Village Raw - ISSUE 3

VILLAGE RAW
RAW MATERIAL
MADE BY
DESIGN
One looks to the future,
while the other harks
back to the past.
Two talented designers,
working out of their
homes, have very
different approaches
to manufacturing
their products.
Words by Carla Parks.
On the face of it, Huw Williams and Adriana
Conde Betts don’t have much in common.
One is from Oxford, the other from Brazil.
One studied industrial design, while the
other trained as an architect. One works
with plastic, the other with leather. One
uses modern technology, the other uses
a craft handed down through generations.
But both love design and have recently
started selling to consumers who
appreciate their attention to detail.
In just one year, Huw quit his steady
job, set up his own shop and started selling
unique objects he’s made with a 3D
printer bought for only about £110. His designs
include pots, planters, pens, clocks
and ring holders - all made in his studio
in Bounds Green, which is also his home.
“I get a lot of love from the local area,”
says Huw, who started selling his wares at
Alexandra Palace Farmers’ Market in January.
“It was cold,” he laughs. Since then,
the 25-year-old has been experimenting
and adding to his collection for his shop
Studio Nilli. He’s had customers from as far
away as Trinidad and Tobago and Australia.
A current favourite piece is a wooden-legged
planter which takes inspiration from
the mid-century modern style.
Huw, who studied industrial design at
Brunel, has always liked making things. As
a child he used to make enormous paper
“It’s not so much a science as
it is an art form, because you
do have to finesse something
out of this code.”
ented,” she explains. Some of these details
include adding a tag to the shoes
with the name of the person who made
them. Adriana wants the shoes to feel
fun, so she uses bright colours for the
lining which contrast with the high-quality
leather.
To make each shoe, Adriana employs
traditional techniques. Using “lasts”, a
mechanical form that has the shape of
the human foot, she tests out the integrity
of her designs. She sometimes even
covers her daughter’s old shoes to see
how a new design might look. “I want to
PHOTOS BY DAVID REEVE (STUDIO NILLI, TOP LEFT AND RIGHT) AND KATE KUZMINOVA (YAYA LALA, TOP RIGHT AND BOTTOM LEFT).
Opposite page: Huw
Williams working on
designs while the
3D printer builds
a pot layer by layer.
This page: Adriana
Conde Betts designing
a shoe in London,
while they are
handmade in Portugal.
keep the process quite organic,” explains
the former architect, who lives in Muswell
Hill. When she’s happy with the design,
she sends it to the manufacturer to make
a prototype.
Prototypes are a common feature of
3D printing. Huw’s printer was assembled
and modified through a process called
RepRap - which stands for replicating rapid
prototyper. Essentially, it’s a machine
that prints a significant number of its
own parts automatically, thus replicating
itself. The first of its type appeared at the
University of Bath in 2005 and many copies
have been made since because the
designs of the project are open source,
available to anyone who has an interest.
To make an object, Huw designs a 3D
model on a computer using a computer-aided
design (CAD) package; he takes
it into another programme which slices it
into layers and writes the code; and then
he sends it to print. There is some tweaking
to be done too, and the products are
finished by hand. “It’s not so much a science
as it is an art form, because you do
have to finesse something out of this
code,” he explains. A large planter will
take just over an hour and half to make.
Adriana’s shoes are intricate and labour-intensive,
but that’s part of her
philosophy – to make them feel personal,
crafted with love and attention by
a human being. With their vintage look,
she says they are reminiscent of an era
more focused on quality and time. “I want
the consumer to understand that someone
made these shoes from nothing into
something and then it became theirs.”
She believes we’ve become disconnected
from the process of how things are
made and then sold to us. Too much is
mass-produced, argues the Brazilian.
“I want the consumer to
understand that someone made
these shoes from nothing
into something and then it
became yours.”
Huw is also focused on producing small
quantities, but his method is a quick way
of manufacturing one-offs. The products
are printed in bioplastic, meaning that the
material is made from renewable biomass
such as corn starch and sugarcane. It’s biodegradable
if taken to an industrial composter.
In an effort not to produce waste,
he’ll make earrings and cufflinks with
some of the plastic left over.
Even though Huw’s products are
technically made by a machine, he points
out that it’s still him behind every design.
“I use digital design and manufacturing
aeroplanes out of newspaper. Inspiration
comes from everywhere, he says, and
he loves sketching his ideas and seeing
them develop.
It’s the same for Adriana, who designs
children’s shoes which are then made by
skilled artisans in Portugal. One of her
shoe designs, Trinity, was inspired by a
visit to a church called All Saints Margaret
Street. Like Huw, she runs her business
Yaya Lala from her home. Always a
creative person, Adriana spotted a gap in
the market after having her daughter in
2009. “Our focus is on being detail-oritools
to help produce my work, but I think
the connotations that go with ‘handmade’
still apply. Great skill, time and
love have gone into making a product,
and that’s what a lot of people appreciate
about something handmade. There is
always a story, someone’s idea, process
and final result.”•
Huw will be at the RHS Urban Garden Show,
26-28 October. He sells via Etsy at: www.studionilli.com;
and Kettle’s Yard at: www.kettlesyard.co.uk
Adriana’s shoes are available at: www.yayalala.com
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