The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2013 Part 1. &made, Lindsey Tyson, Alison Graham, Dionne Swift, Amanda Anderson, Hannah Nunn, Rachel Wood and Geraldine Murphy.

Hello everyone, just back from a few days break in London.  Hands up who missed their monday helping of Fishink Blog  yesterday ?  Lol.

Here’s the first of two reports featuring the work of ‘new-to-me’ designers who were exhibiting at the GNCCF (Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair) last friday til sunday in Manchester.  I’ll start off with some familiar favourites. Andrea from &made, a joint stand from the MCDC and embroidered works from textile artist Dionne Swift.

I was lucky to also catch up with talented designer Hannah Nunn, who had her beautiful new range of wallpaper designs on show. Apparently her best seller in the lamp range, is still the cow parsley design, and with the intricate and delicate shapes, it’s easy to see why that is.

The first of the ‘new to me’ designers was the very smiley Geraldine Murphy, who had travelled over from Dublin, especially for the event.  She is  a clever lady, with qualifications in Sociology, Business Communication and Computer Animation… is there anything she cannot do I wondered. She can also create wonderful wall art and jewellery with silver and enamels. Inspired by the pets around her she sketches and photographs the animals and then turns them into her own creations under her business name of ‘Saba’. Stunning.

Next up was Ceramist Rachel Wood, who had travelled from Worksop, near Nottingham. We had a great chat about how Rachel really likes to bond with and personalise her work, hence the finger marks on her work which have become a recognisable feature. She is a keen walker and lover of the outdoors and again the landscape and it’s colours appear often in her work.  I love their textures and said to Rachel that they have an ‘unearthed’ quality to them and hoped that she wouldn’t mind me saying that. She told me that a lot of people think the same thing and it’s almost complimentary, as it means that people make that link from her work to the land for themselves.

Another ceramist who identifies very closely with the outdoors was keen surfer Alison Graham.  Again we had a lovely talk about Alison’s passion for surfing, which she tries to do most days before her ceramic work even begins. This early riser lives for the surf and brings back to her studio such amazing colours of the ‘sun-rise-skies’ that translate into her work.  Beautiful oranges, and pinks sail across her porcelain wares and come alive even more when a tea light is popped inside. Just look at these.

Amanda Anderson from Wigwam Arts has a keen eye for an illustrative animal. Her quirky birds and creatures would add pleasure and smiles to any home. Her colours and decoration are beautiful, I wanted to own a whole menagerie as soon as I saw them, sadly the house is too small for a mosaic zoo right now, perhaps the odd, small armadillo could be introduced and house-trained sometime in the future ! : )

Finally for part one of this two part review, we have the work of Textile Designer Lindsey Tyson. Lindsey specialised in jacquard weaving during her early studies. After a lifetime of making and creating, Lindsey has finally set up her own business to create wonderful pieces of art and textiles, as well as teaching others how to express themselves through art and design. She works in felt creating brooches, vessels, bowls, vases, felt ‘pebbles’, and pictures. I thought her dragonfly and bee pebbles looked very cosy, nestled in their boxes and baskets.

Catch up with a few more talented folk on friday for part two of this review. Thanks to everyone who I chatted with who happily let me photograph their work and themselves. It was a great event and thrilling to see such vibrant and fresh work.