Making Links: Craft Value Chain

This collection of jewellery artefacts made from recycled glass and metal are the outcome of an enquiry which explored how the application of co-creative design thinking strategies within a rural Indonesian community can provide creative agency for artisan craft-makers. The research is set within the context of the United Nations eighth sustainable development goal, which promotes inclusive and economic growth, employment and decent work for all. The fieldwork used Participatory Action research (PAR) methods through cumulative co-creative design activities devised by Hanson, that sought to empower by teaching design thinking through co-creative making in a collaborative shared studio/workshop environment. The workshop resulted in the co-making of 4 collections of jewellery that were documented through a project website and exhibited in Plumbon Gambang, Jombang and at ITS, Surrabaya. The project outcomes were presented at the Making Futures VI international conference; People, Place, Meaning: Crafting Social Worlds and Social Making, (19-20 September 2019) and written up into a full paper for the Making Futures Journal, volume VI published in 2020. The Making Links project was supported by a Research England, Global Challenge Research Fund grant. It built upon Dearden and Hanson’s 2017 AHRC funded grant which had established linkages and project partners.