STUFF - The Mantlepiece 7-12 November

STUFF BATH is a series of events exploring the design of stuff and the stuff of design. Everything we see and touch has to have been designed by someone and influences another to design something else. Understandings of good designs relate to fitness for purpose that aid activities where as bad design has the opposite effect. Good design is practical and aesthetically pleasing. STUFF BATH questions the understanding of good design. We currently live at a time where the consumer demand for cheaper goods has increased. Elements from the culmination of an extravagant concept will always end up filtering down through to the high-street and as a result there are concerns regarding waste, depleting natural resources and the exploitation of cheap labour in third world countries. Regardless of these underlying issues; stuff will always remain desirable. Stuff allows us to express ourselves as individuals and we are never complete without filling our gaps with a variety of different things. The feeling of always lacking something makes us need to purchase something else. The Design of Stuff and the Stuff of Design celebrates stuff: the good, the bad and the ugly. 


The Mantlepiece is usually the primary focus from within domestic interior; the altar where permanent, sentimental objects are displayed and set apart from everything else. Many designers collect from car-boot sales and charity shops. The Mantlepiece looks at these inspirational prized collections of objects that inspire designing and making. From beautiful and well crafted to ugly and pointless objects that when put together create a story and inspire new stuff. Contributing designers include Michael Marriott, Donna Wilson, Karen Nicol, Peter Clark, Flora Roberts, Custhom Marcus Oakley, James Jarvis, John Miles, Amanda Goode, Nigel Robinson, John Taylor, Fabien Cappello, Jenny King, Blue Farrier and Tracy Kendall.    

Amanda Goode gets inspired by thinking "what if? I collect and hoard anything with potential for inter-action. If I can unravel it, unscrew it, take the base off, cut it up, work into it and then reassemble, with extra parts, I'm happy" Amanda Goode is influenced mostly by her iPhone.  

Karen Nicol is inspired by "everything and anything, museums, galleries, shops, flea markets etc a continuous feasting. Continuous notebooks of scribbles and drawings and photos just of arbitrary things that arrest me visually. I collect like a magpie in a free wheeling sort of way anything that catches my eye, all to inspire my work but chosen subconsciously just on the premise of liking the look or feel"