Nunhead Art Trail – meet the Skip Sisters

Artists of south east London are transforming their houses into gallery spaces for the first ever Nunhead Art Trail this weekend. The two day art event will see over 70 mosaic makers, portraitists, illustrators, printmakers and more showcase their work in 29 venues, from kitchens to pubs and even Nunhead Cemetery.

We found out more from one of the creative collectives taking part. The Skip Sisters, pictured above, will be piled on the sofa at number 20 Hichisson Road. They’re filling the sitting room with their upcycled rubbish tip finds – which range from large scale sculptures to Oyster card-holders made from a publisher’s left over book-binding materials, pictured below, to some old piano keys they made into bugs.

The “sisters” Helen, Edori, Pia, Liz and Julia met at a felt-making class. Edori, one of the founding members explains: “we had a compulsion for hoarding beautiful things found from humble sources – skips, charity shops and boot fairs.” And so the Skip Sisters were born.

But the men in their lives weren’t so happy with their hoarding ways. Edori says “my husband harps back to earlier days of a more minimal aesthetic, so the only thing harmed in the making of our wares is …our relationships.”

With an art teacher and a printmaking degree from Camberwell between them, this creative fivesome use their design skills to turn their green attitude into crafted wares.

The “sisters” count a butterfly box, and a collectable artist’s print as their prize finds, “but you have to look in the posh areas for the best skips,” says Edori.

If the pictures from their Christmas shop at Jeannie Avent Gallery are anything to go by, expect walls full of intriguing treasures bound to distract junk shop fiends for hours.

Our favourites? A lotto game brought back to life as a clock, pictured right, and a pair of oven gloves salvaged from a very 70s print remnant.

Words: Sarah Fox