Sarah Morpeth, Ken Eardley, Janine Partington, Linda Miller.

This weekend saw Manchesters’ third Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.

A wonderful array of designers, artists, sculptors, ceramists and other craft disciplines

from up and down the country. I was there on saturday and want to say a big

‘ thank you ‘ to everyone who politely answered my questions and let me take images

of their beautiful work to put on my blog. There were about 150 stands in total so my

apologies that I’ve just pulled a few people out who’s work caught my eye.

I’m sorry but I’m like a magpie when it comes to colour and printed surfaces.

I’ll be posting my images over the next couple of days.

Sarah Morpeth completed a degree in Embroidery at Manchester Metropolitan University

about 2 years ago. Since then she has gone from strength to strength cultivating and

displaying a beautiful assortment of pop up paper gifts and hand crafted and scalpel cut books.

Now based in Northumberland in the National Park, she literally draws from her surroundings

to create the animals and nature inspired paper sculptures we see today.

Ken Eardley is a Brighton based potter, originally a textile designer who now decorates hand-made

earthenware ceramics, which are press moulded and then colourfully decorated using stencils.

Janine Partington is an emerging designer-maker in the South West combining the traditional craft

of Enamelling with fresh, contemporary designs. Enamelling is the art of fusing glass onto metal.

Janine’s work is mainly created using the technique of dusting powdered vitreous enamel

over hand-cut stencils onto copper.  It takes multiple short firings to create a finished piece of work.

Janine takes inspiration from the shape of things around her. In particular she is inspired by trees,

flowers, leaves and seed heads, and taking their shape and form in new directions.

I was familiar with the work of Linda Miller for a number of years as her playful embroideries were

always on sale in the Gallery of the Royal Exchange Craft Shop here in Manchester. I had always

admired her intensively stitched pieces as much for their craft as for the fun scenes Linda created.

She told me that in the twenty years she’s been in business this was her first time in Manchester !

May she be a regular visitor in the future.

Linda has also recently completed a fantastic book, documenting her work and showing detailed

photographs of her stitches and wonderful work. Pick up a copy here.

More artists work from this show tomorrow.