We spent Friday evening at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Spinningfields, Manchester city centre…

…and a very pleasant evening it was too.

The fair expanded into two pavilions for its second year.

A great mix of ceramics, glass, metal, paper and textiles… from both new exhibitors and favourites from last year.

There were so many great stalls – we’ve just selected a few that caught our eye.

We’ll start with Jane Blease Design.

She uses plywood and threaded cotton to produce artworks, light shades and jewellery.

It’s striking from a distance, then fascinating in the detail.

A piece of Jane’s work was temptation number one and we’d only been in the marquee for a few seconds!

Moving along to &made,

Andrea Lord produces lovely hand-sewn pieces…

…her items simply & beautifully displayed.

Cushions, wall hangings and rows of gorgeous cacti pin cushions in their little terracotta pots!

We mentioned Derek Wilson Ceramics in our post from last year’s fair.

His stand, filled with his beautiful and delicate porcelain, stopped us in our tracks again…

….elegant, understated simplicity.

Ruth Green Design has proved another favourite with our blog readers – and a shot of her prints always rides high in our Flickr photo viewings.

We lingered at her stall for a good while.

Her prints, sold in limited edition runs, look fabulous hanging all together.

The Pear Tree, one of her  new designs, was another strong temptation!

You can always guarantee a striking display from Hannah Nunn’s Radiance Lighting…

…the warm cosy glow of her beautiful, nature-inspired shades…

…the designs hand cut from paper and then laminated.

Phew… time for a pit stop… a sit down with a glass of wine!!

First-time exhibitor Ken Eardley made the long drive up from Brighton where he has his studio.

His range of striking pottery with stylised trees, flowers & leaves was a real show stopper.

Functional and beautiful – always a winning combination.

No doubt his work will be starring in lots of interiors magazines in the future!

The natural landscape strongly inspires & influences the work of enameller Janine Partington.

Trees, flowers, seed heads, birds and animals.

She produces enamel panels, small sculptures and jewellery.

We’d love to stroll through a magical forest of her making.

Kent-based Maxine Sutton plays with imagery of familiar everyday domestic objects and the natural world.

Incorporating them into embroidered and printed textiles to produce a range of interior products.

There were lots of eye-catching items on her stand.

We’ve got a standard lamp that would happily accommodate one of her large shades… and we just loved the coffee pot/cafetiere cosies with their Scandinavian feel.

The work of Sarra Kate is bright and effervescent – just like Sarra Kate herself!

Her stand called out to us from a long way away.

She starts her pieces by making colourful collages which are then laser printed onto textiles and paper…

…which go into making wall hangings, cushions and cards.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Hannah McAndrew, another of our favourites from last year.

This is where we finally gave into temptation.

We admired her stand last year, filled with its mediæval-inspired slipware pottery.

This year we just had to take a few of her pieces home!

We’ve concentrated on featuring homes and interiors products, but there was also lots & lots of fantastic fashion & jewellery – and if we featured any more this post would turn into a novel!

All the makers will be packing up and making their way home as we write this… so be sure to put the fair in your diary for next year!

We’ve had a very nice mention in the January 2009 edition of Grand Designs magazine which came out this week.

The article’s called Last Orders and H is for Home is featured amongst their 50 favourite websites – with emphasis on websites for those late Christmas shopping ideas.

They highlighted a vintage 1960s tomato red Cathrineholm enamel coffeepot.

So it’s thanks to Grand Designs – we were really pleased to be featured as we’re big fans of both the magazine and the television programme.

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This week’s blog is a small homage to a glorious colour. O just had to be for orange.

We are big fans, and judging by our popular photos on Flickr and items that always sell well on H is for Home, so are a lot of you out there.

Orange has the wonderful ability to look warm & cosy in the winter or lively & fresh in the summer.

Orange objects really catch the eye. It enables them to shout loudly in a collection of other brightly coloured pieces.

Alternatively, it’s perfect as a highlight colour within a muted decor or against natural materials.

We’ve given a few chairs the orange treatment!

We did a G is for Garden a couple of months ago having just planted out some annuals. Our French marigolds are doing well in the sunshine & showers.

