Burning with new creativity

Following the major fire in 2021 which devastated 17 studios at Krowji, as spring awakens in 2025, new studios are ready to give the courtyard a fresh lease of life. We visited Krowji in April, just days after some of the artists got the keys to their new studios.

Sinead O’Connor was one of the artists who lost her studio in the fire. She’s been based at Krowji since 2015 when she started her jewellery business, Sinead’s Silver Design.  

“When the fire happened, I had two studios, I had quite a good business… that all just stopped, because all 17 studios burnt down, the offices burnt down, the whole building went.” 

“It was very difficult, but my mantra was no one was hurt, no one was killed – we’re a 24-hour access studio, there could’ve easily been someone in the studios. At the end of the day it was just stuff and you can buy stuff again, but you can’t buy people.” 

Sinead now sees the fire as a turning point. “It set me on a new course, I went and did an advanced enamelling course and I absolutely loved it.

“My husband took over running the silver side of the business and I started a new brand called Cruan.” 

‘Cruan’ is Irish for ‘enamel’ and Sinead now crafts enamelled copper and silver vessels that celebrate her Irish heritage and Cornish home.  

She sources the base vessels from one of only six silver spinners left in the UK and is part of the Heritage Crafts Association which advocates to protect traditional craft skills in the country.  

“I think craft is becoming more important as we move towards more things that can be done by computers and done by AI. Don’t get me wrong, technology is fantastic, but you can’t get a computer to create a 3D handheld piece of art.” 

 Once she’s settled into the studio, Sinead will be running workshops teaching enamelling and silver jewellery classes.  

“It’s good when people come so that they can see that actually everything is handmade, they can see the processes.” 

“What also helps is when you run workshops, people get a taste of how to make things themselves and they suddenly go, ‘Oh, this is why it costs so much to buy things handmade’. “ 

Krowji is the only place that has been able to facilitate these workshops, other than an industrial unit.  

“These containers are created for all the noisy, smelly, messy, flammable crafts, so they’re very well sound-insulated.” 

Sinead has one of the largest kilns in the UK, so it’s safe to say that Krowji can facilitate all manner of equipment and crafts. It’s become the biggest creative hub in the South West, home to hundreds of small businesses. 

“What makes Krowji really great is that these are 24-hour access; if you like to be working when it’s buzzy and there’s loads of people around, that’s absolutely fine. If you want to be working at 2 o’clock in the morning when nobody’s going to be knocking on your door going ‘fancy a cuppa?’ that’s fine as well.” 

It also doesn’t matter what your background or level of experience is. For Sinead, Krowji was where her creative career began, having previously worked as a maths and computer science teacher. 

“I don’t even have an A-level in art, I don’t have any qualifications in art whatsoever…to begin with it was just a hobby.” 

Now, Sinead works as a full-time artist and is looking to collaborate internationally with other enamellers, having recently won several awards with The Guild of Enamelling.  

Tony Minnion is one of the long-standing artists at Krowji and has been in his studio for 18 years.  

Alongside his paintings of the Cornish coastline, he works as a community artist with local schools and mentors neurodivergent artists.  

His claim to fame is creating the miner’s cape which is used each year in the St Piran’s Day celebrations in Redruth, as well as the banners and flags for Murdoch Day.  

Tony has seen many changes and believes that Krowji has “given Redruth an identity as being a cultural and artistic hub, because it’s the biggest one south of Spike Island in Bristol”.

“There is some criticism that people just come here and work and it doesn’t necessarily trickle down into the town but I think over the years it has. For instance, people who might’ve come in because of Krowji and are now based in town. Krowji can take some credit for that.” 

When he first began painting in Cornwall, Tony was selling his paintings in galleries and had to keep them at ‘gallery prices’ but now Krowji allows him to sell to the local community: “Because I’m not going through a gallery, I can sell at prices that local people can afford.” 

Tony also has a selection of his work which is entirely pay what you can afford as part of a ‘Paintings for the People’ initiative.  

Some of his customers are young people who’ve never bought a painting before. 

“When I was linked with galleries, my sales were mainly second home owners, or at least people with substantial incomes who’ve moved into the area, but they’re not now. I sell for cheaper to local people – this space gives me the opportunity to do that.” 

The picture that Tony paints of Krowji is of a place where he can operate ethically in a way that aligns with his values as opposed to purely commercially.  

He’s responsible for organising the Open Studios at Krowji in May, as part of Cornwall Open Studios. This is where artists across the county open their doors to the public, inviting them to see inside their creative worlds. 

