The Great Outdoors

Amanda is a designer, illustrator and printmaker. She specialises in natural themes and also has an interest in architectural and industrial history.

Amanda works with traditional methods such as lino printing, watercolour and pen & ink, often combining these elements into a contemporary format.

Amanda creates delicate hand-made, paper lantern shades that comes supplied with a string of LED fairy lights. The lights can be stretched out and positioned inside the lantern to create a pretty glow.

The design is illustrated in watercolour, line art and printmaking and is printed digitally onto parchment paper, it’s finished with hand sewing and flexible maple strips, top and bottom.

It creates a charming ambient light that is designed to highlight the artwork.

Block Design was founded in 2000 by Tara Ashe. Keen to combine a passion for design with their engineering background, to create a range of functional and beautiful lifestyle products.

20 years on Tara is proud to lead a team of seven creatives, each integral to design and production. Each day the studio is a collaborative hub of creativity, colour and innovation. Each product begins life in the studio, situated above the workshop. They love bold, geometric lines and shapes, and work hard to deliver the highest quality design and finish. Colour is integral to the collections. Palettes are carefully selected, considering current trends and also celebrating classic movements in design. Using no more than two components, each product offers a simple functional solution for desk and home.

Botanical Glass is inspired by the forests, mountains, rivers and meadows in the beautiful North Wales countryside. Influenced by the plants and trees and how colours, light and shapes change throughout the seasons. Fusing glass, coloured frits, enamels, painted imagery and using sandblasting to create layers of pattern and depth.

Designer & glass artist Caroline Rees works from her studio near the beach on the beautiful Gower Peninsula.

Originally trained as a textile designer her creative journey has included the design of fabrics, glass and paper and a small selection of her archive can be viewed here. She began using her stencil technique to create architectural sandblasted glass about 15 years ago and has undertaken numerous commissions for public and private space. More recently she has employed the same process to create a collection of intricate papercuts which are framed and function as artworks in their own right. Passionate about drawing, design and decoration, Caroline uses both paper and glass as a surface to embellish, enjoying the fact that she is creating a product which is both decorative and beautiful.

Clarrie Flavell studied applied arts at N.E.W.I, graduating in the summer of 2002. Specializing in metalwork and mixed media, she moved to Glascoed, Abergele later that year, and set about building a workshop called ‘Blue Earthworm’ where she could continue her work. Drawing inspiration from the coastline, Clarrie creates unique muscle shell rings, using oxidization to mimic the natural patina and colour of the shells.

Elin is an artist from Machynlleth who makes prints using Collograph and Linocut. This series is based on the landscape around her in the Dovey Valley. The work derives from her appreciation of the rural way of life, traditions, the Welsh language, Welsh culture and the beauty of the landscape surrounding her which is an integral part of her life.

Holly draws inspiration from nature and the English countryside, its natural stone and the texture of the landscape. Holly casts gold and silver into twig forms, producing them into fine brooches, earrings and bangles. Many of her pieces contain traditional semi-precious stones but Holly is happy to use beach pebbles as if they are precious stones, she often opts for unusual shapes and cuts.

She also has a range of cast silver and gold earrings, brooches, and cufflinks employing her signature, reticulated (melted) surface texture. Necklaces are individually made in the same way. Each tubular bead, round or facet sided is softened and almost made to look organic by this process. Holly combines these with semi precious stone beads.

Jade Mellor is a jewellery designer-maker from rural Cheshire, currently based in North London. Jade inherited her love of making from her father, a cabinet maker who converted a Victorian Chapel into the family home, filled with antiques, curios and a museum-worthy collection of tools. Growing up in these unusual surroundings, it is in museums and workshops where Jade feels most at home.

The Caddis jewellery collection is intended to protect and adorn, made by Jade Mellor and inspired by the sculptural cases of the caddisfly, a clever creature known as “nature’s architect”.

Each caddis insect builds its own protective dwelling at the bottom of ponds and streams by gathering their favoured natural materials to build their distinctive structure. Carefully sorted and artfully arranged stones, twigs, or shells are all bound by their own waterproof silk to create the velvety smooth interior.

