No Guts No Glory is a shop and arts collective based in Exeter, founded three years ago by Nathan Blacker. Collaborating with illustrators, designers and artists from across the UK they produce inventive tees, zines and other goodies.

To mark No Guts No Glory's third anniversary, we spoke to Nathan and Hayley Marchant about how they got started with the project and what they have learnt along the way. If you're in the South West this weekend, pass by for their birthday celebration in Exeter, coinciding with the Handmade Arcade craft fair. More information is on their website.

What is the arts scene like in Exeter?

When No Guts No Glory opened we were pretty much the only creative outlet—bar a couple of galleries—for emerging artists. Since then, and especially in the last year, we've been noticing creative, crafty and arty shops and venues have been popping up all over the place. Our monthly indie art fair, Handmade Arcade, is always packed. People are coming together here and it’s great to be a part of it all!

How has the No Guts No Glory shop changed since it first opened three years ago?

The goal in the beginning was to provide an outlet for local artists and designers, but that soon broadened with people moving around the country. We provide an outlet for local and national illustrators, bringing some fantastic work to Exeter from further afield. It's a growing canvas: we've gone from a few t-shirts to a range of beautiful prints, cards, zines, magazines and other small publications.

Photo: Nathan and Hayley in NGNG-designed ware.

What's your background as creatives?

Nathan: I never really saw myself as a creative person. I started with a love of photography; taking pictures of punk rock bands. That, combined with personal values of living with a strong DIY ethos, led me to start No Guts No Glory.

Hayley: Art has always been a part of my life. There's hardly a day I remember not wanting to create, doodle or do. Yet I find it difficult to define myself as an artist. I found Nathan through writing; we became pen-pals in the old-fashioned way discussing ideas for a freeskool in Bath and sharing ideas about No Guts No Glory. Our projects grew together and we combined our creative and practical minds making No Guts No Glory what it is today.

What artists have you enjoyed collaborating with? And what project are you particularly proud of?

We've had the pleasure of collaborating with so many great illustrators, designers and photographers, including Becca Allen, Owen Gent, and Joel Millerchip to name a few.

Recently, we had an idea for a t-shirt called 'To The Waves', formed by the open seas and lighthouses we witnessed on a cycling/camping trip around the hilly North Devon coastline. With these images of rough seas and safe houses etched into our minds we began working with Dan Bowden, a Brighton-based illustrator.

The sense of depth and drama in his work really draws us into his images. We bounced our ideas around maps (and across them), journeys, navigation and the unknown dangers of the deep. When Dan sent us the final image he had spent hours hand drawing the details of the map, adding sea monsters and sailors' tools; we were completely blown away.

Photo: Dan Bowden's illustration for No Guts No Glory. See the final t-shirts online here.

Tuesday is upon us once again and that can only mean the return of Five Questions and a Song, the weekly column where we pester musicians with a quintette of questions and ask them to share one of their tracks for your listening pleasure.

This week we're talking to Canadian avant-pop duo The Zolas. Their second album, Ancient Mars, is out on the 3rd of December on Light Organ Records. In the words of the band, "it's a pop album that makes you want to walk around at night with headphones in." ‘Knot In My Heart' is the first single off the record, so plug in those headphones and have a listen below.

Tell us about your band.

We're a pop band from Canada who have a moderately popular song on the internet.

If you could ask any musician to join your band - living or dead - who would it be?

This question is tough because if you go back far enough it also becomes a Bill & Ted-style time travel situation. Given the power to warp somebody from the past into my modern-day band, I have to wonder what Mozart would do with Ableton Live.

Tell us a joke.

I couldn't think of one so I called my dad long-distance for this.
Karl: My uncle is in bad shape these days. He thinks he's a chicken.
James: That's terrible! Why haven't you taken him for psychiatric help?
Karl: Because we need the eggs.

What are your thoughts on Gerald Krasner? [asked by our last interviewees Being There]

A partner in a corporate takeover firm that specializes in insolvent football teams? Unless I'm missing something he seems like the least interesting man alive.

What can you tell us about this song?

When we first wrote this song it was beachy and South-American sounding - a bit like a Paul Simon song. Over the course of recording, it got darker and less and less organic. I love it how it is, but now that it's done and out I'd like to hear a tropical remix. The morse code in the intro was put in afterwards by Tom and Chuck (our producer) to make fun of me. I write the lyrics and it's true - too many of the lyrics on this record are about girls. The code spells "life is hard, move on".

www.thezolasmusic.com

"Knitphomania" is a term coined to highlight the rise in popularity of knitting. The embrace of this traditional craft comes at a time when technology is so common, many are rediscovering classic pastimes to rest their minds. Research has shown that the rhythmic and repetitive movements displayed whilst knitting can induce a form of relaxation, or meditation, which can help to treat conditions such as depression or chronic pain.

Whilst not everyone uses knitting as a direct form of therapy, the craft has undeniably relaxing characteristics—something that designer Kaffe Fassett is particularly enthusiastic about.

Kaffe moved to England in 1964 from his birthplace in San Francisco. The Beatles were hitting the headlines, England entered the European Championships for the first time and Kaffe was edging his way into textile design.

Photo: Kaffe Fassett with some of his textile work.

He began his career as a painter in London, coming to Britain on the advice of a friend, after initially deciding to bypass the country on a tour of Europe. He was told that England would be "good for him" and set off to find out what this meant. After visiting Italy and France, amongst other locations, he arrived in the land he had once thought un-exotic and of little interest to him. To his surprise, he discovered that it was "more exotic than any of those places".

England allowed Kaffe to explore heritage and humour that was as yet unknown to him. And, after, visiting a Scottish mill his passion for knitting was ignited. Here's a short video interview with Kaffe on where this interest led him. The full interview is available here.

The philosopher Plato famously said that you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. It makes you wonder then, how he would have handled himself in a light bulb joust to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, or at the reigns of a clumsy pixelated unicorn.

Last Friday we found ourselves at London's Conway Hall for Playful 2012, a conference on the subject of fun and games - and behavioural science. With comedian Josie Long serving as compere for the day, around a dozen speakers presented ideas about creativity and user engagement from the fields of video games through to artists' books, market research and product design.

Photo: Playful 2012 by Tim Crook

Mark Sorrell from game design studio Hide&Seek talked about the need for computer-mediated games rather than computer games, taking the focus off the screen so that players interact with each other instead. We heard Hannah Donovan of This Is My Jam speak on the subject of digital craft and what customisable social media platforms have meant for the online projection of identity. There was a particularly entertaining talk by Bennett Foddy, ethicist and creator of QWOP - considered by some to be the world's most frustrating game - on why suffering is enjoyable for players.

The best part? Being introduced to the Danish Clapping Game. Our hands will never be the same.

The stories about the body from issue 12 are now online.

The scar on my elbow, by Jason Ward
My first deodorant was called Mum, by Rosanna Durham
I woke up one morning and felt old, by Ellie Phillips

Jason's piece tells a time when "my bike was better at being a bike than I was at being a person," and Rosanna's is a wonderfully frank look at puberty. Ellie explores her mixed feelings about getting older.

The series is accompanied with photos by Jocelyn Catterson, a lover of mountains.

David sent through this photograph of Issue ten out on deck during his Mediterranean cruise.

He says: "My wife and I were on an adventure which would see us cruise the Mediterranean as a prelude to my 60th birthday celebrations. I thought you might like this little balcony shot; the relaxing and informative tone of your magazine perfectly blended with the splendour of the magnificent Mediterranean with all its ancient treasures and exciting ports of call."

If you've a photograph of Oh Comely at home or on holiday, we'd love to see it! Send images to [email protected].

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the epics, spectacles and blockbusters that dominate local multiplex cinemas.

But if you fancy a change of pace, and a lot more choice, 138 Brick Lane is home to Close Up Film Library which has a catalogue of over 17,000 films to choose from.

Photo: Close Up film library: the most extensive independent film collection in London behind the BFI.

Unlike your typical film rental store, Close Up specialises in art-house cinema; from documentaries, experimental film, and films by independent makers. To stretch the scope of their collection even further, Close Up have DVD releases from all over the world. Including the odd blockbuster, if that’s what takes your fancy. 

