Contemporary Crafts

Alaina Kerry lainakerry@hotmail.co.uk 07958111594

Alaina Kerry’s work is exploring the use of shape, form and colour. Within her work she is approaching how these elements of design can work in harmony with each other. Acrylic laser cut shapes are repeated on a graduating scale and specific pieces are manipulated by a heat form. The repetition of shapes are the creation of these forms and each component is dyed so a variety of colours are used. Colour is considered as a main design element within Alaina’s work and she controls this through the process of dying.

Alice McLean www.alicemclean.co.uk alicemclean@hotmail.com 07815474452

Alice McLean’s work is focused around the theme of journeys, from the mundane to the extraordinary. She is inspired by finding various ways of constructing wearable contraptions/jewellery that document journeys through the interaction with the wearer. The interaction between the wearer and the jewellery piece is important to her as it ensures a connection between the two that may be positive or negative, hopefully provoking thought and conversation.

Alice McLean uses everyday media such as ink or sand and combines it with precious silver and glass.

Amiee Lawn amieelawn@yahoo.co.uk 07545226176

‘Imprint of the Unsaid’ The moment before you fall, that moment of contemplation and beauty....

What happens when you land, what imprint do you leave, do you ever land at all?

Amiee’s work explores lifes thresholds, exploring the moments of clarity and awareness that we feel in moments of change. With these pieces of work, Amiee engages the audience with the evoking emotions of the fragility of life and death; her work reveals liminal space, and the imprints that are often left unsaid.

This series of sculptures are intended to hold their own presence, whilst creating a captivating yet gentle relationship with the viewer.

Ana Santos rmsantos.ana@gmail.com 07780916749

Inspired by the bust of Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt between 1370 and 1330. Featured in the Royal Cornwall Museum.

BCE, Ana investigated the lower classes that supported life in Egypt.

She was inspired to create this anklet to represent the hardship and suffering that the lower classes such as the slaves would have endured.

It will serve as a reminder to its wearer of the existence of these forgotten underprivileged classes.

Anna Kaya nee Smart www.annakaya.com anna.kaya@rocketmail.com 07889258882

Anna creates sculptures that present her response to particular urban settings.

In this series, she documented the A390 motorway, between Threemilestone and Truro.

Focussing on themes of urban erosion and traces of human behaviour, Anna’s pieces present themselves as characters, having been formed by their individual histories.

Corinne Scurr cozzieanne@googlemail.com 07588708091

Corinne’s work has grown from conceptual ideas about the human mind and how the emotional workings of it may be expressed in art. Her interest in realising the physical form of an emotion, combined with repetitive shapes has enabled her pieces to develop into abstract artworks that can be enjoyed with or without concept.

Emma Davies e_davies@live.co.uk

Emma Davies has created an intriguing collection of chairs, in which she has interpreted the seven deadly sins, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.

Inspired by the Darwinism theories and other belief systems she has used found chairs that to her, symbolize each sin, where each chair takes on a trait that enhances its true character.

Heather Eaton hevs1804@hotmail.co.uk 07757603897

‘God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another.’ Hamlet, 3.1 Without realising it, we all use and understand the language of the face. It is what we primarily base our judgment of a person’s character on.

The aims of these pieces were to take away the original identity of a persons face so as to explore the many other characteristics and personalities the individual may have. The artist has used various coloured acrylic to create and enhance these different layers of the face.

Holly Smith www.hollysmithdesigns.com hollysmith@hollysmithdesigns.com 07900607287

Holly Smith’s jewellery holds a strong message with each piece highlighting a particular issue. Holly intends her work to be utilized by the wearer in order to translate these messages to others. Her jewellery speaks to people, bringing awareness of the subject it explores.

Holly creates pieces which encourage the interaction between jewellery and its owner, including removable, usable elements within the jewellery.

Through working in a variety of materials, the tactile combination of which is carefully considered, Holly ensures the physical quality of each material compliments the next.

Holly’s ‘Hunted’ collection gives an insight into the creatures humans hunt. The collection is an A-Z designed to capture the imagination through its interactive elements and facts presented in a combination of ways.

Janie Tonkin www.janietonkin.com info@janietonkin.com 07852165628

Janie Tonkin’s work comprises of thrown, altered and embellished porcelain.

The objects are sculptural and intriguing, successfully combining contrasts of surface texture with form. One may feel repelled by the objects or conversely attracted to them. The curiosity of experiencing discomfort and desire to touch will temporarily satisfy – providing an instantaneous sense of pleasure. Porcelain promotes fragility, yet when used in unconventionally harsh ways, the material becomes definite and stubborn. By creating a form that yearns to be cradled but is thick with an uninviting layer of sharp spines, the desire to feel becomes playfully denied. It is the appropriately combined surface and form that intentionally distort one’s instinct to touch.

Jennifer Brophy j_brophy@hotmail.co.uk

Jenny Brophy has created a forest of bells out of ceramics in a series of sizes.

This interactive piece, is inspired by the Japanese Zen garden and Buddhist tradition.

She hopes that the viewer takes time out to walk through the forest, and feel the calm and tranquil benefits it provides, creating a sense of well-being.

Jessica Adams jessicaadams@olddeadeye.com

Growing up in Birmingham, Jessica is familiar with the large housing estates that inhabit the cities suburbs. The repetitive nature of this landscape is an aesthetic that she has translated into her work through duplicating the form of a ‘home’. Jessica depicts the home environment as an isolated unit where its shell can conceal many secrets and narratives from the community that surrounds it. The forms are influenced by the glamour of 1950s domesticity. They are composed of mixed materials where the glossy ceramics juxtapose the ugliness of standard architectural materials such as concrete, plaster and wood.