Jade is fascinated by how these creatures embellish themselves to become one with their environment and uses her research at the Natural History Museum to create this jewellery collection as wearable sculptures.

Each piece is carefully hand finished to make sure each organic texture is always comfortable to wear, finished with a luxurious highly polished interior to smoothly hug the finger.

Jayne is an award-winning textile artist living near Rhosneigr on the Isle of Anglesey.
Her artwork captures the beautiful surrounding landscape of Anglesey and of north Wales with a vibrant and contemporary twist. Works include silk paintings, appliquéd artwork, limited and open edition prints and cards.
Jayne has an evident love of bright and bold colours and is continually fascinated by the fluidity of the paint as it spreads across the fine habotai silk that she paints on. These paints from the silk painting palette are encapsulated by the simplicity of line in Jayne’s artwork. Her style is naïve yet shows a sophistication and assurance in design with careful execution.

Jayne likes to make people smile and this reflects in the subject matter that she chooses which give us all a glimpse of those sunny days when life is filled with optimism and dreams.

A graduate from Leicester Polytechnic in 1987 in Fashion/Textile Design BA (Hons) Jayne initially worked as a designer in the fashion business for M&S and NEXT retail before specialising in textiles.

Jayne is Exhibition Secretary of the North Wales Society of Fine Art; she is a member of The International Guild of Silk Painters, The Anglesey Arts Forum and The Gwynedd & Clwyd Association of Craft Workers.

Having trained in ceramics in London, I moved to the area 20 years ago. Living in the Vale of Clwyd, close to Denbigh, my studio is based in the heart of my home – literally the dining room! Perhaps it is this that defines the small domestic pieces that I primarily make. This wheel-thrown work, with the hand-drawn decorations, reflects the nature and surrounding landscape from which I draw inspiration; decorative, but intended for practical use, they are also dishwasher safe.

Alongside my thrown work, I also make larger vessels. These are hand-built and take on a more abstract form of decoration – again reflecting local landscape and dramatic weather as inspiration. Here I have freedom to use clay in a more expressive way and to experiment with locally found materials, which I often use in the making process.

Jenny Rothwell works with anodised aluminium and silver to create this light and colourful range of jewellery. Each piece is a unique interpretation of her mountain and coastal walks. This collection is inspired by her explorations of the Eryri (Snowdonia) and Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacon) National Parks.

Julie invites you to “Come Wander with Me. Whether urban or woodland, coast or field – no matter. The pace of walking matches your thinking. Your gaze falls to your feet, a small object catches your eye – a fragment of pretty shell or unusual shaped twig”.

Using lost wax casting and burnout techniques these gathered objects are transformed into metal to create wearable and collectible pieces celebrating Nature’s treasures.

Julie is a hands-on designer/ maker completing all stages of the process herself, preferring analogue tools to work at a thinking pace.

Complementing her practice Julie also enjoys working with students at Wrexham School of Creative Arts, Glyndwr University, where she teaches on the Applied Arts degree course.

Karen’s jewellery combines this love of material with a strong sense of place and a fascination with the natural world.

The collections are intrinsically linked to the sea and inspired by walks along the beaches of her native Anglesey or visits to Ynys Enlli/ Bardsey Island. Karen draws influence from the tangles of seaweed left at high tide, the exciting treasure found along the shoreline as well as the golden wind-blown marram grass.

Designs are developed through drawing and experimentation in metal. These are translated into silver or gold by hand in her workshop overlooking the Carneddi Mountains, on the edge of Snowdonia. Karen endeavours to use only recycled silver and gold whenever possible and is also a registered Fairtrade goldsmith.

Lily Faith is a textile and product designer from the South West of the United Kingdom. Inspired by the hedgerows and their inhabitants of her native Devon, Lily creates hand drawn illustrations, and then transposes them into wood, with the help of her faithful friend Gloria – the laser cutter.

