A new show at Edinburgh gallery Bard celebrates the everyday poetry of craft through the optimism of a hardware shop

Craft is one of those disciplines that tends to conjure images of either natty, homespun hobbies or, more recently, luxury objects that belong on pedestals in pristine galleries – without much room for anything in between. Edinburgh gallery Bard is here to show us that it is neither of those things. Instead, it can be objects designed to be touched often, used daily, and adored forever. Its latest show, Bardware, is a perfect demonstration of this.

(Image credit: Murray Orr)

As the name hints, Bardware was born out of Bard founders Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens’ love of hardware stores. ‘There’s something heroically human about them,’ reflects Macdonald. ‘They have an underlying optimism that suggests we can still just about make, fix, build and repair our habitats – some of us, anyway.’

Primitive Arrangement vases by Nick Ross

What particularly enamours the pair is that hardware shops are all about craft as a mindset, more than a fetishized practice – a message that Bard is keen to convey. ‘This was the kernel of our idea for Bardware: let’s celebrate craft with the robust joy of a hardware shop. We wanted to celebrate craft’s capacity to result in useful things for domestic endeavour that are compelling for their sensory engagement.’

There’s something heroically human about hardware stores: they have an underlying optimism that suggests we can still just about make, fix, build and repair our habitats

Hugo Macdonald

2 Armed candelabra by David Taylor

The show features works by 20 craftspeople, designers and artists from across Scotland, who Macdonald and Stevens asked to create objects that awaken and enliven the senses through daily use in the home – a brief they describe as a bit ‘Frankenstein’.

Bathroom Totems by Juli Bolaños-Durman

The results, all displayed to be picked up and touched, are enchanting: James Rigler has cast bronze-glazed ceramic ‘Greek Knobs’ from an original ceiling rose by Glaswegian architectural theorist Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson; Juli Bolaños-Durman has created architectural toilet-roll holders made from salvaged wood and glass; Oliver Spendley has made bowls from polished shards of mountain rock; and All About Willow has hand-turned cherry porridge spurtles.

The Garden of Gentle Revolutions by Studio Viv Lee

Elsewhere there are pocket knives made from whisky-barrel hoops by Clement Knives; baskets woven from sea plastic washed up on Shetland’s beaches by Eve Eunson; a coven of devotional ceramic characters in different glazes by Viv Lee; leather-wrapped boulder doorstops by Jess White; bent aluminium candelabra by David Taylor; and cosy alpaca hot-water bottle covers by Araminta Campbell. ‘People really brought themselves, their skills and the extremities of their ideas to our doors,’ enthuses Macdonald.

Greek knobs by James Rigler

The showcase marks three years since Bard first opened its doors at Customs Lane in Leith and began selling craft in its own unique way – one that feels fun, engaging and meaningful. ‘Humour, or at least mild irreverence with a bit of wit, is a good way of waking people up to craft – taking it out of the museum and into life, off the plinth,’ says Macdonald. ‘Craft is expensive, but it’s worth it when you take a moment to understand its value. Our greater societal ill is that everything else is so cheap.’

Humour, or at least mild irreverence with a bit of wit, is a good way of waking people up to craft

Hugo Macdonald

Nan Playboards by Manifesto

Since opening, Macdonald and Stevens report having seen a genuine and significant rise in people celebrating craft – buying it, using it and asking questions about practitioners, materials and skills.

‘Craft is a life force – it adds whoomph to our human experience and makes us feel connected across time and culture,’ reflects Macdonald. ‘Maybe we’re finally waking up to the fact that craft is not regressive, or a counterbalance to the optimism and efficiency of design and technology – it runs very much in parallel and is powerful when it is interwoven.’