All the fun of the Saltaire Makers Fair
We’re looking forward to the Saltaire Makers Fair this weekend,www.saltaireinspired.org.uk . The event is at Victoria Hall on Saturday and Sunday and features a wonderful array of products. Here are some of the designers set to star:
The Store Hus
The Store Hus share a belief that the everyday should be filled with moments of visual and tactile pleasure. Their mission is to offer an antidote to mass-produced homeware.
The designs are bold and use strong pattern and colour combinations and Store Hus founders Meg Held and Jan Baxandall apply them to a range of hand-printed ,practical and decorative items. They include lampshades, tea towels, cushions, storage pots and cases. Whenever possible materials are sourced from within the UK and from sustainable sources. www.thestorehus.co.uk
Keith Shurrock
Furniture and box maker Keith works in local, sustainable wood and can usually tell customers exactly where the wood has come from. He enjoys creating his own designs and also works to commission. His most popular items are small to medium boxes, often made from reject wood or wood rescued from the log basket.
Verdantica
Isobel Cortese creates bespoke terrariums, miniature living worlds inside glass. Combining her passion for plants and all things quirky, she is re-kindling this popular Victorian trend but with a modern twist. She says: “I like to use a variety of jars, a mixture of old and new, from vintage and apothecary style to mason jars and bottles. Each creation is totally unique, capturing a scene from daily life in miniature, staged against a verdant setting.”
Vinegar and Brown Paper
Contemporary glass etcher Andy Polar has enjoyed huge success with his Vinegar and Brown Paper products, not least because he combines the power of words with his etching skills. He puts them on vintage and iconic items of glass. He says: “The things that interest me most are the correlations between objects and language, the beauty of ideas and the way in which you can raise a smile or touch a chord by simply unveiling the hidden connections that reside in the world around us.”
Brittany Delaney
Brittany’s porcelain vessels are functional and decorative. The ones pictured above are inspired by the stitching techniques used in taxidermy. A genius idea!
Jo Lee World
We love Jo Lee’s cut ceramic characters. They are slip cast amd hand-built. She says: “Everything is pretty much black and white in my world but as my dad once said ‘it’s very colourful’.”