Using sustainable sourced materials, hand painted and printed details, Lily faith creates timeless decorations and embellishments for your home. Celebrating the different visitors to the garden, and favourite friends from the woods, Lily’s enchanting drawings capture your heart.

Each piece is intricately reproduced into FSC wood, hand painted and hand finished from Lily’s studio overlooking the bird table. All presented in recycled packaging.

Originally, I trained as a jeweller and silversmith at Birmingham School of Jewellery. About fifteen years ago I was asked to lead an art project in a primary school as part of an artist in residence programme. The medium was to be mosaic, and that was when I was captivated and moved from metalwork to using glass and ceramic tiles. My techniques have grown out of my early gem-setting skills, using small pieces of coloured stained glass, glass tiles and drops and large quantities of mirror tiles to create decorative embellished two-dimensional surfaces.

Inspiration for my mosaic designs comes from my interests in East European and historic embroidered textiles, where brightly coloured silks are stitched against dark backgrounds. From this comes my use of brightly coloured glass set within black grout. It creates an additional graphic line around the tiles.

Recent work has focused on what I describe as mosaic floristry, using the garden as my inspiration, with sinuous trailing lines and floral shapes bursting with colour. A commission to create a series of floral garden stakes to decorate a garden to be opened to the public led me to create and extend my garden series, everlasting flowers bringing colour to a border or conservatory.

Mouse Sails started in the late 1980’s making sails for windsurfers and yachts. Floss took over when their parents retired.

They aim to minimise sailings impact on the environment by reusing and recycling old, damaged and discarded sails, which are used as raw materials for their range of bags.

Each bag is unlined and designed to be a working bag, with the hard-wearing sail material making them quick to dry and easy to clean.

The bags all bear the marks of their previous usage and life at sea. On the bags label you will be able to find the sail type, area of sailing and notable features on the sail such as: hank stains, reefing points, repairs or abrasions, prototype, batton pockets or UV effects.  These features make each bag completely unique.

OR8DESIGN is Owen Findley, designing and hand screenprinting from his studio in Leeds, West Yorkshire. A contemporary take on the landscape print, Owen’s work has been described as ‘minimalist wanderlust’. Embracing negative space and bold, flowing shapes, he draws the viewer in and takes them on an adventure through the landscape. His minimal prints focus less on the detail and more on capturing the emotion of a place; hazy memories of childhood visits and fleeting moments from favourite holidays. This gives his prints a calm, dream-like feel.

The nature of screenprinting helped to inform the signature OR8DESIGN style, using the fewest colours for the greatest impact. Even after 10 years of printing, the delight of lifting the screen on the final colour and seeing that the print has been a success has never gone away for Owen.

Pat is an artist and linocut printmaker based in Snowdonia, North West Wales.

They state “I have sketched, drawn and painted all my life but it wasn’t until five years ago when I discovered linocut printing that I found the medium that totally and completely suited me.

The different elements of breaking the image down into its component parts, precise carving and then ink application, a layer at a time, each image slightly different to the last, is magical to me.”

Paul’s career has always been immersed in the world of furniture design and making, starting with a Masters Degree in Furniture Design.

This led to further opportunities to work for larger scale businesses, designing and manufacturing upholstery and cabinet product ranges for the main UK furniture retailers such as Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Next and key independent stores.

Paul’s underlying ambition however, was to eventually return to artisan design and his attendance at a creative green woodworking course in 2018 ignited this desire.

Green woodworking is a very rewarding process allowing Paul to hand shape freshly cut timber before gently drying out the moisture. Paul uses a draw knife and spoke shave on a shave horse, often outside in the forest, and leaves the makers marks intact to give texture and character to each piece.

Steam bending is an ancient process where timber is held in a steam box in which it softens and becomes pliable. This allows Paul to then create sculptural, flowing forms without the need for glue or laminating.

Autumn leaves decoupage is a process unique to Paul products. Inspired by the beauty of autumn leaves, Paul developed a process to press, dry and then apply the leaves to a flat surface such as a table top or clock face. He gently sands back the surface to highlight the vein structures and colours producing a unique pattern on every piece.

