BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices

Overview

Our students work with industry partners including the Crafts Council, the Goldsmiths’ Company, the Association for Contemporary Jewellery, Hothouse, Craftspace, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, British Art Medal Society, the Eden Project, Mount Edgcumbe and Dartington Crystal on live briefs, competitions and exhibitions.

They curate, exhibit and sell their work at many prestigious design and craft events. In recent years students have exhibited at TENT, part of London Design Fair, New Designers and London Craft Week, and have had opportunities to visit shows in Europe, including the Handwerk fair and SCHMUCK, Munich.

Our strong international connections also allow our students to take a semester of study at one of our partner institutions within Europe and North America, and in turn, we welcome overseas students from those institutions to join us in our design studios, creating an exciting cultural exchange.

Recent graduate successes:

Gregory Williams, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2020 graduate, British Art Medal Society, student competition, Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers alias Wire Workers
Colin Wilkes, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2019 graduate, Design Fresh at 100% Design, London. 2019, CGS highly commended, New Graduate Review, 2020 Get Fresh exhibition at Devon Guild
Ben Kew, BA (Hons) Ceramics and Glass
2019 graduate, selected for the British Ceramics Biennial Fresh exhibition
Chloe Bell, BA (Hons) Contemporary Craft
2017 graduate, selected for the British Ceramics Biennial Fresh exhibition, and the Craft Council’s Hothouse programme 2020, Griffin Scholarship at the Royal College of Art 2017.
Rosemary Groom, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2018 graduate - Residency at Birmingham School of Jewellery.
Bethany and Alice Antliff BA (Hons) Ceramics and Glass
2018 graduates - Won the Canonteign Falls residency for 2018, they were both selected as Commended for 'New Graduate Review', with Bethany Antliff’s work included in an exhibition at London Glassblowing, September 2018.
Lorna Yabsley, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2018 graduate, British Art Medal Society, Student Competition, Second Prize.
Ben Lintell, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2017 graduate - Talente 2018 Munich Award.
Ian Palfrey, BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts
2017 graduate - Contemporary Glass Society Graduate Prize 2017, Second Prize.
Mim Brigham, BA (Hons) Contemporary Crafts
2017 graduate - Selected for The 3rd Session of China (Hejian) Craft Glass Design & Creation Exhibition and Competition at Ming Shangde Glass Museum, Hejian City, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, China November 2018. Selected for the British Glass Biennale 2017. Devon Guild of Craftsmen Prize 2017.

Graduates can become:

ceramicists
glass artists
prop designers
ornament/wearables designers
sculptors
architectural surface designers
textile designers
fine artists
gallery and museum professionals

Alumni Profiles

Benjamin Lintell

Benjamin Lintell is an Artist and Glassblower creating glass art pieces in Venice, Italy, and working for Wave Murano Glass. He has been making glass since 2014, undertaking a BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts degree at Plymouth College of Art, graduating in 2017.

Benjamin has trained and collaborated with a number of notable glass artists in the UK, USA, Paris and Italy; and has exhibited at the Milano Vetro 35 in 2020, Talente Munich in 2018 and Venice Glass Week 2020 and 2021.

His work and practice is all about translating the world around him, through the craft of glassblowing, into objects that reflect meaning and beauty. Benjamin looks to nature, activity, science, art, mathematics, and his own life experience for conceptual ideas to inform his glasswork. These ideas are then fused with his study of the traditions, history and craft of glassblowing to translate them into physical form.

"Working with glass and ceramics is something I am addicted to. The material is always throwing curveballs at you every second and you have to react, which keeps it exciting."

Donna Burns

Donna Burns is a jewellery designer based in Cornwall, who graduated from BA (Hons) Jewellery with a First Class Honours in 2020.

After years of making jewellery for herself, friends and family, Donna enrolled on the jewellery degree at Arts University Plymouth, and has since been developing her collection of unusual jewellery and pieces. She now works as a gallery assistant for Victoria Sewart Contemporary Jewellery, based on the Barbican, Plymouth, where she also runs a 10 week jewellery making course.

Carly Hitchens

Born in Penzance, West Cornwall, Carly Hitchens is a jewellery designer who uses her surroundings to inspire unique pieces of handmade jewellery. Completing an MA in Jewellery at Arts University Plymouth in 2021, Carly developed her skills using computer aided design and 3D printers to expand her whole practice.

Incorporating aspects from her early skill set, Carly adds metal elements to finish her designs, creating fun, unique and wearable art jewellery.