op art ceramics with embroidered walls

Kitchenware drawing on 1960s style op art and new approaches to wallpaper design are among the new products offered by Yoyo Ceramics and on view during its OPEN STUDIO showcase at Cockpit Arts in Holborn this weekend. The enterprising ceramicist Helen Johannessen, who was behind the successful Is That Plastic? hard take on Tupperware five years ago, has just launched a Blimey O Riley bone china tea and toast set and she has begun to collaborate with wallpaper embroiderer Claire Coles on innovative wall surfaces and lighting.

Alex Ramsay silversmith success

The work of award-winning local silversmith Alex Ramsay – who has just moved from a remote workshop in Hackney Wick to the sparkling heart of the diamond and jewellery industry in Hatton Garden – has been selected to launch British Silver Week at Goldsmiths' Hall in June.

Clapton resident Alex took the decision to move her studio soon after winning the silver award in the Goldsmiths' Company Craftsmanship and Design Awards earlier this year.

Many of Hackney’s creative companies are being pushed out of the borough by rising rents and property development, but in this case the relocation of the business is a success story.

“The last few months have been very exciting for me,” says Alex. “I exhibited a new collection of work at the Goldsmiths' Fair and at Somerset House, and I sold out at both shows. I also make bespoke pieces of jewellery and silverware to commission and I’ve recently finished a number of interesting projects, including engagement and eternity rings, wedding presents, candle sticks and pepper pots. So I’ve booked myself into some of the top silver shows taking place this year, and I’ve made the decision to base myself in Hatton Garden, the centre of London’s jewellery market.”

The announcement that her work will feature in British Silver week, the trade’s most prestigious fair, was made last week. “I have to design a new one-off piece to exhibit,” she says. “I’m working on a glass and silver pepper pot which will be a special limited edition with an exclusive hallmark.”

Alex Ramsay specialises in contemporary tableware which combines silver with other materials, including glass and felt. Her latest collection is inspired by the dramatic landscape of the West Coast of Scotland, where she spent a year as a silversmith in residence from 2006-7. Her memories of slate grey rocks and thundery skies threaded with silver sunlight lay behind the design of her glass and silver bowls and dishes. An ethical designer, she only uses diamonds that are certified as coming from zones free of civil war and conflict for her rings and bracelets.

Her rising sales were boosted by a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network. The money was spent on a new website which has won customers from across the United Kingdom.

There are more than sixty jewellery makers and designers like Alex in Hackney, according to recent research carried out by the Innovatory on Richmond Road. However only one third of these small businesses involve full time employment and a number are not profitable.

“The rise in gold and silver prices and the second thoughts people have about luxury purchases as consumer spending falls may hit the market, but jewellery is still, generally speaking, a booming area of sales,” says Hackney Enterprise Network business advisor Patrick Nicholson. “The strong wedding market, and new forms of body jewellery, are all driving sales. Affluent buyers are still willing to splash out for bespoke engagement and wedding rings and other high ticket jewellery items to mark special anniversaries. While Hackney is getting better at holding on to rising talent in the industry, it’s understandable that Alex wants to get closer to suppliers and buyers the top end of the London trade. In this case, Hackney hasn’t lost a business, it has gained a role model and a trailblazer. Her success lights the way for other creatives in the borough.”

People wanting something extra special for a loved one - or just for the dining table - will be able to view the work of Alex Ramsay during an open event at the Clerkenwell Studios from 15-18 May and at the OXO Tower during British Silver Week from 10-16 June.

film funding and mandrake success

One of Hackney’s large cluster of film companies has found West End success in what is proving to be a difficult year for the funding of independent movies.

Backroads, a hard-hitting film on sex trafficking in the Cambridgeshire Fens, made by Mandrake Films of Dalston, has just been screened to great acclaim at the Curzon Cinema in Soho. The leading role in the film is taken by Ian Puleston Davies, a face well known from Whistleblower, Life on Mars, and Silent Witness.

“We’re following up with "I'll Be Your Mirror", a film about women and body image for Current TV,” says producer Lucy Baxter. “It’s always an uphill struggle when you’re an independent, but we’ve got several documentary, drama and multimedia projects underway, including Israel’s Children, a story about young people in the region today, and another called Memories of a Gold Smuggler, for which we’re raising funding.”

Belfast-born Lucy first got involved with filmmaking at Amnesty International and a number of her documentaries have been nominated for BAFTA awards. A live broadcast of open-heart surgery for the Wellcome Trust is another recent breakthrough for the Kingsland High Street company.

“Mandrake is blazing a trail in cinemas and on the internet that other Hackney film makers can follow, but the credit crunch is making it very difficult to raise finance and credit for new movies,” says Kevin Davey at the Hackney Enterprise Network.