Revival Homewares create all their vases from sustainable recycled bio-plastics.

Waste from fruit punnets is made into reels of filament, which are then used in 3D printers. The printers melt the plastic and reform it into vases. PLA* is fully biodegradable, it will breakdown naturally in the environment. It can be recycled again industrially or hot composted to quickly return the corn-based plastic back to nature.

It is best to use dried flowers to display in the vases. If you plan to use water and fresh flowers, we advise you to test fill the vase with water first before use for any weakness.

*PLA is a sustainable and carbon-negative alternative to plastics produced using fossil fules. Waste biomass from the production of corn, cassava or sugar is fermented into Lactic Acid. PolyLactic Acid or PLA is formed when the waste material is condensed with a tin based catalyst, with the water removed. The process is also reversible, PLA can be recycled back into virgin PLA indefinitely.

Roz has a background in Floristry, a degree in Applied Arts (metalwork) and interest in Archaeology which merge together to form what she describes as an “ever evolving taxonomy of wearable talismanic keepsakes”.

Roz describes herself as “a dawdler, one who ponders and wonders as I wander. I am fascinated by the smaller, subtle things in life which contribute to the rich tapestry of our truly amazing world”

Hedgerow, meadow, woodland and seashore reveal innumerable tiny treasures; leaves, seed heads, twigs, lichen, fossils, shells, seaweed. She collects and studies these curios. She feels they keep her grounded and connected to nature. With their tactile qualities enriching her day.

Roz attempts to evoke the passing of time with rich patinas and gradation of colour, which evolves in her workshop through traditional silversmithing techniques and vitreous enamelling. Her sympathetic approach to handling materials, designing, making and finishing echoes her mindful and ‘wabi sabi’ approach to both her work and life.

Sarah loves to explore her local beaches and woodlands in Cornwall. Collecting curious objects, and always looking for driftwood, sea plastic and glass and slate pebbles. She then often uses these items both as inspiration and components in her jewellery.

Using recycled materials, found objects and old broken jewellery Sarah combines these materials with combined with eco-silver, semi-precious stones and pearls to create her sustainable jewellery.

Sarah Ross-Thompson is a Fine Art Printmaker, specialising in hand-inked collagraphs. Her work combines the vibrant colours of oil-based etching inks with the highly textural nature of collage printing blocks. Her blocks are built from materials such as string, lichen, tissue paper and kitchen salt.

Born in London in 1965, Sarah grew up in Norfolk before studying English and Classics in London. On moving to Dorset in the early 1990’s she attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, graduating in 1997.

As a member of Edinburgh Printmakers since 2012 and a regular house artist across the UK, Sarah’s work can be found in many galleries both in England and Scotland

In 2013, Sarah moved from Dorset where she had spent 20 years to Lochgoilhead on the West Coast of Scotland and has since set up a studio and gallery space where she works, exhibits and teaches.

Sophie Symes is a mixed media maker striving to create intriguing installations, jewellery and objects. Seeking out intricate surreal forms in nature to inform her tactile work, she hopes to combine beautiful form with personal concepts to create thought-provoking art.

Formally trained as a jeweller at the prestigious School of Jewellery as well as dedicated art college, Hereford College of Arts, she creates with accuracy and delicacy. Creating fine and art jewellery as well as installations and sculpture, she aims to use art as a vehicle for communication to highlight important social issues and push the boundaries of art and jewellery design.

Following personal experiences Sophie has decided to delve deeper into the subject of mental illness and its effects on the body. Many of her recent works have focused on the engulfing feeling of overwhelm. Using hand-sculpted growths reminiscent of lichen or coral, as a physical representation of overwhelm, she hopes to illustrate how it feels to experience a mental illness such as anxiety or depression. Through her encrusted creations she hopes to break down barriers and misconceptions surrounding mental health.

Set up by friends Josh and Oli, The Arboretum is a design studio based in rural Sussex.

