Norwegian Crafts is delighted to present the ninth issue of The Vessel titled Make Me See, edited by Åsa Dybwad Norman and Ben Lignel in collaboration with student editors Sofie Alm Nordsveen, Carla Rotenberg, and Iliana Papadimitriou. The observations featured in this issue of The Vessel highlight the fact that craft is ubiquitous. Craft skills are everywhere, surrounding us all the time, oftentimes without our cognisance. From fashioning hand-knitted sweaters to knife making, kite building, and ornamental fruit carving — the creation or restoration of objects requires dexterity, muscle memory, and material knowledge, paired with careful observation.

The ninth issue of The Vessel, Make Me See, wants to celebrate and reflect upon the art of noticing, and describing, craft in action. What do we see when watching people make?

Editors Åsa Dybwad Norman and Ben Lignel introduce the workshop series that sparked this issue of The Vessel, including their collaboration with student editors Sofie Alm Nordsveen, Carla Rotenberg, and Iliana Papadimitriou, and contributors from three leading Nordic art academies: the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway, HDK-Valand University of Gothenburg in Sweden and Aalto University in Finland.

In October 2024, Martine Aadne Gulliksen, an MA student at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, was looking for someone who could teach her how to make kites for an artistic project. She came across Ajaz Ul Haq, an expert kite maker and flyer, living in Krogstadelva in south-east Norway. He welcomed Aadne Gulliksen into his family's home, and over the course of a day allowed her to observe him constructing kites.

In this essay, artist and editor Sara Clugage provides a theoretical framework for the observational texts in The Vessel 9 Make Me See, building on her extensive knowledge of economic theory, and her research into the process genre. The essay unpacks the pleasures of observing craftspeople at work and the divide between watchable and unwatched skilled work. Meeting skill with attentive eyes, she argues, is how we bear witness to the value of craft labour.

"On a mountainside 660 metres above sea level, in the small village of Venabygd, in Norway, a group of ceramicists gathered, brought together by an Anagama kiln firing, and a kiln building project."

In this observation by Jenny Hamrell, an MA student at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, we witness the construction of a new Phoenix Fast Fire kiln at the Center for Ceramic Art in Venabygd, Norway, led by Norwegian ceramicist Ole Morten Rokvam.

In this poetically rendered observation by Samira Khoshbakht, an MA student at HDK-Valand, we are introduced to textile artist Annie Johansson while she weaves in a public space under a bridge in Gamlestan, Gothenburg. Over the course of 20 days following the weaving session, Khoshbakht would visit the site sporadically, and observe the woven piece’s interactions with the surrounding environment. The initial observation lasted a total of 7 hours, and was documented with a notebook and pen, a camera, and a recorder.

In this observation, Daniel Georg Schiechl, an MA student in the program for contemporary design at Aalto University, follows his father George at work in the ski rental workshop he runs in Heiligenblut am Großglockner, Austria. Daniel Schiechl observed his father for several hours during one of his shifts, recording his observations using a notebook, pen, and his mobile phone.

In this observation by Sofie Alm Nordsveen, alumna of HDK-Valand, we accompany her and her grandmother Margit to a weekly knife-making meeting for retired teachers, hosted in a mechanical workshop. Alm Nordsveen observed the seniors while they worked on their knives over the course of three hours, documenting their progress using her computer and phone camera.