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Tuesday 10am - 5pm Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm

MAKE Southwest

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MAKE Southwest

MAKE Southwest (formerly Devon Guild of Craftsmen) is a contemporary craft centre with galleries and shop in Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK. www.crafts.org.uk
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Our 3 galleries, shop and cafe are open Tue - Sat, 10am - 5pm. The Devon Guild is also a registered educational charity dedicated to creating the craftspeople and collectors of the future.

19/05/2026

Join us at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey!

In less than a month, Craft Festival will be celebrating 22 years this June! Over 200 of the finest makers have been carefully selected to exhibit in Bovey Tracey from 12–14th June, for one of the largest and most exciting gatherings of makers in the UK.

Visitors can experience workshops, demonstrations, talks, the world’s smallest solar-powered cinema, yoga, free children’s activities, live music, theatre, storytelling, and lots of fantastic food.

The workshop programme is already open for bookings and includes broom-making, stitching, natural dyeing, marbling, wood-working, and stone-carving.

Tickets for each day or for the full weekend are available via the Craft Festival website, or in-store at MAKE Southwest (cash only).   🗓️ 12-14 June ⏰ 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm)
📍 Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey  Ticket Prices:

Per Day
Advance: Adult £10 On the Door: Adult £12 Adult Group (10 or more): £9

Weekend Super Saver Ticket
Advance: Adult £19 On the Door: Adult £21 Adult Group (10 or more): £18

Accompanied under 18s are FREE Accompanied carers are FREE

You can find MAKE Southwest at Stand MM15, where we will host three craft demonstrationss per day. Swipe to see the maker demo schedule ➡️

Don’t forget to pop over to our Riverside Mill (directly opposite the entrance to Mill Marsh Park), over the weekend too, as we will have four fantastic craft exhibitions and lots of beautiful items for sale. For the Craft Festival weekend, we will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 10am-5pm.
Cafe at MAKE Southwest, located on our first floor, will be open all weekend too. All homemade onsite using locally sourced ingredients, Rodney’s serves a range of cakes, light bites, lunches, and beverages. It is very dog-friendly and has a lovely, sunny rooftop terrace.

15/05/2026

Under the Tree: Open Call for Exhibitors

Under the Tree is an annual curated exhibition of small batch and one-of-a-kind crafts for our Christmas gift-buying visitors, presenting a wide variety of craft disciplines from makers across the UK. The exhibition offers high quality handmade crafts - an inspiring alternative to the larger high street and online retailers - supporting makers, as well as our craft education charity.

We welcome applications from UK based designer-makers, and are looking for:
🔘 Beautifully crafted work in a range of prices and sizes to suit different buyers
🔘 Work which is ready to display in our purpose-built professionally curated exhibitions space
🔘 Batch produced or one-of-a-kind work
🔘 A variety of different mediums
🔘 Makers with a strong social media presence
🔘 Makers who will reciprocate promotion of the exhibition

Exhibition dates: 24 October 2026 - 9 January 2027

Free to apply
Application deadline: 25 June 2026, 11pm

Images, left to right: , ,

📍MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK

14/05/2026

Volunteer with us!

As a craft education charity, we create opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about contemporary and heritage crafts, including our free exhibitions programme, and projects in schools, hospitals, and local communities. We rely on volunteers to support us so we can continue to deliver engaging experiences in craft, design, and making for our community.

We are looking for:

🔘 Retail Gallery Assistants
🔘 A Handyperson
🔘 An Ecommerce Assistant

See the link below for more information on each of the roles and to apply:
https://makesouthwest.org.uk/volunteer-vacancies

📍MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK

07/05/2026

Meet the Maker & Printmaking Demo: Catherine Ade

🗓️ Saturday 9 May
⏰ 2-3:30pm
🎟️ FREE, drop-in
📍 MAKE Southwest, Maker Showcase

MAKE Southwest Maker Member and printmaker will be demonstrating lithographic printing from ball grained plate on an intaglio press in our Maker Showcase, where her exhibition, ‘A place to be in our minds together’, is currently showing.

Catherine will also answer any questions about her printmaking practice, her book, Lithography: An Artist’s Guide, and her works on display.