Each miniature tree begins with an appreciation of the natural beauty of wood. Each tree is made on a lathe, carving the wood to reveal an abstract interpretation of a real tree.

These solid, tactile trees are beautiful ornaments, desk toys or even a child’s plaything.

Paula Payne is the artist behind ‘The Arboretum Print Co’. They create detailed original hand-carved lino prints inspired by nature.

Paula explains “Most of my work features trees and woodland landscapes. There are so many reasons they fascinate me and continue to be a rich, unending source of imagery. The strength of the timber, the delicate fragility of their foliage. The mossy bark, the habitat and shelter they provide, the foreboding, the movement, the poetry of the sounds they make.

I strive to capture the awe of nature, walking through the dappled light, breathing the air, I want to recapture the essence of the woodland environment. I derive immense pleasure from the processes involved in print making. From developing the compositions, to the hours I spend carving and finding the marks to evoke the atmosphere and the surfaces, to the printing.”

Drawing influence from the beautiful forests and stunning coastline that surround their home. The Butterfly and Toadstool product designs are based on original watercolour illustrations and are all created and made in their home studio on the west coast of Scotland.

The Butterfly and Toadstool is committed to producing sustainable products with eco-friendly packaging wherever possible, with a strong environmental policy and support three environmental charities through the sale of their products. The Butterfly and Toadstool the status of ‘Plastic Free Champion’ as presented by Surfers Against Sewage.

The Owlery is the trade name for Sheffield printmaker Benjamin Partridge.
As a trained teacher, in 2013, Benjamin began exploring lino cut printmaking though his day job in schools. This quickly became an obsession which later became a passion and he began to explore lino cut printmaking and began to sell his work locally.

In early 2015 he took a screen printing source and fell in love with the process. The freedom of screen printing led to a more illustrative style and the freedom to print onto a range of different materials such as paper, textiles and more recently wood.

Over the following years Benjamin developed his skills and began to explore product based printmaking, reigniting his love of textiles. Combining skills in printmaking and textiles paved the way to exploring surface pattern design and repeat imagery which features heavily in a lot of his work.

Benjamin now works from his studio in Yorkshire ArtSpace in Sheffield alongside 90 other artists and makers, selling his work locally, nationally and internationally.

Having gained her silversmithing expertise at West Dean College, and later with the Wilmslow Guild under the professional expertise of Graham Hann, Val went onto complete an M.A in the History of Art from the University of Manchester.

During her M.A Val undertook specialist research into the cultural role played by jewellery in ancient civilisations and the sacred symbolism attached to gemstones and metals in the context of ancient ritual. Val has since lectured as a Jewellery Historian with a number of universities.

Val now works from her workshop on the Welsh/Cheshire border, and uses her academic knowledge as inspiration for her jewellery collections. Val see’s her jewellery as more than a “mere expression of adornment, the jewellery is charged with a deeper inherent symbolism”. Nature, the cosmos and deep passion for birds also provide Val with strong inspiration.

North Wales based Wendy Leah Dawson is a metal and digital artist who is increasingly involved in working with new media and experimenting with scale. Wendy’s work is inspired by antiquity, mechanisms, the human urge to invent, and sometimes results in wearable objects that reflect this aesthetic.

Wendy’s ‘Swarm’ bee pendant is one of a limited edition of 128 pewter bees, made for an installation of a swarm that would later be distributed as individuals. The bee can be worn as a necklace, or hung on a thin cord and attached to a garment or object.

Modern Pewter is an alloy of tin and copper (containing no lead), it is a heavy tactile material that is safe to wear as jewellery. These bees are 20mm long and available on a stainless steel neck wire with a sterling silver clasp.

I left college with a first class degree in jewellery and silversmithing and have been designing and making ever since. In more recent times I have been developing my work with precious metal clay and bronze clay.

I have exhibited around the country at various galleries, craft fairs and festivals. I also teach at a number of venues around the country in both traditional silver and precious metal clay.