ACCOUNT

Jane Crisp is a British artist and designer whose practice reimagines the trug—traditionally a shallow wooden basket—into sculptural vessels that balance function, craft, and contemporary form. Rooted in her East Anglian heritage, where trugs have long been made by fenmen and women, her work situates this humble object within a wider meditation on necessity, rhythm, and our symbiotic relationship with nature.

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Drawing upon the mythologies of making and the repetition of human customs that mirror the patterns of the natural world, Jane elevates the trug beyond utility. Her vessels, shaped through the techniques of furniture and boat-building—steam-bent wood, overlapping clinker construction, copper nail and rove fixings—evoke river reeds, bird wings, or the curve of a boat’s hull. They sit within space and time as poised, confident objects that hold both past and present within their spiralling lines.

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Her work has been featured in The New York Times Style Magazine, Gardens Illustrated, Country Living, and Elle Decoration. Collected internationally, Jane has received numerous awards for craft and design, including the Design Trust Best New Business Award and the Toni Piper Memorial Award for Craft Excellence.