“There’s a real diversity of practice here and I think Cornwall Open Studios has been really important for giving people an impression of that diversity – very different artists coming from very different places.”  

The Open Studios aren’t just about the chance for artists to sell their work, but also an opportunity to connect with the local community. 

“For me, it’s about having conversations and making links. By doing that, you build up interest in your work which is crucial as a painter - people buy a bit of you with the painting.” 

Tony is keen to stress that there’s no obligation to buy artwork when visiting the studios and that the space is open to everyone, not just traditional ‘gallery-visiting clientele’.  

“That’s what you have to really break down when it comes to Open Studios and if you want to connect to people in Redruth properly. It’s about getting integration between separated communities.” 

The next opportunity to see inside the studios at Krowji is the Summer Showcase, on 25th-27th July from 11am to 4pm each day. 

Fran runs the Grow Box in town and recently took over the cafe at Krowji. “The cafe is a vibrant space,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if there’s 20 people in here, or one or two, anyone who comes through it’s like pull up a chair, you’re welcome here.”

“There are people here that you could ask one question of and it would probably save you three or four days of work, because they’ve got the knowledge.”

Fran was born and went to school in Redruth, left and returned 20 years ago.

“Redruth had a really wonderful past. It was really, really successful. Then it struggled for a long time. And people look back on the past but I want to be passionate about the future.”

Fran is setting up a community interest company, and the group has recently been donated an allotment. She says that she wants to encourage the cafe to be a collaborative space and part of the community.  

“That’s one of the issues we want to tackle with turning the Grow Box into a CIC. Since we were given the allotment we have had people come over in their own time, and there are friendships already being formed in the first month. It’s that gentle, gentle approach.” 

“My best thing is on a Saturday morning that I chat to so many people from so many different walks of life. It’s really nice to just have the time to talk to people. So that’s how we find a lot of people interested in the allotment, and it is a range of ages - people you’d be totally surprised about. And I think the beauty is, we don’t know what we’re doing. We’ve got no preconceived ideas.” 

We can do something about now, and get excited about what’s happening this week or next week. It’s just putting the energy into it - negativity to positivity, to try and counteract it a bit.” 

Grow Box Café is open to the public Mon-Fri, from 9am-4pm.

WORDS

DANIELLE HUTCHINSON

EMMA VOWLES

Another artist moving into one of the new studios is Robyn O’Brian, the creative behind Ula Jewellery. ‘Ula’ is Celtic for ‘gem of the sea’ and Robyn collects sea glass from beaches across Cornwall to craft into silver jewellery.

It all started when she wanted to make her mum a 50th birthday present and a friend showed her how to set her birthstone...Then I became obsessed.” 

Robyn had been working as a yacht finisher before covid, but during lockdown, she converted her shed into a jewellery workshop, which has since become a full-time business.

This new container will be Robyn’s first official studio. ‘Krowji’ is actually Cornish for ‘shed’ so we joked that this will be the biggest shed she’s worked out of so far.

She decided that having a studio away from home would improve her work-life balance and now walks to Krowji along the old mining trails. Robyn first visited Krowji a couple of years ago when she attended a Christmas Market.  

“That was my first time wandering around. There was not a single person that wasn’t really happy and smiley. And I felt like - these are my people! Being surrounded by other creative people, you can take inspiration from whatever they might be doing.” 

Krowji is situated at the Old Grammar School site in Redruth, where Robyn used to go to school.  

“When you’re a kid and you’re exploring your creativity - that’s what gives you your identity. The education system doesn’t really focus on those things.” 

“I was quite badly bullied, so there were negative associations with being here. But it’s so far in the past, I don’t know why I was still letting that influence my decisions as an adult.” 

Although she was reluctant about moving back to Redruth, Robyn feels that the atmosphere has changed and the town is having a revival.  

“We were sceptical about buying in Redruth, but it was in our price range. Now we’re here and actually there’s so much development happening.” 

“I think people are going more towards buying locally and going old school, which is great. Since moving here, we’ve made more of an effort to walk into town on market days – get some bread, fresh fruit… and we prefer paying more and knowing that it’s going to Redruth.” 

This year marks the 10-year anniversary since the opening of its new building and 20 years since Krowji began in 2005. It’s great to see that there’s still a steady stream of page 6“If anyone is thinking about doing something like this, I would say to come along especially to something like Open Studios or the Summer Showcase. Wander around and meet the people that are here because that’s what absolutely solidified it for me - it was the people.”