On Friday 6th July I played the last of my first series of salon-concerts at the wonderful Forge on the Isle of Dogs. The Forge is the home of Craft Central, which was founded by working craftspeople and supporters of fine craft in 1970. Craft central maintains 67 creative studios, shared workspacea, and co-working desks in the Docklands.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved rehearsing at the Forge 6 7 18

I first visited the space in October of 2017, shortly after Craft Central moved there from their previous premises in Clerkenwell. I was inspired, by the extraordinary Victorian industrial architecture, surviving machinery, the wonderful 21st century intervention of the free standing ‘islands’ of workshops within the space, the light, and the opportunity to work in a space devoted to making.

So the idea was born of a series of salon events, bringing together new music and craft. The first concert took place in December of 2017, and featured manuscripts by Haflidi Hallgrimsson, Roger Redgate, Mihailo Trandafilovski and more.

The first concert! End of a great evening. With jeweller Sylvia Edwards. composers Roger Redgate, Nigel Clarke, David Matthews, and Mihailo Trandafilovski at the Forge tonight. Excellent photos from Malene Malene Sheppard Skaerved

The idea behing the events is simple. New and older music, curated for the space, played on new and very old instruments, framing an interview with a maker – so far, a Jeweller, a Bowmaker, a Spectacle Maker and an Artist.

I have done a number of premieres at the series. Here’s one of them, Roger Redgate’s 1st Caprice-recorded at the premiere with a view of the Thames a mile upriver, in Limehouse