Crafts July/August 2019 6160 July/August 2019 Crafts

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The duo behind London jewellery brand Tatty Devine have built an empire with their anarchic statement pieces, riffing on everything from pop culture to politics. Bethan Ryder charts their 20-year trajectory. Portrait by Jenny Lewis

‘Tatty Devine’ sounds like the name of a fabulous drag act in an East End pub. A droll, quick-witted queen of the sardonic one-liner who’s been around the block – camp glamour colliding with streetwise sass. And that was the point when Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine, friends and co-founders of this cool, cult and eminently collectable London-born jewellery brand, first named it 20 years ago.

‘At college we used to say “Harriet is De Vine!”,’ Wolfenden recalls of their halcyon days at Chelsea College of Arts, where the pair met in the 1990s. ‘And we just liked old, tatty stuff; something that’s been around for a while but is really loved and can’t be thrown away because it’s too precious.’ The name stuck when Wolfenden discovered its calling-card potential. ‘I was ringing up shops to get appointments, and I said, “I’m calling from Tatty Devine” and someone replied: “Oh, I’ve heard of you”. We realised it sounded good and that was it.’

For a while now, Wolfenden and Vine have been preoccupied with reflecting on 20 years of being Tatty Devine. The pair have been compiling a monograph on their predominantly laser-cut acrylic creations while also preparing for an accompanying Crafts Council exhibition, Misshapes: The Making of Tatty Devine, which debuts at Central St Martins’s Lethaby Gallery in July before touring to UK museums and galleries. Catching up with them to talk all things Tatty at their Brick Lane store-cum-office, I discover a colourful hive of activity, although their main production facility with a 20-strong team is in Kent. Millennials are tinkering with clear, simple

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Left: Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine. Above: Poppy Papercuts Do Your Bit Brooch

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acrylic stands that have been custom-designed to display the 120 or so pieces plucked from their vast 5,000-strong archive for the exhibition.

Incredibly prolific, the duo live and breathe the brand 24/7 and confess they barely pause to plan ahead, let alone look back. ‘It’s been a really interesting exercise,’ says Wolfenden, who takes care of communications and is the more business-orientated of the two. ‘In the early years from 2000 to 2007 we did anything and everything; then from 2007 to 2013 we got really thematic with specific obsessions coming through. Since 2013 the work has become more idiosyncratic. Harriet does all of the designing now and it’s about delving into her thoughts.’

Tatty Devine’s bestsellers are its name necklaces, but flamboyant statement items are the brand’s tour de force. These wearable pieces of art – some of which are in the collection of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art – range from an orchestra of dangling string instruments to a Cubist-like, trompe l’oeil still-life; from a fortune teller’s hands caressing a crystal ball to an inspired interpretation of the Trevi Fountain. Greatest hits include the banana with 3d skin peeling back, the colourful parakeet with its wings wide in flight, and the iconic lobster whose claws cling to the chain.

Themes are wildly diverse, from robots and junk food to the Pearly Kings and Queens (which the Museum of London has in its collection), and their collaborations have run the gamut from merchandise for musicians Chicks on

Speed, to jewellery for fashion brands such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Basso & Brooke. When surveying their diverse body of work and seeing the way it taps into popular culture, it’s clear these two are equal parts artists and craftspeople. Threads of Duchamp, Dalí, Magritte and Warhol weave throughout. Tatty Devine embodies the witty, anarchic spirit of Dadaism channelled through a spontaneous, Pop Art aesthetic.

In hindsight, both recognise they’ve been consistently avant-garde, often to their own detriment. ‘We’ve always reflected the collective consciousness,’ Vine asserts, ‘but quite often two years ahead of everyone else. We did moustaches too early, perhaps, and didn’t sell any.’ They say commerciality was never their priority; instead, ‘creativity and originality have always been the driving force’, says Wolfenden.

The pair kicked off the business straight after graduation with readymades. Anything they liked – Eiffel Tower souvenirs, cake decorations, Rubik cubes – became brooches and charm bracelets. ‘We were reappropriating and upcycling before it had a name,’ says Vine. In the 1990s, when rents were more affordable, such kitchen-table creativity was possible while either signing on the dole or waitressing part-time. This entrepreneurship accelerated with the discovery of a discarded book of colourful leather upholstery scraps, which they transformed into wristbands, fastened with a simple ‘arrowhead’ design. Success was swift. ‘The timeline was quite mad,’ says Wolfenden of the trajectory from a Portobello market stall in July to appearing in Vogue magazine and being stocked in Whistles and Harvey Nichols by December.

The real turning point was their discovery of laser-cut acrylic shapes, while on a research trip to scope out New York stockists in 2001, particularly once they secured a local architectural model-maker to cut the pieces. ‘Being in Brick Lane where you could find all this stuff has been fundamental,’ says Vine.

Probably because of this, Tatty Devine has been adored by the style and fashion press from the get-go and has a loyal fan base around the globe. This uncompromising authenticity is one of the things that makes the Tatty Devine story so compelling, says Annabelle Campbell, head of exhibitions at the Crafts Council. ‘It’s fascinating how the designers have developed skills and processes around a single material and have built an impressive business from that. They have integrity and a clear, visual voice. They could have sold out but they’ve stuck with it – they’re still in their studio making today.’

The brand makes and sells around 35,000 pieces a year, employing 35 people full-time. Growth has been steady over the past 20 years, with the business growing 25 per cent a year on average between 2007 and 2013, for example. ‘We focus on a reliable profit so that the business, the jobs we provide and our creative freedom is sustainable and cared for,’ says Wolfenden.

