Each quarter, we introduce you to the makers and awardees who have taken up studio spaces over the last few months in our NEW FACES Journal series. 10 new makers have joined the Cockpit community since the start of 2026 – here are the NEW FACES you need to know ahead of Summer Open Studios.
Be sure to check out their maker profiles, subscribe to their mailing lists, and follow them on social media.
Angelita Alves joined Cockpit on the 2026 Basketmakers’ Award. She is an award-winning artist and designer whose work brings a distinctly global perspective. Born in Brazil and of mixed European, African, and Indigenous heritage, her practice is rooted in questions of identity and belonging. Drawing on the ancestral crafts of weaving and knotting, Angelita reinterprets everyday materials to explore themes of loss, miscegenation, and the reclamation of cultural narratives.
Visit Angelita in Studio W4 in Bloomsbury.
Benjamin Fletcher joined Cockpit on the 2026 Turners’ Bursary. By drawing inspiration from discarded materials, his work explores the themes surrounding coastal habitation, such as liminal spaces, erosion, decay, rebirth, and the perils of modern living. Working with recycled wood, he creates vessels alongside functional and sculptural forms.
Visit Ben in Studio 204 in Deptford.
Emily Rowley joined Cockpit on the 2026 Turners’ Bursary. She is a sculptural furniture maker creating organic, functional pieces from wood. Having grown up across England’s picturesque countryside, she has developed a deep connection to the natural world, which informs both her choice of medium and the biomorphic forms of her work.
Visit Emily in Studio 105 in Deptford.
George Edwards joined Cockpit on the 2026 Arts Society GLA Bursary. George is a sculptor and lettering artist working mainly in stone. Using traditional hammer and chisel techniques, he carves lettering as well as figurative and ornamental forms, guided by a strong respect for craftsmanship and the knowledge passed down through generations of stone carvers.
Visit George in Studio 203 in Deptford.
Grant is a ceramic artist whose work draws on his background in fashion, architectural transformation, the human body, and natural processes of growth. Working at the intersection of control and surrender, he treats porcelain much like cloth – pressing it, slicing it into strips, and draping it into layered forms that feel both botanical and bodily.
Joanne Lamb joined Cockpit on the 2026 Basketmakers’ Award. She is an Irish artist and maker working between woven textiles and basketry, creating handcrafted vessels and sculptural forms that explore memory and our connection to the natural world. After a long career in textile design, she now works slowly with natural materials, making expressive baskets inspired by time spent in nature and its quiet, passing moments.
Visit Joanne in Studio E3 in Bloomsbury.
Miae Kim joined Cockpit on the 2026 Arts Society GLA Bursary. She is a South Korean artist, whose ceramic practice continues to be informed by her experience working as an animator and visual effects artist in Los Angeles. Her work moves between two interconnected strands: one inspired by whales and their sense of strength and grace, and another that draws on Korean motifs and Hangul combined with contemporary Western design.
Visit Miae in Studio E16 in Bloomsbury.
Miyuki Guo joined Cockpit on the 2026 Glass Sellers’ Bursary. She is a Chinese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist working primarily with glass. Her practice is both a visual diary and an ongoing exploration of material and metaphysical ideas, shaped by a lifelong search for freedom, belonging, and meaning. Miyuki works primarily in cast glass to create environments of reflection, healing, and transformation.
Visit Miyuki in Studio 200 in Deptford.
Myrna Mitchell is a ceramic artist whose work explores the quiet weight of human connection and the narratives that unfold in between. Drawing on storytelling traditions and the expressive potential of the human figure, her hand-built sculptures occupy a space that feels both ancient and contemporary. Using age old hand-building techniques, she allows time, touch, and repetition to shape each piece.
Visit Myrna in Studio E16 in Bloomsbury.
Sofia Ortmann
Sofia joined Cockpit on the 2026 Clothworkers’ Award. She is a material-led textile designer and maker whose practice sits between weaving, homeware, and sculpture, exploring how discarded materials can be reimagined through craft. Sofia works with waste textiles, natural fibres, and offcuts, transforming them into new surfaces and soft forms that celebrate texture, imperfection, and touch.
Visit Sofia in Studio 213 in Deptford.