The network has recently been getting advice from film funding experts at the financial services company Grant Thornton, Film London and the UK Film Council to identify a way forward for Hackney’s independent film companies.

“Putting together the funding package for an independent film is a huge and complex exercise,” says Kevin Davey. “Small budget independent films are backed by private individuals and struggling producers, and they often apply to a combination of the UK Film Council, the BBC, Channel Four and regional film funds like Film London for a significant part of their budget. Pre-release sales, partnerships with production houses and DVD and online distributors also figure in the deal. A combination of a special film tax credit, worth 20% of the budget of a movie, along with the Enterprise Incentive Scheme and bank loans – if you can get them - make up the difference.”

The UK Film Council, which invests fifty million pounds a year in new projects, is currently taking applications from film companies. Every year it distributes around £27 million from the National Lottery and £27 million from the government to support script development, film production, short films, export and distribution, cinemas, and festivals. Recent successes backed by the UK Film Council include Control and This is England.

“A tax regulation which encouraged profitable firms to invest in film as a side effect was closed last year, but fortunately two hedge funds in the city have stepped up to replace them as private investors,” says Vince Holden, Film Council’s head of production finance. “This will help a few film makers putting together movies with budgets of two to four million pounds, but small companies are unlikely to feel the benefit. There’s still a real need for a smart lender in the sector, such as a specialist bank.”

“The market for independent film is growing as internet TV channels – which are crying out for good content - grow in number,” says Kevin Davey. “However these pay lower fees than the large distributors and broadcasters, only partly easing the pressure on small firms.”

A new market for film makers is being opened up by Digital Deli, a fair trade online distributor of independent films which is being assisted by the Innovatory on Richmond Road.

“We’re really committed to the growth of the sector” says CEO Richard Ayers. “Our aim is to enable creative producers to exhibit their work in a virtual market place where they can sell movies and chat about their projects with people inside and outside their industry.”

Digital Deli sells hundreds of films online and takes a much smaller cut of revenues than larger initiatives like Joost and Hulu, which retain half of the income raised.

kylie, posh, madonna dressed by hackney

Hackney is a pressure cooker for new fashion ideas, a place where designers from the very top end of the industry rub shoulders with aspiring newcomers to the trade. The results frequently catch the eyes – and attract the cheque books - of global celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Madonna. So it’s not an industry the borough can afford to lose.

Dalston Lane designer Christopher Kane – whose clients include Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Beth Ditto - has been grabbing fashion headlines worldwide for the last three years. One of the best known names on the British catwalk, Hackney is an important source for Kane’s work. The ideas behind some of his latest snakeskin shirts and dresses come from a camouflage T-shirt he bought in Dalston Lane as a teenager ten years ago. Kane's designs are now best sellers in the upmarket stores of Paris, Milan, Tokyo and London Angeles. This year he is launching a high street range of cashmere knitwear and jewellery for Swarovski.

Kane honed his design skills at St Martin’s School of Art, alongside Marios Schwab, another big name in the industry who is based just around the corner in Arcola Street. Schwab was recently named Best New Designer in the British Fashion Awards. This year he is using scientific body imaging – such as heat scans – to develop unusual colour schemes for his dresses. He has Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss among his regular customers.

Kylie Minogue recently commissioned Mare Street fashion designer Emma Roach to make a costume which the Australian superstar has been wearing as she promotes X, her latest album. Roach created a very striking and unique outfit which looks like body armour. “There has been strong interest from a number of other chart bands since that order,” she says. The Emma Roach studio has just been awarded a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network to purchase more computing equipment to help the young design practice.

Superstars also queue up to buy underwear from Buttress and Snatch of Broadway Market, the hottest news in the fast growing luxury underwear trade. The company is benefiting from a backlash against cheap and disposable knickers by upmarket shoppers who are fuelling a "lingerie renaissance." Designer Rachel Kenyon uses vintage trims and hand-clipped lace from the last surviving real lace company in Nottingham, and all her garments are made in the UK from local materials. Her buyers include Christina Aguilera and Madonna. Buttress and Snatch sells well in Barneys department store in New York, which Rachel says is because "I don't scrimp on the frills and fanciness."

A large number of new designers are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Kane, Schwab, Roach and Kenyon. Of these Kelly Shaw and Goodone are strong contenders.

Retro-womanswear designer Kelly Shaw recently took second place and a cash prize of £2000 in the River Island awards for garments which evoke memories of the 1950s. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have purchased three of her dresses.

Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson of Goodone, an ethical fashion business based in Tudor Road, create their garments from hand selected recycled fabric. They call this "mass producing the one-off". Goodone supplies retail outlets in London, Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow along with customers in Europe and Japan The company recently won a Trevor Campbell award for enterprise. A recent grant of £16,000 from the London Development Agency means that Goodone has time to provide advice and guidance to students and other companies on how the fashion industry can become sustainable. "We enjoy instigating positive change in the industry," they say.

All these companies expect to benefit from the extension of the tube line to Dalston over the next two years. But many are also worried about rent rises for studios and the demolition of workshops to make way for new apartment blocks.

“We need to make sure that the affordable studio and workshop spaces which attracted these growing companies to Hackney when they first started out remain a feature of the business landscape,” says kevin Davey of the Hackney Enterprise Network. “Innovative designers create new markets for businesses of all kinds in the capital, and these trailblazing small companies are precious assets in Hackney’s economy.”

is 2008-12 cultural olympiad a business opportunity?

The Cultural Olympiad – a programme of arts and cultural activities which is being set up to showcase British talent and innovation to the world - will run for the four years leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games. It starts next August, immediately after our athletes return from Beijing. For many local companies, the Cultural Olympiad will be first real chance to benefit from the preparations for 2012. But at the moment the plans are rather vague, the funds are in short supply, and there is not much focus on the involvement and opportunities for local businesses.

So far, very few Hackney firms have managed to become suppliers to the organisers of the Olympic games. McGrath Brothers in Hackney Wick, who are helping with demolition and rubble disposal, are a notable exception. A number of local businesses have actually shut down due to land purchases and road closures near the construction site, including nine out of thirty nine pubs that used to be in the E3 postcode near Bow. The Lighthouse pub in Wick Lane, near the now virtually unused Pudding Mill Lane station, says that it has lost 70 per cent of its trade this year.

So the Cultural Olympiad will be the first major Olympic business opportunity for local companies, and perhaps the only one for the many cultural and arts businesses in Hackney. The plans include regional celebrations and showcases of local talent, thousands of community events, contracts for film and video makers, a World Cultural Festival, an International Shakespeare Festival, and an international Museums Exhibition.

Last week the Hackney Enterprise Network took part in a discussion about the content and purpose of the Cultural Olympiad with Baroness Lola Young, a cross bench member of the House of Lords, and Keith Khan, the Head of Culture for London 2012.

“Barcelona and Sydney used the cultural events associated with the Olympic Games to reposition the host city and host country in the eyes of their own communities and of the world,” says Baroness Young. “The Cultural Olympiad is a chance to boost regeneration and employment in London, to develop skills, to widen participation in the arts, and to discuss Britishness. Perhaps we can come together for this one moment, healing our divisions and overcoming our lack of social cohesion. But to do that a clearer, more precise vision for the Cultural Olympiad is required.”

“These aims are important, but too many people see the Cultural Olympiad as an opportunity for handouts to minority arts,” says Marek Simon of Digital Sport, an online gaming company in Shoreditch. “If the benefits are to be long term, the arts and cultural sector will have to become more businesslike, setting up partnerships around the themes of the Cultural Olympiad with enterprises from the private sector. The funds for performances and exhibitions should come from satisfied paying customers, not government sponsors. The Cultural Olympiad should help the arts to pay their own way, not foot the bill.”

There does appear to be a gap between the aims of the scheme and its ability to pay. Arts organisations nationwide have pointed out that government and lottery cash for the arts has recently fallen by £300 million as funds have been reallocated to preparations for the Olympic Games.

“Financially, things will be very tough for the culture and arts sector,” Baroness Young admits. “But we can’t let this once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate our diverse cultures pass, so we must do what we can with the funding available. Large scale projects are important, but I’d particularly like to see more small organisations helped to do local events with small amounts of money.”

“London is going to integrate the Cultural Olympiad with its plans to regenerate the East End, improving education, local life, skills and employment,” says 2012 Head of Culture Keith Khan. “The Cultural Olympiad is central to turning our communities around, and making London a world class city once again. It is a major opportunity for the cultural and creative sector, and for young people, and it will leave a strong legacy.”

In the division of tasks between the five Olympic boroughs, Hackney Council was given overall responsibility for cultural activity related to the Games.

The Cultural Olympiad will be discussed at a Hackney Enterprise Network Christmas event on Tuesday 11 December from 6-9pm at the Old Ship in Hackney. Cllr Guy Nicholson will be talking about the prospects for local business in 2008 and Mike Mulvey, the Chief Executive of the London Business Network, will be talking about Olympic opportunities. For further details email events@hackneyenterprise.net or call 020 7553 3024