Present Makers 2021
This annual selling exhibition of contemporary craft takes place at Devon’s Thelma Hulbert Gallery, where you’ll find an array of handcrafted, one-off pieces from South West-based designers and makers including textiles, prints, ceramics, Christmas cards and decorations.
Among the exhibitors is Priormade, which handmakes contemporary homewares, lighting and accessories (pictured top) using a range of sustainable, low impact and recycled materials. If you’re looking to give someone the gift of light this Christmas, try the stylish Geo Lamp range (from £104). Offcuts from their production are used to create key rings – the perfect stocking fillers, priced at £3.
Or for those who like to be beside the sea, Katie Greaves’ one-off jewellery pieces are inspired by natural forms and feature coastal textures (from £30).
Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Devon, 13 November – 24 December 2021 www.a-n.co.uk/events/present-makers-2021/
A Perfectly Crafted Christmas
If you’re searching for the ideal gift for a pattern lover check out a-n member Helen Tiffany’s work at Manchester Craft and Design Centre, which is home to 35 independent makers.
Tiffany works with vitreous enamel to handcraft patterned glassware and jewellery. For a touch of colour on your Christmas tree try her glass decorations – flat baubles hung on pure silk ribbon (£16). Alternatively, Tiffany’s Geometric small bowls (£48) come in a range of tasty colours. Each piece is hand screen printed in several layers then kiln-fused, a process that results in unique bubble patterns on every bowl.
Manchester Craft and Design Centre, open until 3pm, 24 December 2021 www.craftanddesign.com
Artist Support Pledge
Buy original artworks direct from artists through #artistsupportpledge on Instagram. This generous and dynamic economy that supports artists and makers across the globe is based on a simple but powerful idea. Artists use #artistsupportpledge to offer a work for sale for no more than £200. Buyers then message (DM) the artist directly, and each time an artist reaches £1,000 in sales, they pledge to buy £200 of work from another artist(s). Anyone can buy the work and artists don’t need permission to join.
Long-standing a-n member Ange Mullen-Bryan, who makes contemporary landscape paintings inspired by Scandinavia, boreal forests and vast lakes, is currently offering an acrylic painting on aluminium for £90 + P&P. Contact the artist through Instagram to buy.
Mullen-Bryan, whose work is also included in the Artist Support Pledge exhibition ‘A Generous Space’ at Hastings Contemporary from 26 November 2021, says: “It is an incredibly powerful way to connect with a new audience and has given individuals greater confidence in connecting and buying art directly from artists which is fantastic.”
a-n x ASP is a collaboration to support artists and find practical solutions to improve artists’ livelihoods. www.instagram.com/artistsupportpledge/
a-n gift membership
For something special that lasts beyond Boxing Day, give the gift of a-n Artist membership. Whether the artist in your life is just starting out, has been practising for years, or is returning to making after a break, for £38 they’ll receive 12 months of a-n benefits.
Artist membership includes free entry to members-only events, access to creative jobs and opportunities, resources, guides and toolkits to support their professional development. They will also find inspiration in a-n’s up-to-date archive of news, must-see shows, Q&As with artists and through a-n’s support network of over 25,000 other artists. And if that’s not enough, professional insurance and 24/7 legal and tax helpline support are also included.
Email [email protected] to buy your gift membership and choose to personalise a digital card to send to the artist in your life.
Artists Make Change
As the 2020-21 Artists Make Change project wraps up, you can wrap up limited edition gifts this Christmas.
The Artists Make Change Art Career Snakes and Ladders (£60) screen print on linen by artist Rebecca Davies, visualises the ups and downs of an artist’s working life using the format of the classic board game. In this game of luck, sudden leaps of progress are possible, as are setbacks, often beyond the players’ control.
Meanwhile Provocations (£10) is a pack of 36 cards featuring illustrations from Davies’ visual response to the Artists Make Change project. You can use these cards as a prompt for new conversations with friends, co-workers, potential commissioners or students, simply drawing a card anytime you want to think about a new topic or a challenge you (or someone else) may be facing.
Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent www.airspacegallery.org/index.php/2020/shop_item/
Ebor Studio Christmas Market
Artist and a-n member Maryanne Royle, an intermedia artist who creates experimental and film-based photographic prints, takes part in this festive market at Ebor Studio in Lancashire. The space supports artists and designers to think, make, research and show their work, and provides a programme of contemporary exhibitions, events and workshops. A broad range of practices will be on show at the market, with chances to buy handmade garments, furniture, textile work, print and painting.
4 December 2021, Ebor Studio, Littleborough, Lancashire www.a-n.co.uk/events/ebor-studio-christmas-market/
Eastside Projects
Eastside Projects has all bases covered, offering both online and in-person Winter Art Fairs this year. Those who can make it to the Birmingham gallery can enjoy mulled wine and mince pies while browsing stalls laden with affordable artworks, limited editions, ceramics and clothing. The online fair is just as packed with artistic goodies – you’ll just have to provide your own festive treats while you scroll to shop.
a-n member Simon Bayliss provides the perfect way to dry the dishes after your Christmas meal. Paradise Haunts (Hestercombe), 2016 (£15) is a tea towel design conceived during an artist residency during which Bayliss explored the theme of Arcadia within queer literature and film.
IRL Winter Art Fair 3 December 2021, and online from 18 November – 16 December 2021 www.eastsideprojects.org/product/artist-tea-towel-company-simon-bayliss/
Paradise Works open studio weekend
This annual event sees 38 contemporary visual artists sharing their work with the public, alongside an exhibition by a-n member Katie Tomlinson, a studio tour and the Manchester Contemporary after party.
For sale throughout the weekend and at Paradise Works’ booth at Manchester Contemporary (19-21 November) is Multiples, a series of affordable contemporary artworks by studio artists and friends, with prices starting at £10. a-n member James Ackerley will present six new sculptural table lamps (£170), each featuring a variety of hand-shaped hardwood species.
Meanwhile Aliyah Hussain’s Soundwares (£350) is a series of ceramic collages, which come with a download code for a sound work that is composed of loops and recordings made by playing the ceramic object as an instrument.
20-21 November 2021, Paradise Works, Manchester www.paradise-works.com/news/2021/10/18/paradise-works-open-st-udios-2021
Cockpit Makers’ Market
Several a-n members take part in this winter open studios across Cockpit Arts’ two London sites. In Holborn Maria Hatling, who designed a-n’s 40th Anniversary logo, presents new work on canvas and paper (from £475). Meanwhile Deptford-based Kethi Copeland’s hand painted wooden decorations (£8) and screen prints (£45) feature an anchor that references the area’s maritime history.
Or how about gifting a new creative skill? Richard McVetis is offering online Stitch Action workshops (£100 for two-part class) in which participants will learn traditional hand embroidery techniques, and explore ‘the slowness and rhythms of hand stitching and the pleasure in having time to make.’
Other a-n members who will be showing and selling work include ceramicists Tessa Eastman and Helen Johannessen, backpack maker Joost Pasman, artist and jeweller Chloé Valorso, and textiles maker Olivia Holland.
Cockpit Arts, Holborn, London 26-28 November 2021, and Deptford 3-5 December 2021 www.cockpitarts.com
Top image: Priormade vessels collection, Christmas 2021 © Priormade