Their ambition is to make film art and culture accessible to everyone, an objective that couldn’t be more possible with the wealth of media that is available to loan from the shop. Alongside the film collection, there's a library of books; some academic, others with practical advice on film making. Soon to be added are scripts and novels of adapted films. Film equipment is available for hire, along with technical assistants trained to set up for small screenings.

Photo: Still from Gustav Deutsch's Film ist (1-12), a screening of which on 30th October is free to Close Up members.

A lot of exciting things are taking off with this organisation. Not least including the building of small cinema—approximately 30 seats—for the most intimate of screenings. 

Membership is £10 a month, which gives you access to the collection and free film screenings. And you can read Vertigo, Close Up's online film magazine, here.

Strawberry Fields is a film that feels woozy in the way that late summer often can. Emotions are heightened, stakes are raised, and caution is thrown to a mid-August wind.

The film follows a group of transient strawberry pickers as they muddle through their emotional problems amidst the beauty of the Kent countryside. Primarily a claustrophobic drama about the battle between Gillian (Anna Madeley) and her emotionally unbalanced sister name Emily (Christine Bottomley), Strawberry Fields focuses on issues of sexuality, family, and mental illness.

To coincide with its release on DVD, we spoke to writer-director Frances Lea about making the film.

Did the film have any direct inspiration?

I went strawberry picking once and there were three ex-cons and some Cambridge students and a small romance between two of those so there were many things that came together.

Photo: Catching the sun; Gillian (Anna Madeley) in Strawberry Fields.

Even though it’s set in Kent, it feels like another world. How did you try to achieve that dreamlike quality?

It was a very conscious decision to make the film feel timeless through the art direction and the costume, so you can’t quite place when it was made by the clothes or the cars or other objects. With the cinematography we focused on using handheld and slow motion and certain camera angles to get a sense of Gillian’s perspective. She has a peculiar and particular view of the world that’s also been distorted by her relationship with Emily. I wanted to distract the viewer, in the way that Gillian is distracted by the beautiful environment.

Did you feel a responsibility in how you portrayed mental illness? Obviously you want to make something dramatic and emotional but you’re dealing with conditions that people actually have as well.

That’s what I was trying to do with the script, balance the two: make it a dramatic story and also one that at its heart had a message I thought could be important to others, a universal point in it that other people would relate to. I was a writer in residence at Bedford prison for two years and I’ve worked with people who have special needs and I’ve also made a documentary about psychiatric hospitals. Over the years I’ve had a lot of interest in mental health and institutions and how they deal with people. In prisons now lots of people who should have been in institutional psychiatric care have slipped through the net and ended up in prison.

Photo: Sisters Gillian and Emily reconcile. The emotional drama surrounds their shared love interest in Kev.

You made Strawberry Fields for a very low budget in just 28 days. Are there benefits to that kind of compressed filmmaking?

Mostly I think it’s a really tough way to make a film. But the film was proving difficult to get made and funded, possibly because of the content, and maybe the remit of the scheme that financed it meant that they could take a risk.

They were actively looking for people with distinctive voices who couldn’t get their work made in the mainstream, I suppose that’s the benefit of making a film on this budget, because it got made and wouldn’t have otherwise, but it’s a very, very tough way to make a film. To make a quality film on that budget is difficult. But at least I made the film the way I wanted to make it. That’s definitely a big positive.

Photo: Gillian and Kev (Emun Elliott).

It looks very striking considering how little time you had.

We were very prepared for what we were looking to achieve, and worked very hard to make everything come together in the time we had. There were no accidents in the creation of the film, thankfully. We were amazingly lucky with the weather. It was one of the only months in the last eighteen where we had three weeks of glorious sunshine and then it rained after that. We had two or three days of horrible weather and those were the ones we weren’t filming in the fields, so we were blessed.

It was very important that it looked sumptuous because that was what was bigger than Gillian, what was taking her out of her shrunken world was this bigger picture, this beauty around her. I wanted it to seduce and entice her with that bigger world.

Strawberry Fields is released on DVD this week. Watch a trailer of the film at BBC Films.