Lincoln Kirby-Bell Ceramic Artist joins Cherry Picked For You

The new artist to join our website this week is Ceramicist Lincoln Kirby-Bell.  Lincoln says, "I enjoy making work that is witty and fun and can be used every day." This is borne out by his quirky mugs, in particular the face mug with its interesting interior, which you cannot see, of wavy yellow lines running down into a smiley face at the base. There are four designs to choose from.

Lincoln has lived in many countries around the world and for more than two decades he has been leaving pieces of his work, decorated pebbles (pictured below), for people to find and wonder how and why it was left there. Having worked on  many excavations and discovering shards of pottery or relics and contemplating their origins, this has been Lincoln's way of leaving his mark on the earth and stirring up a bit of mischief.

Apparently,  if you find one of his pebbles and recognise it as his and he verifies it is indeed his work, you can claim a piece of his pottery for free!!

New Artist this week - Anna Perring of Luna Lighting

This House Design would make a wonderful Housewarming Gift.

                                    

Anna Perring of Luna Lighting produces stunning porcelain tea lights in many gorgeous designs. Check out her work under Ceramics and then Tea Lights.

These adorable Ivory White Hand Thrown Porcelain Tea Lights have been delicately pierced to produce interesting designs. There are ten designs in total, above is the Flower design and  Birthday Cake and House designs. The latter two would make a lovely birthday gift and housewarming gift respectively. You will also find Single and Double Heart designs, Rubber Duck - great for when you are having a long soak in the bath,  Butterfly and Dragonfly designs, Moon and Star and Full Star designs. Each tea light is clear glazed and high fired to 1260 degrees centrigrade so that the porcelain becomes translucent when lit from within.

Textile Artist Jane Lindsey from Snapdragon

The new artist to join our website: www.cherrypickedforyou.co.uk this week is Jane Lindsey from Snapdragon.

In 2002 Jane Lindsey left her job as a fine art curator, and decided to grow cut flowers on her Scottish smallholding.  Since then she has rekindled her love of freehand machine embroidery, transforming her sketches into textile works of art.  In her range of products you will see flowers, chickens and vintage vehicles which reflect her new life and find their way into her embroideries. Jane makes a wide range of accessories which include tea and coffee cosies, cushions, notebook covers, badges, mirrors and much more. All the materials used are 100% fulled Yorkshire Wool and vintage and recycled materials. Free machine embroidery and applique is used in the designs.

The Notebook Covers are particularly versatile as they are easily removed when the notebook has been filled and so can be used again and again. They come in very attractive designs, in landscape and portrait and in A6 and A5 sizes.

Have a good week.

New Artist this week - Susan Bonnar of Dottie Designs

The new artist to join www.cherrypickedforyou.co.uk this week is Susan Bonnar of Dottie Designs. We are really pleased Susan has come on board as she makes the most stunning Wedding and Occasion Books and Keepsake Boxes. All of Susan's products can be personalised with a choice of name, date or message which make her books and boxes ideal for that very special occasion.

Designer led handmade items are what our website is all about and Dottie Designs will fit in with our ethos very nicely. So, to take a look for yourself, click on the artists link at the top of the page and then view all her work or alternatively click under Cards, Stationery and then click under Books and Boxes. If you know you have a special occasion coming up this would be a great time to log on. Also, if your special occasion is only a short time away and you have forgotten all about a book to record photos and signatures of those special friends then Susan will rise to the challenge and make you a book at very short notice. Susan tells us that she often has months to fulfil and order, particularly for a big event like a wedding, but equally, a customer often realises at the last moment that they haven't organised an Occasion Book and she is contacted at very short notice.

Have a great week.

Necklaces and Matching Earrings from Lesley Alexandra

First of all, I know I promised a new artist every week and those keen eyed and alert among you will know that my last post was a couple of weeks ago. Well...my excuse is that my web designer has been sorting out the host on my website and I was unable to upload pictures during this time. The good news is that the website should run alot faster from now on. Fingers crossed.

I haven't been idle over the past fortnight though. As I couldn't get as much work done on the website as I usually do, I went up to my workroom! (which is becoming more and more rare now that I am running this wonderful website) and started playing with my fabrics. I came up with some quirky textile card/presents for Mother's Day. Card/presents sounds odd, I know, you have to check them out to know what I've been up to. Basically, the card is made from felted wool and looks like a jacket and sewn onto the jacket is a label (like a washing instruction label) but in this case it has the words: "XX HappyMother's Day XX" on the first line. Followed by, "100% Super Human" on the next line. Underneath that are the words, "Hand wash only. Do not press" and the last line reads, "No bleach except on hair." The brooch on the jacket comes off and is the present part of the gift to be worn by the recipient. I hope this would make a very special, humorous and unique gift for the mother in your life to show your appreciation and love for her. She certainly wouldn't throw the felted wool jacket away and so it could become a keepsake.


Also, over the past fortnight I managed to find a gem (excuse the pun) and so I am delighted to welcome Lesley Alexandra to our illustrious group of artists. Lesley makes beautiful necklaces and matching earrings at really affordable prices. Hope you like them as much as we do.

Cufflink, Desk and Jewellery Boxes by David Baker

The new artist to join our website this week is David Baker. He is also our first artist who works in wood. David is a designer/maker of fine wooden boxes. David works from a rural workshop near Glyndebourn in East Sussex and he uses mostly local timber with small quantities of more unusual and exotic figured wood. He makes a range of boxes: cufflink boxes with a wooden grid inside to house individual pairs, desk boxes, jewellery boxes with two drawers and lined with velvet. He also makes wooden containers for specialised purposes such as Memory Boxes and Display Cases for precious objects and medals. All David's work can be made to suit individual requirements as it is all handmade and therefore unique.

New Artist of the Week.

As promised every week we will include a new artist onto our website. This week we are very excited to introduce Alison Ogden who produces charmingly decorated high qualilty porcelain which is both functional and gorgeous. Hand manipulated cast pieces are decorated with a variety of techniques including applied sprigs, resist, slip trailing and underglaze painting. All Alison's work is high fired and finished with a wonderfullly durable craze free glaze making them both practical - dishwasher and microwave safe - and a pleasure to use.

Drawings in clay - a fascination with the details of life inspires the decoration on this work. Each piece is individually made and hand painted. And on top of all that Alison's ceramics are very reasonably priced.