WEEKLY DIGEST

'The beautiful and important culture of things'. Fascinating article by Stephen Bayley in The Independent on the importance of making. If you read one thing fully this week, make this it.

How Warwick University is training up the 'future industrialists of Britain'. Interesting interview with Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG)

Howdens joinery is to invest £20m in its two sites over the next couple of years, one of the largest investments in furniture manufacturing over the last decade.

ERCOL IN THE INDEPENDENT

A nice little piece by Kate Watson-Smyth in The Independent today on the Ercol Butterfly chair. Here's the pick of the quotes:

'Ercolani had perfected the technique of steam-bending wood into curves as well as drying elm with steam so that it wouldn't warp. These methods allowed him to produce both the classic Windsor and curvy Butterfly.'

'Lucian was always fiddling with the designs and the boardroom is full of prototypes that didn't quite work or didn't last very long.' (Edward Tadros, Ercolani's grandson)

Interesting to note that the Butterfly went out of production in the 1980s and it was not until, in 2000, Margaret Howell spurred the resurgence in popularity of the design by stocking it in her shops.

'Thanks to her, sales of the Butterfly went up again and so we put it back into production.' (Tadros)

Image from eBay

PAUL SMITH LAMENTS THE 'DECLINE IN CRAFTSMANSHIP' IN THE UK

Nice interview with Sir Paul Smith by Simon Usborne in The Independent on Monday. Here's a small extract:

"I look at this bike (a Mercian) and see something that was handmade in England by a small business," Smith says. "And that's something I mourn – the fact that there are now so few small companies like that. I worry about the pressure young people feel to earn a certain amount of money or to achieve a certain status. To be a stonemason and only to carve as much stone as your hands can manage isn't attractive anymore."

Image of early 1980s Mercian catalogue cover from Chris 531 on Flickr