Vine has long wielded the crafting baton: ‘From the beginning my room had the cutting mat and knife, while Rosie had this little green-screen computer and fax machine,’ she says. Today it is Vine’s dexterous mind and fingers that dream up complicated new techniques and designs, such as the Elizabethan-inspired Knot Garden Necklace, a woven puzzle of acrylic loops. Meanwhile, Wolfenden is sounding board and editor. These are roles

that predate their partnership: prior to art school – a Damascene moment for both – creating was always an integral part of their lives, albeit in slightly different ways.

‘It was all making in my house,’ says Vine – dressed today in a denim jumpsuit with her bob dyed a punkish carnation pink – of her childhood with a dressmaker mother and carpenter father in Rochester, Kent. At school she excelled at art, and went on to study a foundation course at Central St Martins. Meanwhile, Wolfenden, who describes her young self as ‘a naive Isle of Wighter’, hails from a long line of entrepreneurs, including hotelier parents. At home, the pursuit of art was generally discouraged – although her granny was ‘queen of craft’ and she did once sell friendship bracelets on a market stall aged 11. Encouraged by her art teacher, she set off aged 17 to begin a foundation course at Kingston University London.

Both went on to study fine art at Chelsea School of Art, where they become firm friends. Taught by Turner Prize-winning artists such as Chris Ofili and Martin Creed, and with teaching cameos from the likes of Bridget Riley, it was a transformative experience. ‘It was a lovely atmosphere,’ says Vine. ‘We were the opposite of all those glamorous, pashmina-y people strolling the King’s Road and I loved to look as shit as possible. It was so good.’ What’s more, it was confidence-boosting. ‘It informed us we could do it,’ adds Wolfenden. ‘The ambition was set very early on.’

‘There was no internet, we couldn’t look things up and didn’t know what jump rings were called anyway. It was trial and error and learning techniques in real life from a real human.’ The vast possibilities of acrylic meant it became their sole focus. They invested, with the help of a bank loan, in their own laser-cutting machine, which Vine promptly learnt to use along with Adobe Illustrator.

Discussing the nitty gritty with Vine, it’s clear there is more to working in acrylic and using a laser-cutter – which can cut or ‘kiss’ (etch) the surface to add texture – than meets the eye. She sketches and then cuts out paper to make maquettes before transferring components to Adobe Illustrator, and then cutting the shapes from the 60 x 45cm acrylic sheets. ‘It’s all maths and physics. You need to know about balance, the material, tension, articulation – especially with pieces like the Marionette Necklace,’ she

says, referring to a coquettish puppet on a string with a flouncy three-dimensional skirt. To create said skirt, Vine had to invent a stick with the waistband and skirt attached, so she could shape the hot acrylic into place. ‘It took a while to get her right, to give her the correct attitude,’ she says.

Opposite page, top: sketchbook featuring the parakeet design for the Parakeet Necklace, shown below left. Below right: Orchestra Statement Necklace. This page, top: Pearly King Brooch; right: Scenery Statement Necklace

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Above: sketchbooks with designs for Name Necklace and Still Life Necklace, shown below left. Below right: Knot Garden Necklace. Opposite: Column Arch Necklace

Meanwhile, the pink Column Arch Necklace, a curve of Ionic architectural motifs, features curled tops developed from the earlier Star Signs collection. ‘I did ram horns, so knew how to do it. You draw a spiral and then lift it up into a coil and twist it to make it shorter and push it back down to overlap. I love the relief of the architrave and shadows on that one,’ she says. This sounds relatively easy, but when you consider that the acrylic can’t sustain heat over 140º C and can only be ‘leather hard’ for a few seconds while you quickly manipulate it wearing heat-resistant gloves, you begin to understand the meticulous skill involved. Once completed, the pieces are plunged into a bucket of cold water to harden fast.

As we have become aware, the eco-credentials of acrylic are poor, not just in terms of the manufacturing but also because the material is not easily recyclable. Tatty Devine’s defence is that its use of acrylic is on a relatively minuscule scale and the pieces are made to last forever, but they are keen for suppliers to find new eco-friendly, sustainable alternatives.

Tatty Devine has branched out a few times to do larger-scale projects, such as Christmas decorations for the South Bank, and in 2016 they were commissioned by Vital Arts, the charity that delivers art programmes at Barts Health NHS Trust, to create a large, site-specific work in the waiting areas and treatment rooms of the Paediatric Imaging department at The Royal London Hospital. ‘It was their bold colours and

quirkiness that appealed,’ says Catsou Roberts, director of Vital Arts. ‘Rosie and Harriet’s clever strategy to introduce MacGuffins – or red herrings – into the theme of bones and X-rays provides a playful tool for staff to distract children, who are asked to locate an umbrella, shoe or other errant shape hidden within the kaleidoscopic composition. This diversionary tactic puts young patients at ease, making medical procedures more effective.’

Otherwise they continue with a core of classic designs, plus two seasonal limited-edition collections a year, with additional capsule ranges – such as the recent anti-Brexit EU and Me pieces, and collaborations like the upcoming Moomin collection. Designs have grown more political lately, in keeping with the current climate – which is indicative of how Tatty Devine can be viewed as a barometer of the times.

For that reason, Misshapes is so much more than the sum of its pretty acrylic parts, sketchbooks, graphics and ephemera. Through the chronicles of Tatty Devine there is much to learn about launching an independent craft-based business, how London’s creative industries have changed, the evolution of e-commerce and experiential retail, the changing landscape of east London, and what it takes to make a successful creative partnership. ‘Misshapes: The Making of Tatty Devine’ is at Lethaby Gallery, 1 Granary Square, King’s Cross, London n1c 4aa, 20 July – 11 August.tattydevine.com