Catherine’s practice incorporates drawing and lithographic printmaking. She paints and draws directly onto lithographic limestone with traditional crayons and tusche: a process which unites the drawn and painted mark. The use of water-based washes occurs as both material and metaphor, expanding the notion of the fluidity of memory and cycles of nature. The lithographic wash is applied to the stone and left to dry naturally, letting the reticulated patterns form their paths, which follow the movement of the hand that applies them.   Catherine’s practice is centred around lithography in all its forms. She is a collaborative lithographer and workshop leader at her studio in Bristol, The Lemonade Press ().

Stone lithography is considered an endangered craft by and Catherine is one of the few practitioners in the UK.

‘A place to be in our minds together’ continues until 9 May.

Open Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm.
Free entry.

📍MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK

03/05/2026

Staying Alive, an exhibition of endangered crafts from the Southwest of England, co-curated with , is now open in the Jubilee Gallery at MAKE Southwest.

Staying Alive shines a light on some of the Southwest’s most endangered crafts. Thirteen master makers share their skills, tools, and stories, showing how traditions shaped by the region’s land and sea still have relevance and beauty today. From boatbuilding and rope-making to hedging, basketmaking, and tanning: these crafts connect past and present, keeping centuries of knowledge alive in the modern world.

Four of our Staying Alive exhibitors are running workshops at MAKE Southwest, offering you the opportunity to try your hand at a variety of heritage crafts, and get to know more about their social and cultural histories.

Signwrite your own Ornate Letter Workshop with Amy Goodwin (.goodwin.signwriter)
🗓️ Friday 8 May
⏰ 10:30am-4:30pm
🎟️ £75

Collaborative Corn Dolly Making with Vicky Putler ()
🗓️ Saturday 9 May
⏰ 10am-4pm
🎟️ Free, drop-in

Make a Ditty Bag & learn about Sailmaking with Sarah Liscoe
🗓️ Tuesday 26 May
⏰ 10:30am-12:30pm & 1:30-3:30pm
🎟️ PWYC £0/5/10

Make a Flax Corn Dolly Workshop with Vicky Putler ()
🗓️ Friday 19 June
⏰ 10:30am-3:30pm
🎟️ £75

Withy Pot Making Demo with Sue Morgan ()
🗓️ Friday 3 July
⏰ 10am-12:30pm & 1:30-3:30pm
🎟️ Free, drop-in

Make a Willow Crab Pot with Sue Morgan ()
🗓️ Saturday 4 July
⏰ 10:30am-4pm
🎟️ £75

Book now via the MAKE Southwest website.

01/05/2026

Staying Alive, an exhibition of endangered crafts of the Southwest of England, co-curated with , opens tomorrow in our Jubilee Gallery.  This exhibition shines a light on some of the Southwest’s most endangered crafts. Fourteen master makers share their skills, tools, and stories, showing how traditions shaped by the region’s land and sea still have relevance and beauty today. From boatbuilding and ropemaking to hedging, basketmaking, and tanning: these crafts connect past and present, keeping centuries of knowledge alive in the modern world.  The distinctive geography and location of the Southwest have greatly influenced the region’s traditional industries and crafts, from boatbuilding, sailmaking, ropemaking, and lobster pot-making, to wool crafts: spinning, dyeing, and knitting. The area’s rich natural resources also supported industries such as stone quarrying and carving, along with metal mining and processing. Moreover, the Southwest’s relative isolation has helped preserve its unique regional identities, dialects, and longstanding traditions, including thatching, dry stone walling, and hedge laying. 
Exhibitors: • , reverse glass sign making • Alex Mears, boatbuilding • .Goodwin.Signwriter, fairground art • Andrew Cockshaw, , Cornish hedging • Greg Rowland MBE, , wheelwright • Jessie Watson Brown, .hearth, oak bark tanning • .dartmoor, Devon stave basket making • Nicholas Jarvis and Pauline Cochrane, bobbin lacemaking • Robert Ely , ribbon making • Sarah Liscoe, sailmaking • Sue Morgan , withy pot making • Vicky Putler , flax processing

Staying Alive opens tomorrow, Saturday 2 May, until 4 July 2026.

Open Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm. Free entry.  📍MAKE Southwest, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK

30/04/2026

MAKING IT 2027: Open Call for Exhibitors

MAKING IT is a biennial exhibition celebrating emerging artists, makers, and designers from across the Southwest. Hosted in the Jubilee Gallery at MAKE Southwest from 16 January – 17 April 2027, the exhibition will showcase up to 20 early-career creatives working across contemporary craft and making, from traditional materials and techniques, to digital practices such as photography, film, and print.

