Store Store? What is that? Glad you asked…
At a glance...
What is Store?
Store is a loose network of artists, architects, and designers/makers, based in London and Rotterdam. In both cities, they run workshops that explore materials and processes for making… well, stuff.
What kind of stuff? All sort, across a wide range of disciplines. Past workshops have encompassed photographic cyanotype printing on fabric using found objects, interactive light sculptures, 3D modelling in Blender and 3D printing, furniture making, exploration of the movement of water, street furniture prototyping, metal work, and sculptures made from stale bread.
STORE is at the intersection of the creative arts and social enterprise. Their mission is to support more young people from underrepresented backgrounds applying to creative courses.
The STORE workshops
To that end, the workshops are primarily aimed at school children from state schools and are designed to help them to build a portfolio in art/design/architecture. It looks like they also ran public access workshops before the pandemic, and maybe they will start again? Although the public workshops seemed to have a more conventional bent to them: quilting, weaving, leather craft, ceramics…
The STORE stores
Products designed during the workshops are sold in the store shop (the Store store – see?) with royalties going to the makers. Store has two shops in London, one in Hackney, and one in that brand-new area behind Kings Cross that used to be a bit of a wilderness until it was redeveloped in the past few years. Now known as Kings Cross Central, the area lends itself to a few pleasant hours of micro exploration, although STORE STORE is easily the most intriguing spot there.
In addition, there’s a shop in Rotterdam and 2 online stores (one featuring products from the UK workshops, the other with those from the Rotterdam workshops).
To bring their message to a wider audience, STORE offers a wealth of free PDFs that cover a wide range of creative endeavours: make plastic from milk, clay from textile, or ceramics from eggshells; work with mycelium (mushroom roots), shape a wildflower brick or craft a lightweight lamp; or stay practical and make some tie-dye socks, or a minimalist bamboo hook. 60 PDFs to download, so much fun to be had! Don’t have the space to do it at home? Have a look at this list of London makerspaces…
Do visit, if you’re in the area, it’s a fascinating little shop.
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STORE STORE: Useful information
Address: 118, Lower, Stable St, N1C 4DR
Nearest public transport: Kings Cross (Circle Line, Victoria Line, Northern line, Hammersmith and City Line, Metropolitan Line, Piccadilly Line, BR)
Website: https://storeprojects.org/
Online Store: https://shop.storeprojects.org/
Store store on Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZeVikZUnUtoWDmY57
