Right from the very beginning, Adi Toch is a great listener – often paying unbridled attention to the rhythmic ringing of hammering and the caressing tones of sanding. For this maker in metal, not only do these sounds guide her process; she’s also captured them to serve as a complementary soundtrack for her exhibition of finished pieces. 

Toch’s work regularly exposes, creates or plays with the relationship between her chosen material and sound, in a series of vessels that straddle the fine line between domestic objects and artwork.

At times, her pieces act as instruments, and in certain cases, as active audience members to partake in the production of sound itself. Toch’s Whispering Vessels sing to you as they are rolled around – each double-layered vessel contains sand, beads or tiny gemstones that can be seen, felt and heard, but not emptied.

Her playful Vessels on Stilts are metal pots perched atop delicate tripods; so delicate that when they quiver from vibrations caused by movement or music, becoming more participative concert-goer than passive observer.

From her studio in North London, a former parachute and ammunitions factory from the Second World War, Toch marries millennia-old traditions with contemporary forms that elevate metal’s innate musical qualities. “Craft,” she says, “teaches you about the past and history, but it's also the future.”

The Sound of Craftsmanship is an editorial collaboration between London Craft Week and KEF.