11 Jul The Apprentice – the unmaking of a designer maker?

I tweeted last week about the treatment of someone’s hand crafted piece of work being used in the TV program The Apprentice.

It made very uncomfortable viewing watching a beautifully hand thrown piece of ceramics by Jo Davies, being passed about with comments that were completely unnecessary.  “That bloody vase… that some arty farty advertising agency would buy” is how Lord Sugar sensitively described it.

Designer/maker/crafts people put there heart into their work, and their work tells a story, and TV programs should respect them.

On a program like The Apprentice where it is all about making money, they should have left craft out of it unless it is a craft orientated task, because they are not interested in the skill of the craft or the story behind the work or the concept of the piece; it’s about numbers and money.  A lot of creative people aren’t driven by this. Of course there are lots of brilliant artist/sculptures/creative’s that are great business people but time and time again you hear about ‘the struggling artist’.

My own experience from being involved in a TV program really opened my eyes to this.  Our cast iron range ‘BexSimon Collections’ began after I featured in a BBC1 TV program “High Street Dreams”.  It threw me into a very different world of TV life, business and a different type of design world.

Made from galvanised mild steel

I don’t regret for a minute taking part in it, my business model has completely changed and I have learned so much.  We now have 2 sections to our business. The Artist/Blacksmith commission based hand crafted pieces, which I began in 1999 and the Collections range of Cast Iron Kitchen Accessories which we manufacture for retail – these two businesses are worlds apart in structure and price.

All I am saying is don’t confuse craft with retail.  It was the failings of The Apprentice contestants not to recognise this, not the ceramic piece or the designer maker.