October's design events: from Festival of Furniture and Handmade at Kew to Wizardry in Wood, The Knitting and Stitching Show and Midcentury East
Festival of Furniture in Fitzrovia
October 6-9
Tottenham Court Road has gradually had a makeover. Heal’s has always been there but now there are about 20 more furniture stores dotted along the road. The area, rebranded as Fitzrovia, is hosting its first Festival of Furniture.
This starts on Thursday October 6, when all shops will be open until 8pm, and promises glasses of champagne, discounts and chats with experts. Highlights include a cosy Scandi evening at BoConcept (whose sofa is pictured above) with Helen Russell, author of Year of Living Danishly, with designer Morten Georgsen. American firm West Elm has a resident indoor gardening expert from thejoyofplants.co.uk (and plant giveaways).
Check the programme online. Then follow the fun on Twitter: @EnjoyFitzrovia, using hashtag #Fitzrovia
Handmade at Kew
October 6-9
Meet more than 200 craftspeople from all over the world, offering ceramics, glass, furniture, textiles, sculpture, jewellery and more. Buy on the day or place a commission.
Prices vary widely. You could pay £18 for a hand-thrown porcelain tea light holder by Luna Lighting, £170 for a porcelain vase by Olivia McGill, or £350 for a Celadon Doodle vase by Adam Aaronson (pictured below).
At the very top end is a hand-crafted Gavin Robertson wardrobe for £5,900, and a silver-and-gold wine carafe by Rebecca Joselyn for £2,695.
New talent abounds. Check out the Tide Collection of woven throws by Lucy MacDonald, inspired by Orkney seascapes, or the vivid Achillea textiles hand-printed in Lincolnshire by Nicola Cliffe.
Handmade at Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey. Tickets online, £16; on the door, £18.
Wizardry in Wood
October 12-15
Here is woodworkers’ heaven. The focus is woodturning, spinning, shaping and carving wood on a lathe. Meet about 70 of the world’s greatest woodturners.
Gifts cost from £15 to £500, and collectables sell from about £150. Browse the extensive private Daniel Collection of modern woodturning, plus the Kew Economic Botany Collection.
Pictured are bowls by Eleanor Lakelin, made with a lathe, carving tool and sandblasting.
Wizardry in Wood, Carpenters’ Hall, Throgmorton Avenue, EC2. Tickets £10; with two-for-one offer for first 200 readers to apply; quote code ES-WIW241.
Midcentury East
October 9, 10am-4pm
Modernists have a new book on their wish list — 100 Midcentury Chairs and Their Stories. Author Lucy Ryder Richardson will be there to sign copies (£16.99). She highlights “the most influential, beautiful and controversial chairs from the midcentury era”, such as Norman Cherner’s 1958 model with “bikini” curves.
At the show itself, more than 60 top midcentury dealers will sell ceramics, glass, wallpaper, vintage fabrics, industrial pieces, original artwork, clocks, and collectable posters and furniture. The venue is still a working school, built by brutalist architect Erno Goldfinger between 1964 and 1965.
Midcentury East, Erno Goldfinger’s Haggerston School, Weymouth Terrace, E2.
The Knitting & Stitching Show
October 5–9
The UK’s biggest textile art and craft event, The Knitting and Stitching Show, is taking place at Alexandra Palace. There will be free demonstrations, talks, drop-in workshops (pictured) and exhibitions by leading contemporary textile artists – as well as knitting and crochet sessions by the UK Hand Knitting Association.
A Vintage Tea Party will take place over the four days, celebrating classic pattern designs by Butterick, McCalls and Vogue Patterns, and raising funds for women’s cancer charity The Eve Appeal in the process.
The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, Wood Green. Adult tickets cost £14.50 in advance or £17 on the day; concession tickets are £13 in advance or £15.50 on the day. Tickets for the Thursday night late opening cost £8 in advance or £8.50 on the day.