Crawley Creatives

Abdollah Nafisi

I am an artist and sculptor working between the boundaries of traditional furniture making and contemporary art.

As a trained furniture maker originally from Iran, I bring my experience of living with nomads and tribes in the deserts to my current practice, working spontaneously with organic materials to create improvised sculptures and exploring the tensions between our connection and disconnection with nature.

Key achievements:

- Re-introducing manufacture of the Sussex chair
- Featuring on BBC2's Victorian House of Arts and Crafts
- Teaching at West Dean College of Art
- Lecturing at Crawley College
- Featuring in Vogue, Woodworking Magazine and Country Living

My family moved to Horsham in 2013 to set up a pilot 'Eco-pulping' plant, an innovation in environmental research that works to produce paper out of agricultural waste. This was my initiation into the sense of belonging and custodianship that I feel to the nature of this area, and had a profound influence on my practice as an artist and craftsman. I work exclusively with dying wood sourced from the local woodland, tuning into its provenance and aiming to raise awareness of the endangered woodlands of this country. Additionally, I began making traditional Sussex chairs - re-introducing them to a market in which craftsmen had stopped making them for over a hundred years. I continue to run Nafisi Studios, with my wife, Kate from our farm in Horsham.

Megan Davis

I run a one-woman sustainable upcycling brand that transforms preloved fabrics into cosy, one-of-a-kind clothing like hats, hoodies, and more. Each piece is thoughtfully designed and handcrafted, giving discarded materials a second life while reducing waste and promoting slow fashion.

I was born and raised in Crawley, and have lived and grown up here, seeing how it has changed and grown as I have too!