Each quarter, we introduce you to the makers and awardees who have taken up studios spaces over the last few months in our NEW FACES Journal series. 5 new makers joined the Cockpit community at the tail end of 2024.
Here are the NEW FACES you need to know about as we head into a new year! Be sure to check out their maker profiles, subscribe to their mailing lists, and follow them on social media.
Claire Macfarlane creates ‘fine jewellery for free spirits’ – combining quality materials and meticulous craftmanship to create relaxed and intimate precious jewellery without the formality. Design, quality and detail are at the heart of each of her collections, from her Alternative Bridal range to collections inspired by the cosmos, protective talismans, and geometry. All of Claire’s pieces are handmade in small batches or as one-off pieces, almost exclusively using recycled gold. Consider her your new go-to for modern pieces to treasure forever.
Elizabeth Kent is a contemporary artist making highly crafted mirror artworks and works on paper. Working at the intersection of fine art and craft, she creates unique pieces, limited edition collections and site-specific commissions from her studio in Bloomsbury. With a background in Fine Art Sculpture, her practise follows experimental pathways, combining reverse-glass painting with glass gilding (Verre Eglomise), hand-silvering, and glass etching techniques to bring her ideas to life.
Huimin Zhang creates contemporary jewellery using traditional craft techniques. An avid collector of antique jewellery pieces (over the past decade she has collected thousands of items), she has developed her own style of metal craftsmanship that integrates traditions from different countries. With expertise in filigree inlay, granulation, engraving, and European gold and silver thread embroidery, Huimin has received numerous awards for her intricate, captivating and unique pieces.
Sculptor Jasmine Bradbury joined Cockpit on the 2024 Arts Society Bursary. Her work delves into the unconscious mind, exploring how internalised experiences shape personal expression. Utilising lost-wax casting methods, she casts in lead, bronze, and aluminium, as well as cold-cast metals. Using the human form and natural objects as starting points, and taking inspiration from Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, Jasmine aims to capture the essence of fleeting emotions while often playing with the inherent contradictions of materials.
Oriel Zinaburg draws on his background in architecture to create bold and organic ceramic sculptures. His work celebrates the concept of the Grotesque and the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities and objects. His large-scale pieces are characterised by bizarre distortions, exploring the relationship between the artistic act and the fluidity of emotion via a charged expression of the surreal and absurd. Inspired by nature, art history, and the materiality of the clay, Oriel is constantly developing and reinventing his unique style and approach.
Read our NEW FACES Journal series here.
Explore the complete directory of Cockpit makers here.
