Art and Craft Fair at Lamport Hall

In May Lamport Hall has given an amazing opportunity for all who love and appreciate artistic skills of craft persons to pick up some unique handcrafted products.

The weather did not let anybody down. It was a nice May day, warm enough to browse through tens of stalls. One could enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the cosy court yards, provided by Sauls of Spratton.

Among the traditional rural crafts such as willow weaving, pole lathe turning and knitting, there were advertised and run masterclasses to demonstrate various crafts from landscape painting to stained glass compositions.

The Harborough Artists Cluster displayed their colourful collages, paintings, limited edition fine art prints.

Among other types of creative craftsmanship a discerning eye of a visitor could spot fine examples of decorative glassware, jewellery and home ware and more.

I managed to talk to some of the artists and take some photographs of their creative work with their kind permission, which I would like to share with you now.

GLASS

Among the handmade glass jewellery and creative glass was the striking works of Kristen Black and Simon Scudder.

To continue the GLASS theme, I would like to mention Virginia. She creates absolutely amazing intricate decorative glass vases and bowls.

She is a collage and decoupage artist specialising in designs under glass.

As she explains “the art of embellishing surfaces with decorative collage has a history spanning centuries and continents. Its roots can be traced back to 12th century China and then to Japan. It becomes a popular art form in 17th century in Venice and France. In the 19th century it is popular in England. Paper is cut, assembled and glued to a surface. These pieces of cut paper, are the means by which she creates her individual designs”.

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Another artist skillfully working with glass is Gillian Wing. She creates Strawberry Glass together with running her workshops, demonstrations and individual tuition. At her workshop one can explore traditional stained glass skill and produce stunning suncatchers from a choice of design. Please see some examples below:

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Rachel Bailey Designs are entirely different, though she also works with glass. In her case glass and sea stones come from the sandy beaches. She creates amazing compositions and frames them as little pictures (please see below).

POTTERY

Another artist, this time specializing in creative pottery, was Louise Crookenden-Johnson from Kettering. She is a ceramic designer and maker. She works with earthenware and majolica glaze. She was inspired by a village potter when she was very young, and later went to read Ceramics at Lounghborough. She also runs her workshops where she welcomes everybody to come and enjoy making creative items out of clay.

These Moorcroft style vases are created by Eve Weatherill . All these pieces are tube lined, hand painted and fired. Glazed and fired again.

FINE ART

Another “niche” of creative arts was represented by painters such as Sara Penrose, Andrew Wynne and The Harborough Artists Cluster.

I spoke to Sara when she was going to teach a visitor landscape painting as a mini workshop.

Her lyrical and detailed landscapes appeal to romantic souls who love nature and appreciate the beauty of the countryside. She teaches oil painting and her works are produced in this medium, too.

Please see some of the examples of her work below.

Ron Cooke specialises in Maritime painting. His skillful use of watercolour allows to create paintings in different techniques.

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JEWELLERY

A large section was presented by JEWELLERY makes using different types of metal. Often it is a combination of glass with other substances, which produces their unique items.

Among them I would like to mention works of Sue Davis.

and Sarah Clarke, a jewellery designer, who is specialising in Angel jewellery and rose gold creations.

DIFFERENT MEDIUM

At the fair there were some artists who’s work could not be categorized.

One of them is Anne Harrison. She produces unique embroidered paintings such as landscapes. She frames them as pictures or as greeting cards.

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Jennie S. Grainger was with her original interpretation of The colours within paper cuts. She produces unique pictures made out of paper cuts glued to the surface, creating visually striking collages.

Joanna Hybert works with lino cut artworks of landscapes and birds. Lino cutting technique requrires lots of skill and patience.
After an intricate composition is cut out of the lino it is caferully applied to the paper. The final image has to be sharp and without any mistakes. This is a very complicated artistic technique. Joanna has mastered it with perfection.

Another artist who can’t be placed into any other creative category is Michelle . She makes unique and amazing original bespoke murals, portraits and wooden keepsakes.

Abi Tippetts and Roz Berkeley-Hill are two artists. Together,they produce an amazing creative synergy, which can be seen across their wide range of works.

“Abi studied at Chelsea College of Art and Roz at De Montfort University. The pair met whilst working together at a textile design studio in New York. They grew to discover a mutual love of colour, pattern, illustration and the arts”.

PHOTOGRAPHY

There were PHOTOGRAPHERS represented at the Fair, too. Among them there were creative photographers Roger and Daniele Bradley and an animal photographer Alan Boutel.

When I asked Alan where he photographed his rare animals, he replied “Travelling as far as Africa”.

Unfortunately, in this blog I could not mention all 70 participants of the Crafts Fair.

I hope Lamport Hall will organise more events like this. This was, in my opinion, a very successful effort.