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 spent a splendid few hours at the launch of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. This year, it’s being held in Manchester city centre at Spinningfields.

There are almost 150 stands featuring the work of top class designer-makers from as far afield as Cornwall, Bristol, Argyll, London… with a strong representation from Greater Manchester and the North West. There was a huge turnout of visitors – many bagging themselves some fabulous early Christmas presents (for friends, family & themselves!).

We couldn’t blog about absolutely all the craftspeople there, so here’s a bit about some of the ones who especially caught our eye…

We were both really taken by these delicate and tactile hand-thrown porcelain vessels from Belfast-based Derek Wilson Ceramics. His display was the epitome of pared back, understated loveliness!

Adelle has a soft spot for colourful & playful jewellery like these felt pieces from Lynsey Walters…

…and a well-known penchant for vintage and vintage inspired handbags & purses!

These ones above are from Monica Boxley who, as well as using original vintage fabrics, makes beautiful handmade leather handbags inspired by a 1950s one belonging to her mother. It’s named the Marianne in homage.

As we’re on the subject of bags & purses, here are some lovely natural linen examples below from Teresa Green who makes an array of goods using textiles that she designs & hand prints.

If you’re a regular reader of our blog posts, you’ll know that we love pottery. The timeless slipware made by Hannah McAndrew is just the kind of thing that gets us excited.

Her pieces would sit equally comfortably in both an ultra modern pad as well as well as an antique furnished country cottage.

There’s another Hannah exhibiting who’s work we’ve known & loved for a very long time. She’s Hannah Nunn, a lighting designer based a 10-minute drive away from us in Hebden Bridge.

If you’re ever in the area, her shop Radiance is in Hebden town centre. If not, she also sells online.

Ruth Green Design had a lovely display of eye-catching silk screen prints.

In addition to screen prints she has a lovely selection of linocuts and oil on paper works available on her website.

Tricia Needham is another screen printer whose work caught our attention. She makes these tea cosies as well as cushions, bags, scarves and ties (seen adorning the neck of Jon Snow no less!).

One stand that was getting a lot of attention from visitors on the night was Ingrid Wagner‘s…

Ingrid was encouraging people to try their hand at knitting with her giant needles and huge balls of wool & fabric. Ingrid in fact broke the world record last year for ‘extreme knitting’ – using needles three and a half metres long!

The Fair’s on until Sunday 25th October so get down there, it’s well worth a visit!

We were sorting boxes of future stock today. It’s amazing how many part sets and oddments we came across… cutlery, tea & coffee sets and lots of drinking glasses.

They’re mainly transfer printed tumblers for water, fruit juice, milk etc.

They date from the 1950s to the 1970s…

….and there are some fantastic designs amongst them – atomic influence, stylised figures, geometric patterns and flower power.

We’ll have to be patient to complete sets of the same design – although we also like the idea of putting some ‘mix & match’ sets together. The various shapes, colours & patterns look great together on a shelf.

Here are a few of the sets that have passed through the shop…

…and some that are currently for sale.

We’ve been concentrating on tumblers in this post – but as we’re talking glasses, we’ll just show you this beauty!

Having had a spate of broken wine glasses of late, we were very pleased to come across a few of these fantastic, futuristic 60s glasses recently – with a lovely bubble detail in the stem. They’re very fragile, but we’ll try to be more careful in future!!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve just added an Amazon a-store to the H is for Home website.

It’s full of books & magazines that we find inspirational, informative or both. We’ve divided them into sections such as Guides to vintage collecting, 1950s design, Pottery & ceramics and Interior & style magazines.

Link to H is for Home bookshop (UK)

Link to H is for Home bookshop (US)

Come & have a browse!

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It’s been a bit quiet on the H is for Home blog front recently. We’ve been keeping very busy with a new little venture.

We were offered a space in our local antiques centre, which we’ve already mentioned in our Todmorden blog, and thought it would be nice to have a physical presence in our home town.

It’s a large cabinet in Picture House Antiques which we’ve given the H is for Home treatment.

We’ve painted its backboard a lovely, vibrant green…

…mounted some glossy photos and press cuttings…

…and have begun to fill it with a mixture of antiques, vintage and retro pieces… a taste of things that can be found on the website.

It’s taken a bit longer than anticipated to get to this stage as the whole project started with a bit of a disaster!

We’d arranged about 25 gorgeous glass vases on the top shelf… you know what’s coming next… yes, the shelf collapsed, and the vases came crashing down smashing themselves and other items beneath. There’s no photographic evidence – in the turmoil, taking photos didn’t cross our minds.

It took a few hours before we could face it again… but we eventually returned and have it looking quite nice again. We’ll no doubt be adding & rearranging aplenty over the coming days!

If you’re ever in the area pop in & have a look!

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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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Geoffrey Baxter joined James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) in 1954 where he initially worked as Assistant Designer to William Wilson.

Baxter’s contemporary work soon began to filter into the Whitefriars output.

Scandinavian design was a strong influence during the 1950s & 60s, but under the direction of Baxter, an individual, strong, distinctive look evolved for Whitefriars and British glass in general.

New shapes, colours and textures were developed.

The main photograph above shows pieces from the textured range first produced in 1967. Actual tree bark was used in the moulds!

We have this piece known as a nail head vase in the tangerine colour way – along with other Whitefriars items – available for sale at H is for Home.

They look fantastic in groupings or as stand alone pieces.

They provide that initial flash of colour, but also give a wonderfully tactile experience on closer inspection.

To find out more about Geoffrey Baxter and Whitefriars Glass this book is invaluable:

Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons (from Amazon.com)

Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons (from Amazon.co.uk)

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