This April the much missed British Craft Trade Fair returns to Harrogate after a two year break, and Design-Nation returns too. We’ve missed this long standing and revered trade event, and so we welcome back this experience. BCTF have new owners and a refreshed approach, but still show the same care and passion for promoting the best makers from across the UK.
Design-Nation will present five skilled and beautiful brands on our stand, each with a distinctive look, hand-crafting beautiful objects both to be worn and for homes.
Atlantic Design Studio is the creation of designer and silversmith Lou Gillett. Lou’s background as an architect/designer show clearly in her contemporary jewellery. She happily experiments with new ideas, forms, textures and design philosophies, clearing wearable pieces in a series of distinctive ranges, from clean sharp lines to free-flowing organic forms. Making is something Lou has always done since she was a small child.
Statement silver jewellery from Atlantic Design Studio has been featured in Ox Mag, Brides, Ulster Tatler, Vogue and GQ, as Lou sometimes works in collaboration with fashion designers. She is a member Design Nation, the Guild of Jewellery Designers and a Crafts Council Directory Member, and lives and works in Northern Ireland.
CLEAN MODERN FORMS
Amy Leigh is an environmentally conscious contemporary designer and maker, of jewellery and decorative objects and vessels. Each piece is unique and handcrafted by Amy in her Suffolk studio, using sustainable materials and innovative techniques. Her signature pieces combined water-cast pewter and eco resin in clean modern forms whose surface detail never repeats. We’re also showcasing Amy’s work in our exhibition Our Journey at The Hub Sleaford at present, and were delighted to include her at London Design Week 2021.
Angela Ibbs Mosaics is a Lincolnshire brand, creates unique hand jewellery and interior pieces. Designer and brand owner Angela’s distinctive colourful mosaics are made with stunning selections of iridescent glass, vintage china, ceramic and Italian millefiori, each piece subtly different but recognisably hers. Angela’s mosaics are inspired by nature, animal and human forms, folk art and style movements.
These decorative and attractive pieces are both to wear and for the home. For Angela mosaic as a medium is an enjoyable exploration of choices, selection materials that create effective and durable solutions, through picking, cutting, laying and combining materials. These pieces reflect and shape light, giving extra fascination.
Silversmith, metalsmith, jeweller and designer, Emma-Jane Rule is impressively multi-skilled and talented. Using the technique of fold-forming alongside traditional silversmithing practices, Emma-Jane explores the intriguing nature of metals. Her unique creations are tactile, sculptural and have an organic flow, reflecting the lines and rhythms found in the natural world, which is where she finds her inspiration.
Surface textures and additional finishes and patinas enhance each piece. Emma-Jane make sculptural work for interiors, as vessels and coils, and also innovative gleaming lighting designs, all formed in her Leicestershire studio. She has shown at both London Craft Week and the Decorex interior design fair.
TACTILE & SCULPTURAL
Inner Finn makes unique, functional and sculptural pieces for interiors and the table, from designer and business owner Julie Fewtser’s home studio in Cheshire. These collections of tactile porcelain vessels and sculptures reflect Julie’s desire to create everyday objects that invite touch, love and use. Julie wants her beautiful designs to offer users a moment of calm in this busy world. She concentrates on slip casting processes and completes each step of the production process by hand.
We’re all on stand 52 and our membership manager Hayley Banks will be available throughout the BCTF 2022 event. Hayley will be delighted to help you find out more about these clever designers, and also about Design-Nation, our programme and membership.
We will also be showcasing new work from recent craft and design graduates. Our Graduate programme is a great way to launch a career in craft and design. Exhibiting makers are ceramicists Annita McKee and Bircan Harper, and jewellers Lindey Tydeman and Yuka Jourdain.
FROM PERSONAL TO UNIVERSAL
And do look out for other DN members with their own stands throughout BCTF: Jan Scott Ceramics (stand 214) shows handmade sculptural wall art, vessels, platters and jewellery in both stoneware & porcelain, inspired by the seasons and observed from her base in Lancashire. Sheffield-based Jenny Chan (stand P43) also works mainly in stoneware with carefully selected glazes, drawing on her Hong Kong heritage and life experiences, to create unique and striking hand-built figurative sculptures that celebrate women, their faces, and the stories behind them; sometimes personal to Jenny and sometimes more universal.
Olive Pearson (stand 136) makes luxurious, knitted accessories in her Glasgow studio, combining traditional techniques with contemporary design in natural fibres including cashmere, merino, cotton and silk; slow-fashion pieces with beautiful colour combinations and patterns that explore repetition in small-scale geometrics. Pratima Kramer (stand 193) primarily works in ceramic but also glass, making charming and quirky animal sculptures and figurines; rich in form, colour, texture and detail, these one-off pieces draw on the rich visual history of her childhood in India.
British Craft Trade Fair is at Harrogate Visitor Centre, 10 – 12 April. Visitor registration is here.