Rag and Bone

Glasgow-based product designer Martin J Campbell is displaying an admirable philosophy of make-do-and-mend through the series of Rag and Bone Workshops.

bricks on legs

bricks on legs

As part of the programme of workshops, Campbell is organising the hands-on five-day Raft exhibition in Glasgow, which will see recent art and design graduates from Scottish courses displaying work and members of the public invited to create new works or bring in items such as broken furniture to repair.

Those wanting to get involved with the making and mending will be able to use new material caprolactone wax, a low-melt-temperature, biodegradable plastic which Campbell says can be easily applied – for example to fabric and timber – without the need for specialist tools, equipment or skills.

a chair

a chair

Campbell came across the material, which is produced by Swedish chemicals company Perstorp, while conducting materials research in his final year at university. He developed the ‘join wrap’ technique which is an easy way of applying caprolactone to other materials.

Campbell says, ‘I have held a number of making workshops with this material and it is a great focus for getting people together to exchange ideas, knowledge and find out what people really want in terms of product design and to help them make it.

‘As a product designer it is a way of getting people directly enged and excited about making and I feel this is really necessary at the moment when we are saturated with unnecessary products and live in such a throwaway culture.’

 

paint pots

 

Campbell adds, ‘The original rag and bone men relied on an exchange of goods within a community. In a similar way this project is about creating a space for people to play and exchange ideas in a creative, constructive manner, enabling everyone to become a 3D designer.’

As well as the Raft exhibition, Campbell says the mobile Rag and Bone Workshop is can be brought into schools to complement the curriculum or taken into businesses or organisations to promote teamwork – previous workshops are pictured.

Raft is at The Old Hairdressers, Renfield Lane, Glasgow from 3-8 September

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