Craft Face

Craft face is the expression you use at craft fairs for displaying to the stall holder when there work is pretty poor.  It is usually accompanied by "thank you" as you work off and is usually reserved for tall willowy girls called Emily whose jewelry has been inspired by Alice in Wonderland. 

Fortunately at this years Handmade in Britain at Chelsea Town hall it hardly had to be deployed (other than in response to hand made hats.  No.  

There was much Jewelry that was good but this year my eye was caught by basically three things,  ceramics,  glass and wood.  These are the people I liked.  

Alison West Ceramics.  The technique is apparently to fire the pottery packed in leaves and foliage. They are burnt away but leaves these beguiling patterns scorched onto the surface of the vessels.  It looks, well it looks very nice. 
The pots have a nice sheen to them them.  Only a lack of funds and space meant I didn't buy one,  instead I contented myself with this cup.  

Chito Kuroda.   Simplicity can be a winning formula.  Classically Japenese in form,  there were a series of pastel shaded ceramic beakers and darker blended vases.   
They have  a nice luster for them and the dark vases are particularly nice.  There was one on display with a gold rim to it which set off the rest of the vase very nicely.   Unfortunately I could not find a picture of this. 
They also have the distinct advantage of being solid usable pieces.  

Emily Cross.  Blue!  At least this one is.  There are also these nice space ship shaped pots, which tend to be white glaze on the bottom and then a ribbon of colours similar in tone to the piece on the right around the top.
She uses, apparently,  sand collected from various beaches around the UK and the pieces are supposed to reflect their origin.  I am not too sure about that but they are nice, particularly the smaller ones which have an attractive delicate quality to them. 

J Griffin.  Wooden artefacts and wooden furniture are the name of the game here and the star of the show and the piece they had cunningly laid out to attract people to the store was this incredible coffee table (left).  It is a very pretty, solid looking things and I particularly like the bridges of wood connecting the two halves.  
In a similar style they had hand carved bowls,  boxes and small chest of draws.  The later of these had a very nice motion to them.  The price is a bit deep breath but then, look at it!

Jessica Jordan. The idea driving this is the pieces are basically landscape paintings in pottery forms.  
Its a good idea and its done well. The pottery has a nice organic quality to it.  The surface is more textured than lustorous.  An extra dimension to this is the metalised interior which has differrent textures and subtly different colours to it.  They are pieces that reward re-examination. They are nice to look at turn round.  I took away a small bowl on the right.  

Justine Munson.  The concept of Munson's porcelin is simple, for the most part.  Elegant tall vases, with a flower or plant pattern rising up the outside.  
There is some of her work that differs from this mottif but it is the ones that obey it that are the most effective.  
They are not, I have to say, to my taste.  However I can recognise well executed quality when I see it.  I admire someone who has a developed style that they deliver well and I can see that there is a certain section of the market to whom Munson's work would greatly appeal. 

Katalin Ceramics.  Again ceramics,  in various forms, but all with these flowing dripped motif encrusting the base.  It is apprently inspired by bark.   The raised edges give it a very pleasing tactile quality which is an important, and often underated element of pottery. 

Laura Smith.  Glass ! I am as had been said before a big fan of glass.  My main crticism of Handmade this year is there were only three glass stalls.  
These are excellent though.  A nice light blue quality and the etching on the outside reminds me of maps.  So beguiled was I that I came away with one,  a grey lustored creature that now adornes my bathroom. 

Mallon Foundry.  As with J Griffin above it is nice to see something a little out of the ordinary from the usual run of craft and the bronze sculptures produced by the Mallon Foundry were a delightful change of pace.
The board (pig?) picture right was my favourite but all the peices share this elongated slighlty emaciated aesthetic.  Prices in the thousands though. 

Ned Heywood. Mr Heywood,  a gentle old buffer produces what is described a heritage pottery. 
Basically it is solid, usable, nicely lustered pottery that is both decorative but practical. It is a useful space in the market to be able to occupy succesfully and he does this well.  I came away with this deep blue bowl (far left) that is now home to clemantines. 

This year was then a good show.  You may come away thinking it was mainly ceramics, having read this blog.  There was a large proponderance of ceramics to be sure however there were other things such as jewelery,  textiels,  shoes, interior and fashion excessories.  The above selection is strongly predjudiced by my taste. In past years jewelery has made it onto this blog, but not today.  I shall certainly be going next year.  It is always a good show.