Joseph Seymour joeseymour1234@hotmail.com 07772678258

Joe’s current work draws inspiration from ancient cultural art and the ideas behind what make up the fantasies and visions of the post modern world.

Through a detailed analysis of form, function and texture, he combines elements from both eras to create visually stimulating, timeless pieces.

Katherine Durrant www.katdurrant.co.uk katdurrant@hotmail.com 07515091493

Kat Durrant has always been fascinated by found objects and papers, speculating over their previous lives and the lives of their previous owners. Ideas of memory, Human connection and sentimentality have been echoed throughout all of Kat’s work, accompanied by a curiosity for modern day domestic situations Kat looks into the significant question of to what extent do our experiences in life to date form our personal identity?

Utilizing a naturally illustrative style, Kat goes on to create a series of books and accompanying items that depict a mixture of her own memories and fabricated stories surrounding the found objects which have been incorporated.

Kate Townsend kate_t36@hotmail.com

Kate Townsend focuses her work on utilising new technologies to create narrative scenes, which draw on influences that include fairytales, myths, and fables. Using laser cutting as a main method, Kate Townsend cuts out small intricate patterns to create larger structures. Colour is an important aspect to these designs, bringing life to the objects; these objects will then in hand create shadows, which will tell a specific story. Text and imagery will be incorporated into these shadows so the narrative of the fairy tale is clear to the reader. Kate’s work represents the imagination; it is like a book coming to life in front of you.

Katie Hadley ktjane_13@yahoo.co.uk 07796271545

Katie Hadley uses glass as her canvas. Using various media such as acrylic paint, spray paint and markers Katie translates elements of her personality onto layered sheet glass. She seeks inspiration from past art movements, popular culture and nostalgia to create busy glass structures.

Lisa Bate maker.LAB@googlemail.com 07707079898

My inspiration comes from science, machine and what we think of as ‘natural‘ in today’s world. I take elements from microscopic life forms, the complex geometric shapes found in underground geology, and the man made mechanically engineered world. My inventions of hybrid creatures can move, are magnetic and inter-changeable, which gives these sculptures a life of their own.

I find it challenging as a designer maker, and find the process for my intricate designs are solved in a lost wax casting technique, this enables me to create repeated forms in kiln formed glass, and investment casting using a variety of metals. These sculptures hold a sense of tension - which is shown in the combination of these two materials. How these materials support and connect to one another is also an important part of my design process.

Lisa Prior lisabellatinashoe@hotmail.co.uk

Lisa Prior has been inspired by the Aesop fables, Particularly the story of “the crow and the water jug” and also using inspiration from life experiences.

Crating a series of objects which symbolise moments in her life which reflect hardships and successful memorable moments in her life.

Using textiles in her work creating three dimensional forms playing with large and small scale. Knitting, felting and free hand stitching. Lisa like manipulating materials but also letting the materials decide on how they end.

Lucy Foakes foakesfish@hotmail.co.uk 07858373035

Lucy’s work is a bridge between the adult mind and child’s play; using ceramic vessels as canvas she expresses personal thoughts, desires and beliefs. Inspired by the culture of collecting, the pieces are a non-offensive aesthetic for collecting in, and as collectables themselves.

Lucy Shipp lucyshipp@gmail.com 07951094057

Lucy Shipp is interested in raw elements of composition. Inspired by the overlooked aspects of the everyday; the intuitive, inadvertent traces that people have left behind. Lucy seeks to capture this immediacy within her work, valuing mistakes and experiments that can only arise through the physical process of making. She is interested in the beauty of the spontaneous act, and the accompanying element of risk. Her work is intuitive and experimental, open to the idea that there is more than one way of doing things and seeing things.

Lucy takes inspiration from amateur techniques and objects that display their signs of editing and making, evidencing the thought process behind it - setting out to create something new.

Mandy Biscoe mandybiscoe@hotmail.com

Mandy Biscoe is interested in universal story types, as a starting point for her work, particularly those found in fairytales. They have been described as part of our cultural identity world wide, our common human experience leading to common solutions, through story. Her aim is for her work to be accessible to all ages, as are the stories. Introduced to us as children we re-visit them throughout our lives, whether consciously or unconsciously. They are alive and current through re-telling in literature, the media, advertising, film and all the creative arts, and have a depth of history that goes back thousands of years, with the oral tale. Her work varies in scale and medium, using both traditional craft and modern laser techniques in order to realise her interpretations.

Sophie Massingale sophiemassingale@hotmail.com 07891346070

Sophie’s work is inspired by the organic formations of seed pods, of enclosing precious objects and ideas, and the conception of the four main human sensesSight, Sound, Smell and Taste. The pod maybe the re-birth of our senses; or just hold silence; or bones, for not all seeds flourish; or rattle with the breeze and the agitation of their seeds; or be abused and so in turn harm others.

Tara Jeffery www.tarajeffery.co.uk tarajeffery@hotmail.co.uk 07786086331

Tara Jeffery’s work is loosely based around her love of plants and nature.

Throughout her course at Falmouth she has specialised in glass, because of its qualities of transparency and colour. She focused on combining a mixture of different sized glass pieces which reflect the form of flowers.

During the creating process, Tara has found colour to be a very important aspect, so she uses gaffer glass for the vibrant range of colours they can produce. This included artificially lighting the glass to increase the intensity of the pieces.

Toni Miles tonimiles01@hotmail.co.uk

Toni’s work draws inspiration from an interest in travelling and the Nomadic lifestyle, looking at essential items needed for a back to basics style of living. From this she focuses particularly on the importance of the vessel. Using found objects, particularly made from glass, Toni recycles the original shapes using a variety of machinery. These are then re-constructed to create new, original forms.