New Members welcomed to the Devon Guild of Craftsmen 2009:

The Guild held its Selection days in January, March, July and November 2009. Scroll down for details.

16 January 2009:

Associate Members (selected at the 'Get Fresh' exhibition)

Anne Selby - Textiles
Anne Selby is a designer/maker who has been working with silk for many years. She specialises in creating texture, initially with devoré techniques, and has recently gained distinction in her MA in Textile Design at Bath Spa University. Her current focus is the pleating of silk using traditional Shibori techniques that originated in Japan.

Charlotte Rose Harris - Textiles
Charlotte takes her inspiration from various sources, things that she finds beautiful or quirky but mainly from the vast subject matter that nature has to offer. She has translated her hand drawn and painted images into digital repeat designs. These designs are aimed towards those who have a love for nature and want to add a focal point to their living space or bring an element of the outdoors into their home or work environment.

Emma Molony - Printmaking
Emma started printmaking in 2002 when she was living in Venice for a few years and was fascinated by dark inky print studios. Most of my own prints incorporate monotype drawings – She loves the smoky loose lines and she now work predominantly with screenprint as it enables her to use both flat colour, delicate patterns, drawings and to repeat designs on both fabric and paper.

Heidi Hinder - Jewellery
Heidi Hinder’s work focuses on the theme of perception and seeks to raise questions about the ever-present gap between seeing and knowing.  Is it true that what you see is what you get? If you look more will you necessarily see more? Sometimes, what is most significant is not always apparent at first glance.

Ekta Kaul - Textiles
Etka explores the third dimension in textiles which forms the core of her work. She develops textural, tactile and sculptural qualities in textiles using an array of traditional and modern techniques including hand embroidery, laser cutting, needle punching and silk screen printing. Remaining focused on the tactile-visual, she uses bold colours to complement her textural compositions.

Cathy Freeman - Mixed media
In the summer of 2008, Cathy gained a first class honours degree in Fine Art Practices from the Open University. During this time she also worked part as a lecturer and continued to freelance as an art director while trying to spare time for her partner and two children. Out of all this chaos came her inspiration for her own very personal work.

Anne Claxton - Ceramics
Anne uses clay to explore interests in defining space, composition, light and shadow. In some of her work she uses rough gritty crank clay to form the outer skin of containers. In contrast, inner linings are shiny, fragile, paper thin; setting up a tension between inner and outer worlds. The scale of the pieces relate both to her body and to the architectural space in which they are placed.

Kate Robinson - Mixed Media
Through an inquiry into categorisation, order and arrangement, Kate has developed a decorative interface. By disrupting scale and providing juxtaposition between material and motif, she creates intrigue and subverts preconceptions of the ordinary and overlooked.Kate’s dystopic dioramas and unlikely combinations of colour, material and motif are intended to grab attention and promote a dialogue between artist and audience.

Hans Borgonjon - Ceramics
'The ineffable phenomenal part of our experiences is one of the few things we truly own. What it is like to see a blue sky, taste coffee or wine is very difficult if not impossible to communicate. By removing the hooks that make it all too easy to make conditioned suppositions of what our senses communicate. I want to increase this subjective awareness by creating tensions through contrasts and ambiguities within my objects.'

Claire Loder - Ceramics
Claire’s approach to working with ceramic materials is painterly, treating each form as a canvas.  She produces unique hand painted standing heads and wall hung faces. Using her own reflection, photos of those close to her, and portraits, she is drawn to faces that show signs of a life lived.  Weathered, careworn and expressive faces hold more interest for her than the sparsely populated faces of perfection.

Christopher Brenton West - Photography
Experimenting with alternative photographic printing and finishing methods, Christopher started to create Daguerreotype pictures using 160-year-old manuals. The three dimensional depth of the images can only be appreciated when seeing them ‘live’. The Daguerreotype is sealed behind glass and is the longest surviving archival photographic process. If cared for Christopher’s images should last many hundreds of years.

2. March 2009: New Members

Full Members

Kim and Thomas Atherton – Blown Glass
Liquid Glass is the collaborative work of glass makers Kim and Thomas Atherton, they have a combined glass experience of 25 years. They also work with various corporate and private clients, from city councils, architects, designers to major retailers, producing a diverse range of items such as light fittings, curtain finials, architectural panels and large scale restoration.

Paul Biddle - Photography
Paul is a technical perfectionist whose work has gained the respect of his profession for creating surrealistic and playful work of the highest technical standards - shot and composed "within camera". Through his exquisite capturing of light, form, surface and space, Paul seeks to expose the beauty of the familiar whilst offering new surreal narratives and playful juxtapositions.

Mirri Damer - Jewellery
Following a foundation course at Chelsea & College of art and a degree in sculpture, Mirri's work changed in direction and scale. Her jewellery has a strong sculptural feel and is very much designed by an on-going, organic process. Many pieces have moving parts that jingle, tickle and sparkle, and are there to be played with. She is inspired by the beauty and edginess she sees in her surroundings.

Chris Elmer - Woodcarving
Chris’s recent body of work is inspired by harmonics, repeat patterns, fertility and growth. The sculpture is a homage to nature and creation. They have a strong and distinctive presence, and each new piece adds to the themes. Chris’s work is sensual and loaded with symbolic references. The contrast in shape and colour highlights the varying relationships between the many parts of the whole. 

