Guest ModeratorDebika Ray
Debika Ray is a journalist and editor specialising in culture, systems and the material world. She has written for the Financial Times, Kinfolk, Apollo, the World of Interiors, Wallpaper and many others. She was previously editor of Crafts magazine, head of editorial at Crafts Council UK and director of the Global Design Forum at the London Design Biennale. She founded the consultancy Clove Press, which strives to generate inclusive, globally-minded, critical conversations about the arts. She frequently chairs public conversations, delivers lectures and participates in juries and interview panels, as well as advising businesses and institutions on their creative strategies.
Image: Photography by Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke
Speaker & WorkshopAlberte Holmø Bojesen
Alberte Holmø Bojesen is a textile and material designer. Her practice operates at the intersection of ecosystems, materials, and human relationships, combining artistic inquiry with material research. She has researched Nordic kelp as a regenerative material through fieldwork and collaborations, both with coastal communities across the North Atlantic and with institutions such as FRUK Lab at the University of Cambridge. She is a member of The Department of Seaweed and co-creator of The Drifting Lab, a circular and mobile laboratory exploring natural dyeing and seaweed-based biomaterials.
Image: Photography by Floortje Zonneveld
SpeakerLaura Welsh
Laura Welsh is a furniture maker and sculptor based on the Isle of Skye. She works with local timber to create looping and interlinked forms using a series of processes including carving and steam-bending. She also uses red ochre, gathered from near her home, to make pigment to colour the wooden forms.
Image: Photography by Victoria Mackenzie Forsyth
SpeakerMorven Mulgrew
Morven Mulgrew is an anti-disciplinary artist, performer and object-maker. Her work is home-made, hand-made, lively and absurd, plays with boundaries and hierarchies, and often uses humour as a strategy for exchange and connection. She studied Sculpture at Glasgow School of Art, shoemaking at Cordwainers College London, Planetary Science at the Open University, Movement and Theatre at Ecole Jacques LeCoq Paris, and Jewellery at Kelvin College. Morven considers all the disciplines she works between to be interconnected ways of investigating matter, transformation and meaning. She is stimulated by being in territories where she doesn’t know the outcome and enjoys applying the ‘wrong’ process to the ‘right’ material, considering failure to be a fertile ground for creativity.
Image: Photography by Katherine Ann Rose
SpeakerHenry Dobson
Henry Dobson has a background in creative production, sustainability research and food. He manages Moss, a farm to table restaurant serving 100% Scottish ingredients in the heart of Edinburgh, and his organic family farm in Angus. Every detail of Moss reflects the ecosystem of the farm, with not only ingredients sourced there, but wood for the restaurant’s furniture, clay soil for the hand-made ceramic tablewares, and ash mixed to make paint for the walls.
Image: Photography by Akiko Matsuda
SpeakerAkiko Matsuda
Akiko Matsuda is a ceramic artist from Tokyo, Japan. Now running a pottery studio in Leith, she explores ceramics as a way of connecting people, cultures and ideas through making, teaching and collaboration. Her practice explores the dialogue between maker and material, discovering new possibilities within clay while blurring the boundaries between functional objects and sculpture.
Akiko has collaborated with Moss to create bespoke tableware that complements the restaurant’s dishes and ingredients.
Image: Photography by Akiko Matsuda
SpeakerRosie Bristow
Rosie Bristow is a flax farmer, spinner and weaver. She is the co-founder of Fantasy Fibre Mill, connecting regenerative agriculture to ethical fashion through building ‘farm scale’, open-source textiles machines that turn raw flax straw into linen yarn. Fantasy Fibre Mill’s vision is for every community to be able to grow and make their own natural fibre clothes. Rosie is also studying for a PhD, researching flax processing machinery past, present and future.
Image: Photography by Tom Saunders
SpeakerEilidh Weir
Eilidh Weir is a multidisciplinary artist working across textiles, plant fibres and reclaimed single-use plastics, with a practice focused on quilting, basketry and stitched textiles. Their work is closely shaped by gardening and land-based practice, which informs ideas around decomposition, hidden communities, biodiversity and material cycles. Eilidh spends half the week building biodiversity and creating gardens that support wildlife. This daily engagement with growing and ecological systems directly feeds into both studio work and teaching, grounding their practice in observation, repair and reuse.
Image: Photography by Alec Steele
SpeakerShona Cameron
Shona Cameron is a creative producer and project manager living in Skye. She worked for National Galleries of Scotland and ATLAS Arts before joining CLIMAVORE CIC in 2019. The organisation's work has been acknowledged by multiple awards, including a nomination for the 2021 Turner Prize. Shona works with rural communities to develop and deliver ambitious, place-based projects that connect culture and ecology. As Director of CLIMAVORE CIC, she leads the organisation's work across Skye and Raasay, overseeing project research and development, partnerships, community engagement, fundraising and delivery.
Image: Photography by Sally Jubb
SpeakerFiona Richmond
Fiona Richmond works with Scotland Food & Drink, managing various projects across food tourism, regional food development and major events. She previously worked with the international Slow Food movement and was named one of the Top 100 Women in Tourism and The Scottish Women’s Awards Best Professional in Business 2022. She is a regular contributor to independent food magazine, Bite, and a member of Les Dames D’Escoffier, a global association of leading women in food, drink and hospitality.
Image: Photography by Studio Hart
