Craftworks Lunch Time Talks: Making Conversation at SDW
Making, Explained Over Lunch
The Craftworks Lunch Time Talks were a quietly brilliant addition to Sheffield Design Week 2015. Running alongside the main Craftworks exhibition, these midday sessions gave individual makers thirty minutes to talk about their practice — their materials, their process, and the thinking behind the work.
I attended three of the five talks, and each offered something different. A bookbinder spoke about the meditative quality of hand-stitching. A ceramicist described how the unpredictability of glaze chemistry keeps her engaged after twenty years. A furniture maker talked about the particular satisfaction of working with English hardwoods — how the grain resists and cooperates in equal measure.
Intimacy and Honesty
What made these talks effective was their scale. The audience for each session was perhaps fifteen to twenty people, seated close enough to see the speaker’s hands as they demonstrated techniques. There was none of the distance that comes with larger lecture formats. Questions were asked freely, and the conversations often continued informally afterwards over coffee.
The format also allowed for honesty. Several speakers talked about failures — commissions that went wrong, materials that did not behave as expected, the financial precariousness of a craft-based practice. These admissions gave the talks a credibility that more polished presentations sometimes lack.
Craft Voices
The Lunch Time Talks complemented the broader Craftworks programme by adding personal narrative to the exhibited objects. Seeing a finished piece in a gallery is one thing; hearing its maker describe the eighteen hours of hand-finishing it required is another. That context transforms appreciation into understanding.
For anyone interested in Sheffield’s relationship with making, these talks offered a concentrated dose of insight. The Eye Hand Heart exhibition explored similar territory through a more conceptual lens, while Maker Day provided the hands-on counterpart. Together, they formed a comprehensive portrait of craft culture in the city.
