Who are you?
A multi-disciplinary practice with a wide range, from large scale architectural origami to kinetic jewellery. We’re both graduates in creative industries, designing since 2001 and setting up our studio together in 2003. Then in 2016 we re-branded as Fung and Bedford. We work on private commissions for commercial and personal spaces. We host workshops and sell our jewellery through galleries in the UK and America. Translating and challenging form through unusual material inspires our work.
Tell us how you work
It’s very hands on and sometimes hi-tech! We do architectural origami, installations and vessels for homes, galleries and companies, and the work literally flows from our hands. Using simple techniques we intricately score and fold our carefully selected materials such as paper and sheet metal. Our materials may seem simple – like Tyvek, a tough fireproof paper for industrial building, but we take this flat material and make an elaborate structure. We feel very connected to the piece.
Our jewellery designs are different. They may be minimal, but we use cutting edge technology to achieve this simplicity.
Some more background?
Angela: I trained to be a concert pianist at the Royal College of Music but after getting RSI I turned to jewellery design, did a BA, and founded my jewellery line in 1999.
Ashley: I’m a trained architect, but was made redundant and learned silver-smithing, a new joy. Angela & I met at One Year On. Our jewellery fed off each other’s ideas. In 2008 we were doing a window display for London Jewellery Week but our laser bed would not cut aluminium. We had to find an alternative. We chose Tyvek – it changed our art and our business.
So where do you work?
In a converted stable studio in our home in Sussex, filled to the brim with inspirational paper and materials. We have a high pitched roof celling for our large scale pieces that often spill out into our living areas. We have a flexibility and independence we simply couldn’t get from a separate location.
Ambitions?
To develop our practice, inspire others and push the boundaries for abstract and architectural origami as a contemporary art form.
Advice?
Persevere and enjoy what you are doing. Success takes hustle, hard work and determination. Believe in what you do, feel connected and inspired and you will be rewarded by it personally and commercially.