On the eve of its opening we profile three more craft stars on show at COLLECT 2013

With COLLECT – The Crafts Council’s annual showcase of the some of the best creative talent from both the UK and abroad – opening its doors in London tomorrow, it seems like the perfect time to swing our spotlight on three more of the artists who will be displaying their work in the show’s Project Space area. We’ve praised before the sheer range on show at the Saatchi Gallery over the weekend and this selection proves once again that The Crafts Council have worked hard to identify talented individuals across the spectrum of disciplines they promote.

Évelie Mouila

Initially trained as a graphic designer in Paris, Évelie discovered her love for jewellery after arriving in London in 2009 and she pursued her passion to the Royal College of Art for her MA in 2011. Her intriguing work references the body’s natural contours but subverts and extends them in unexpected ways, leading us to think differently about both jewellery’s form and function. Her display at COLLECT will bring together both her craft and her background in visual communication, musing on the relationship between jewellery, fashion and physicality.
www.eveliemouila.com

Mika Aoki

Like Évelie above, Mika Aoki also studied at the Royal Coillege of Art after completing her initial studies in her homeland (in her case in Tokyo). Fascinated by the medium of glass, Mika creates beautiful, intricate and thought-provoking pieces often inspired by natural microscopic phenomena such as fungi, spores and sperm. She says: “Once the light shines on it, glass truly emanates a special presence. Although it is solid and hard, it is quite easy to be broken. It connotes conflicting qualities: solidity and fragility.”

Aoki’s sculptures – which often raise more questions than they provide answers – are sure to be one of the most eye-catching parts of the COLLECT Project Space.
www.spoon-tamago.com/mika-aoki-singing-glass

Paulo Goldstein

Boasting joint Brazilian and Italian heritage, it might be assumed that Paulo Goldtsein has creative flair in his blood and if so he has certainly made the most of it. Paulo went from working as an illustrator to model-making and stop motion animation, working on both Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.

In 2012 Paulo went to Central St Martin’s to study industrial design and the work on show at COLLECT is a direct result of the ideas he explored there. He says: "_Repair is Beautiful_ began with the idea of solving frustration. In a time of uncertainty, taking things into our own hands and having the feeling of control back can be very therapeutic. Repair is Beautiful aims to give back this feeling of control – by scaling down a major society problem to a human size and projecting frustration upon broken objects that can be repaired through design and craftsmanship.

“The final outcome is a collection of intriguingly repaired objects imbued with new meaning and functionality. The once rejected objects reflect the environment that created them and call us to question our society as a whole.”
www.paulogoldstein.com