Till next week! x

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1. collection of pepper grinders, 2. Vintage Scandinavian enamelware, 3. Dansk Pot – $2.25, 4. Paella Pan, 5. Dansk Grinders & Shakers, 6. Mostly vintage Finel , 7. My collection of vintage enamel pots from Scandinavia, 8. Dansk – Kobenstyle – Quistgaard, 9. quistgaard pepper mill, 10. Kobenstyle Pot, 11. Untitled, 12. Vintage pots, 13. Jens Quistgaard Bead candleholders, 14. salt & pepper grinders 15. grandmother’s dansk, 16. Vintage Dansk LTD IHQ QUISTGAARD Danish Modern Mid Century Modernism Candle Tiny Taper Holder, 17. danish pitcher, 18. pepper grinder, 19. red dansk kobenstyle stock pot, 20. kobenstyle score

Danish-born Jens Quistgaard was one of Scandinavia’s leading designers with a vast product range that included furniture, kitchen equipment, tableware and more.

He is most closely associated with Dansk International Designs, a company which he co-founded with American entrepreneur Ted Nierenberg.

Their partnership lasted for 30 years, Quistgaard being responsible for the majority of designs produced.

He worked in a variety of materials including iron, steel, ceramic and wood. It is wood, and in particular teak, which most often springs to mind when Jens Quistgaard is mentioned. Classic pieces such as his teak ice bucket, designed in 1960.

Also, the Fjord cutlery range designed in 1953, this time teak combined with stainless steel.

There are plenty of pieces in other materials that are worth looking out for.

We love these vibrantly coloured, enamel cooking pots from the Kobenstyle range of 1954.

His cast iron candle holders from 1955 combine sculptural shapes with a distinctive industrial quality.

Sadly, he passed away this January at the age of 88. However, he left a wonderful legacy which lives on in his designs.

We often have Quistgaard pieces available at H is for Home- just run a word search for Jens or Dansk.

For more information about Jens Quistgaard and Dansk Designs, try some of the following books & websites:

Scandinavian Design by Charlotte & Peter Fiell (Amazon USA)

Scandinavian Design by Charlotte & Peter Fiell (Amazon UK)

Architonic – Feature of a selection of Jens Quistgaard products

DesignAddict – Feature of a selection of Jens Quistgaard products

New York Times – Jens Quistgaard obituary

You’ve got your wine, your beer, your mineral water…

…or if you’re lucky, a bit of fizz.

You’ve got your ice to keep it cool.

Now all you need is something stylish to put it in.

Step forward ICE BUCKET!

Made from all kinds of materials including glass, wood, plastic, stainless steel & silver – with shapes & designs too numerous to mention.

Some are big enough to plunge your whole bottle in – like this fantastic, 1960s yellow Cathrineholm number…

…others hold just enough cubes to keep that G&T at the optimum temperature.

Teak & stainless steel by Viners

left to right: Lundtofte, Crayonne & Stelton

We always have a few designs in stock, so if your cubes need a good home, check out the selection at H is for Home

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We’re big fans of enamel homewares. The process involves paint actually being baked onto metal, glass or ceramics. Used in all manner of household items, it’s practical, hard wearing and incorporates some fantastic colours and patterns. Also, a bit of wear and tear is no bad thing – a few small chips and dents create a lovely, homely, lived-in patina – not always the case with other materials such as pottery and glass.

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Amongst the items of fresh stock for next week we’ve got some lovely Cathrineholm pots & pans that we recently picked up.

This range of enamelware was designed by Grete Prytz Kittelsen in the 1950s.

Grete Prytz was born in Norway in 1917 to a famous, Oslo-based family of goldsmiths.

Between 1936 & 1941 she studied at the National College of Arts & Crafts. After graduating she went to work for the family firm designing jewellery and metalware.

Enamelling was a Norwegian speciality in the early years of the 20th century, a technique which Grete revived, drawing on the family’s expertise in this field. Characteristic of her designs were the abstract motifs and striking colours such as her Lotus range illustrated here.

There was an exhibition of her work at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design) in Oslo until the end of August 2008. There is also a book/catalogue to accompany the exhibition available here.

If you’re a collector or are interested in seeing more of this work have a look at the Lovers of Cathrineholm Designs Flickr group.