Reason For Being: Craig Bamford

What is important?.

Is the message that keeps coming to me in this recent time.

The balance in which we exist is very delicate. The earth spins at 1000 miles per hour and yet holds us in such perfect harmony that we are unaware of this vast movement. It is something of a Great Mystery that the many forces and elements come together in the natural cycles to create balance.

What is important? My feeling is to seek to become part of the natural cycles… to care for nature that sustains us and is around us, as it cares for us. We all play a big part in creating balance. I have always liked the story of the butterfly wings that are flapping on one side of the planet effecting something on the other side of the planet… every action has a reaction. I find this idea empowering as it means each small action plays its part, such as the care of our families, our relationships, our homes and our gardens. This time of pause has brought a stillness in the air, that stillness has brought forth much human kindness and sharing.

I have set up a workshop in my back garden in London. The weather has allowed much time to be spent here, making and gardening. I have challenged myself to work with hand tools and to try to break through into a free untethered way of making. Whereby I make from the initial idea and keep going with it, trusting an intuition as opposed to working in familiar territory. I grew up in Kenya, and always loved that freedom present in African Art. Many of the hand carvings there come from the subconscious or the dream. This idea of alchemy returns to me; how to create something sacred from the ordinary, from the unseen.

What is important in my work I ask…? The ideal is to create something that becomes a part of a cycle, that is in balance, that is searching for that alchemical essence. The idea of creating furniture that lasts generations and becomes enhanced by the patina of time and use. The idea of creating spaces and buildings that allow people to be connected to nature, that allow for a stillness and a creative expansiveness.

Craig Bamford, Architect and Maker
London, 7th June 2020
Reason for Being