Soft launching. More makers all summer.Soft launching with our founding makers. More arriving through the summer.
Soft launching. More makers all summer.Soft launching with our founding makers. More arriving through the summer.
A doorstop with the weight and density of an old book. Just under a kilogram, sitting at 15cm square and 18cm tall. Heavy enough to hold a heavy door in a draught; small enough to be lifted with one hand.
The body is hand-spun flax rope, off-white in its natural colour, coiled and compressed under tension into a tight, structural form. Cotton rope picks out the detailing in a contrasting colour. The whole thing is built around the rope's own compression: there is no external weight, no sand inside; the density comes from the amount of fibre packed into the shape.
Flax has a slightly hairier hand than cotton and reads warmer in tone. Up close, the lay of the rope is visible across the surface, like a continuous spiral. From across a room, it looks like a piece of soft architecture.
One of a small range Gem makes around the rope-making technique itself: same craft as the dog leads and juggling balls, scaled and shaped for a different job.
A doorstop with the weight and density of an old book. Just under a kilogram, sitting at 15cm square and 18cm tall. Heavy enough to hold a heavy door in a draught; small enough to be lifted with one hand.
The body is hand-spun flax rope, off-white in its natural colour, coiled and compressed under tension into a tight, structural form. Cotton rope picks out the detailing in a contrasting colour. The whole thing is built around the rope's own compression: there is no external weight, no sand inside; the density comes from the amount of fibre packed into the shape.
Flax has a slightly hairier hand than cotton and reads warmer in tone. Up close, the lay of the rope is visible across the surface, like a continuous spiral. From across a room, it looks like a piece of soft architecture.
One of a small range Gem makes around the rope-making technique itself: same craft as the dog leads and juggling balls, scaled and shaped for a different job.
Gem Bowes learned to make rope at Arthur Beale, the Shaftesbury Avenue chandlery that has been splicing line since 1500-something. She works now from a Cambridge studio, hand-spinning flax and dead-stock yarn for dog leads, doorstops, juggling balls.
