Design studio Cox London on nurturing craft talent

11 February 2021

Co-founder Christopher Cox discusses its mission to ensure craft careers are more accessible and why making is vital for wellbeing

11 February 2021

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Nicola and Christopher Cox in their north London studio. Photo: Alun Callender

Tucked away in Tottenham is one of London’s most thriving craft enterprises, where you can find chandeliers inspired by magnolia trees emerging from the forge, and mirrors with coral frames being sculpted in timber and jesmonite. All manner of metalworking skills are performed in the Cox London workshops, along with woodwork, stone-carving and glassmaking techniques.

The duo behind this design atelier and foundry are Christopher and Nicola Cox – sculptors, designers and makers in their own right. As well as building up their own team of craftspeople, the pair are passionate about passing on their skills and instilling young people with confidence to pursue a career in craft.

Cox London’s new studio and gallery. Photo: Alun Callender
The Cox London foundry. Photo: Alun Callender

When Christopher recounts their experiences of becoming the Crafts Council’s first education partner and meeting school children as part of its campaign to reignite craft teaching in schools, his excitement is palpable. ‘We saw some incredible talent,' he says. ‘It’s amazing to see students’ faces light up when you tell them how good their work is.’

The pair now generously support a range of the organisation’s other education initiatives, including the Young Craft Citizens programme and the Let’s Craft campaign, as well as Collect fair.

Cox London previewed pieces showing at Collect art fair, including artworks from Oxford Ceramics Gallery, with its own designs for a talk about craft and interior design. Photo: Alun Callender

We spoke to Christopher about the challenges for young people, why making is more important than ever, and why they want to put craft at the heart of people’s homes.

Crafts Council: What, to you, makes craft such a vital part of life today?

Christopher Cox: As humans, we have an innate urge to make – a hunger for it, almost – and being able to fulfil that is so valuable to a sense of wellbeing. As makers, we often take it for granted, but craft is also a kind of therapy. We want a little bit of that for everyone.

What people make with their hands also carries an energy in a really elemental way that can resonate with other people and connect them. Handmade objects can animate a space. You can put a piece of craft in a brutalist, hard-edged, empty building and it will give it a charge in a way that a mass-produced design object never could.

Inside the workshop. Photo: Alun Callender

What are the biggest barriers for people turning a passion for making into a career?

There’s a huge lack of funding for craft facilities and materials in state schools, and craft is continually disappearing from curriculums. When we met a group of children from some particularly underfunded schools, as part of the Crafts Council’s education initiatives, we noticed how disillusioned some of the teachers had become due to the pressures they faced, so our work was about instilling confidence in the educators, students and their parents that craft could be a viable career path.

You set up Cox London in 2003. How did you take the plunge?

When Nicky and I left art college, we didn't know what we were going to do, so we improved our skills in jobs while we saved the money to buy equipment and a space to work in. I spent four or five years working as an antiques restorer, while making furniture in my spare time. We built up very slowly.

Photo: Alun Callender
Photo: Alun Callender

How else are you trying to improve access to careers in craft?

Our partnership with the Crafts Council is about going back to grassroots and working with people who haven’t had the opportunities we’ve had. Some kids don't even have art lessons or materials in school, let alone when they get back home. That really hit home for us, especially because our nine-year-old daughter has had stuff to draw and be creative with all her life. It’s why we got behind the Let’s Craft campaign to give craft activity packs to the children who need them most.

Meeting other makers is also something that has always excited us – we love the camaraderie in the craft world, and we like being connectors and sharing our skills. Before the pandemic, we gave the Crafts Council’s Young Craft Citizens [a group of 16 to 25 year-olds] a tour of our studios and workshops in Tottenham, and we offered them careers advice and guidance on their portfolios in online sessions during one of the lockdowns. Some of our staff told their own stories about how they started their careers. One of our team who grew up in a tough neighbourhood in London told us how craft saved her. It’s important for us to show that craft isn’t just a preserve of the privileged.

Supporting emerging makers feels particularly important right now. Speaking to them reminds us how precarious everything is when you get started – and even more so now, when you’re worrying about how you’re going to get a job during lockdown.

Tell us about some of the making magic that the young people would have witnessed at Cox London?

We cast bronze in the foundry as well as forging and fabricating iron and brass, among other things. It’s pretty unusual to be able to do all this on one site. We also do all the finishing, including the gilding. We encourage our different departments to collaborate with each other so there’s a constant cross-pollination of skills. I think that’s really important for keeping crafts alive. I like to think everybody is learning something new each week. Beyond what happens on site, we also work with some of the best craftspeople in Europe, such as glassmakers in England, Germany and Italy.

Cox London’s Fossil Mirror, Siren Chair and Rig Table. Photo: Alun Callender

Is there a piece in your collection that sums up the breadth of techniques used by Cox London?

Nearly all our pieces involve more than one craft technique. The Siren Chair that we made for the VIP room at Collect fair in 2020, for example, has lost wax cast legs and a forged back frame and stand, as well as traditional upholstery. Rachel Chudley, the interior designer we collaborated with on the space, introduced us to a fantastic upholsterer. We love that exchange of knowledge and contacts.

Daniel Reynolds’ sculpture Dreaming Dreams, pictured at Cox London, was exhibited at Collect 2021 by Cavaliero Finn. It will feature in the studio's Collect art fair talk. Photo: Alun Callender

The bulk of your clients are interior designers. Has appreciation for craft in the interiors world grown in recent times?

I think that more and more people understand the effect that living among handmade objects can have – the energy they bring and the textures they add. For our partnership with Collect fair in 2021, we invited three interior designers [Hugh Leslie, Olivia Outred and Melissa Hamilton of Studio Indigo], who we have worked with for many years, to discuss their own appreciation of craft, how they commission it and use it in their schemes, as well as what objects from this year’s fair really resonate with them. The film, shot in our studio as part of the VIP talks programme, is available to view on the Crafts Council's Youtube channel. We want to show how integral craft is to modern life.

Visit coxlondon.com to discover more about the studio's work