materials - these will be key in my pushing design ethos surrounding promoting pewter to a wider audience.