Lynette Gray - Textiles
Lynette loves nature and finds her inspiration for her designs in the colour, flowers and fruits of the Devon countryside. Working with velvet and silk making appliquéd scarves, shawls, throws, bags and corsages, Lynette loves the sensuality of velvet and its fluid luxury, which she moulds into petals and leaves complimented by hand sewn beads.
 

Ann Opstrup - Textiles
Ann starts with the simplest shapes and approaches the blank canvas like a painting, building layers and introducing new colours, shapes and a touch of humour. The idea behind the handbags is continually evolving. Each one is richly textured with layers of tulle, embroidery, beadwork, appliqué, paint and leather to create a lush, yet functional piece of art.

Lawrence and Angela St. Leger - Miniature Automata
The St. Legers produces quality miniature automata for collectors. They have made small automata for over twenty-eight year. Laurence originally trained as a watchmaker which gave him experience of tiny mechanisms and he handed his skills to Angela. The St Legers make over 200 different automata on probably any subject. Their automata is humorous, delicate and movable.

Joan Sutcliffe - Jewellery
The experience of uprooting and living in Australia for seven years caused a momentous shift in my creative process. The act of traveling translated into my work which became much freer, more immediate and intuitive. I now work directly into my preferred materials: silver and 18ct. yellow gold which I often combine with labradorite, moonstone, opal, pearl, tourmaline or diamond.

Associate Members

Naomi Singer - Fused Glass
Naomi uses many different techniques to create her glass pieces, working within the field of warm glass manipulation. She also uses the new digital technology of water slide decals in many of her pieces. By combining the traditional techniques of warm glass with the new digital technology she gives a contemporary feel to a traditional craft.

3. July 2009: New Members

Full Members

Lizzie Sanders - Metalwork/Jewellery
Lizzie primarily works in sheet metal which is folded to create spiralling structural forms, a technique she invented and developed during her studies.The structural forms hold a unique beauty as they reflect the mathematics inherent in nature. Lizzie enjoys working with metal and finds its flexibility and durability very rewarding.

Clare Mahoney - Ceramics
Clare specialises in surface and printmaking.The inspiration for her work comes from nature, striving to interpret the short-lived beauty and fragility of nature, capturing the image before it fades.Her exploration of nature, textiles, colour and abstraction is beautifully demonstrated in her ceramics.  

Yume Martin - Jewellery
Yume draws inspiration from how people decorate themselves around the world and her love of nature.Yume began her formal training in Mexico, although she is largely self taught and prefers the use of basic tools and techniques to craft her jewellery. She is currently developing new bespoke collections which are exhibited internationally. Her love of naive and rustic Japanese style and design is ever present in each beautifully hand crafted item

Russell Stone - Photography
Russell enjoys photographing nature in all its forms, from the grand landscape to the isolated trees and wildlife. His images display the many moods, lights, atmospheres and colours that nature has to offer. Additionally to landscape and nature, Russell really enjoys capturing night shots, cityscapes and long exposure work.

Associate Members

Linda Bristow - Ceramics
Linda's clay sculptures aim to capture shapes and textures that reflect the fragile yet enduring qualities that can be found in nature.

Gail Trezise - Ceramics/Textiles
Gail's work is an ongoing exploration into the unconventional world of alternative moulds, which are developed from an idea of using soft moulds, that are cut and stitched by hand and machine. The moulds used for slip casting; are eco friendly burning off the kiln. Each form is unique and will emerge from the kiln with its own identity.

14 November 2009: New Members 
 

Full Members:

Jacqui Frost- Textiles

Jacqui brings a background of performing arts into her career as textile artist. She retains a love of the spectacular but is also fascinated by more intricate and personal work involving words, images and objects. Following the death of her husband from cancer her current work has seen a great change in style. With small scale, delicate, hand stitched handkerchiefs she chooses now to reveal graphically her personal thoughts and feelings. The intimacy of the hand stitched line helps her to work ‘spontaneously’ putting her ideas onto the fabric using multiple techniques and materials.

Jill Hutchings- Jewellery

Jill’s work is inspired by looking into the rock pools and at underwater plants and creatures. She hopes that holding a piece of jewellery she has made is like plunging your hand into a rock pool and marvelling at the shapes, colours and textures that you have found there. Although she does not use precious materials, the work is made precious by the amount of time and care devoted to each intricate and unique piece. Her work is intended to be a rich visual feast and also intriguing, quirky and fun, though she is also trying to gently push the boundaries of what is, and is not, wearable.

John Pollex- Ceramics

John Pollex has carved out a unique niche in the world of studio pottery. During the 70s and early 80s he established himself as a respected maker of traditional Slipware, before in 1984 his work took a dramatic turn. Referring to the work of painters such as Sir Howard Hodgkin, Robert Natkin, Patrick Heron and Ben Nicholson, Pollex dispensed with slip trailers in favour of paintbrushes and sponges and more recently plastic spatulas, to apply intensely colored earthenware slips in a free and painterly abstract manner.

Anne Selby- Textiles

Currently an Associate Member in textiles, Anne Selby is a textile designer/maker who has been working with silk for many years. She specialises in creating texture, initially with devoré techniques, and her current focus is the pleating of silk using traditional Shibori techniques that originated in Japan. Her Fibonacci Boas and Concertina Stoles reflect her fascination with organic forms and repeat patterns in nature. Constructed of many layers and metres of silk before pleating, they are extraordinarily light, luxurious and warm to wear.

Mary Sumner- Printmaking