In 2027, MAKING IT will explore the theme ‘The Maker’s Journey’, inviting applicants to reflect on aspects such as innovation in materials and techniques, sustainability, diversity, and collaboration within their practice.

The exhibition offers a valuable platform for Southwest-based artists, makers, and designers in their first five years of practice, whether self-taught, trained through apprenticeships, or recent graduates. As a craft organisation, we cannot accept applications from artists working purely in visual art without incorporating a craft discipline. As a charity dedicated to supporting creatives at every stage of their careers, MAKE Southwest is committed to removing barriers and strongly encourages applications from individuals currently under-represented in the creative and cultural sector.

Selected exhibitors will not only show their work to thousands of visitors in one of the region’s leading craft venues, but will also take part in a tailored professional development programme. This includes funded CPD sessions, mentoring opportunities, networking with industry professionals, and the chance to receive awards and prizes from leading organisations.

Selectors include:
amaker

system

Green Maker Initiative

Free to apply
Application deadline: 29 June 2026, 11pm

More info & apply:
https://makesouthwest.org.uk/all-activity/making-it-2027-call-out

Images, left to right: , ,

29/04/2026

We are delighted to have the eye-catching creations of Guest Maker in our Retail Gallery 🦒🍓✨

Michaela McMillan makes bold, colourful sculptures using recycled materials, creating a new life for unwanted objects. Her work is influenced by a childhood of parables with hidden messages, and parents with a ‘Good Life’ philosophy — Grow Your Own, Make Your Own, and Recycle.

Michaela has always been curious about animals and fascinated by their exuberance and fragility. Her collections are statement pieces intended to be playfully serious: they start as pages of words and ideas, and are interpreted using recycled and found objects with decoupage, assemblage, and stitch. Her artworks are flirtatious sculptures with hidden secrets: they add a colourful twist and talking point to make your space unique and eclectic.

Sarah is a .AMaker member 🙌

26/04/2026

The countdown has begun, Craft Festival Bovey Tracey is celebrating 22 years this June!

Promising warm summer days in the beautiful Devon countryside, celebrating craft, creativity, and community, Craft Festival is something very special to look forward to.

Over 200 of the finest makers have been carefully selected to exhibit at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey from 12th –14th June, for one of the largest and most exciting gatherings of makers in the UK.

Visitors can experience workshops, over 20 demonstrators, talks, the world’s smallest solar-powered cinema, yoga, free children’s activities, live music, theatre, storytelling, and lots of fantastic food.

The workshop programme is already open for bookings and includes wood carving, broom-making, stitching, natural dyeing, marbling, wood working, and stone-carving. Enjoying 2 hours of making and learning a new skill is an important part of the Craft Festival experience.

Tickets for each day or for the full weekend are now available online via , or in-store at MAKE Southwest (cash only).

📍 Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey
🗓️ 12-14 June

24/04/2026

‘Remnants’, an exhibition of work by Second Year BA (Hons) Textile Design students at Arts University Plymouth (), continues in our new Riverside Gallery until 20 June.

The exhibition presents a body of textile works developed in response to artefacts from the collections of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum () in Exeter. Each piece explores the historical narratives, material qualities, and cultural significance embedded within these objects, transforming archival research into contemporary textile practice.

Drawing inspiration from artefacts connected to the Southwest and beyond, the artists have investigated the stories these objects carry, considering their origins, function, and the people who once used them. Through processes such as print, knit, construction, and other hand-crafted textile techniques, the works reinterpret these histories while celebrating the tactile nature of making.

Central to this exhibition is the recognition of tools, process, and craftsmanship. The act of making is celebrated, highlighting traditional textile methods and the physical engagement between maker, material, and technique. By emphasising manual processes rather than digital production, the exhibition reflects on the enduring relevance of handcraft in contemporary textile design.

Exhibitors:

Bryony Tanner, .textiles13; Fern Smith, ; Florence Elisabeth Neill, ; Grace Aasta Bramwell Davies, .aasta.designs; Hollie Noyce, .designs; Isabel Rebecca Hiscock, .textiles; Izzy Lynn, ; Jay Sheppard, ; Karen Louise Green, ; Lauren Jones; Lottie Bess, ; Lottie Louise Trundle Preston, ; Mo Laurense, ; Oceane Grace Mege, ; Percy Vaughan-Hughes; Poppy Victory, .art; Rowan Hewitt ; Shannon Currall,

Address

Riverside Mill
Newton Abbot
TQ139AF

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm

Website

https://makesouthwest.org.uk/

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