Liz and I survived a trip with 25 A level students, who were extremely well behaved and lovely, except for giving me the sourest of sour sweets I've ever tasted just to see how I'd react!
Of course it was as packed with talent as ever but I'm posting a few of my favourites. To start I spoke briefly to Serena O'Neill in the 'One Year On' section who produces beautiful, delicate textiles including scarves, hangings, pouches, etc inspired by 2nd World War imagery.See her work on http://www.serenaoneill.com/profile.html
I was very taken by a jewellery designer who is working with a fashion designer. She's making jewellery from rusty metal which leaves an imprint of the jewellery behind after it has been worn. Unfortunately I can't remember her name, but here's a photo of some of her work.
Ashleigh Williams creates delicate sculptural crocheted sea creatures which were hanging in a corner as though they were floating in mid air. http://ashleighwilliams.moonfruit.com/#
A body of work I loved was this drawer of cotton reels interspersed with ceramic reels decorated with transfers of old photos. She will make any object and decorate it with your favourite old photos. That could be a wonderful present.
Another lovely lady I spoke to was Claire Kalvis who had the most gorgeous and inspirational sketchbooks. She had used heat transfer techniques to decorate an old sewing box and then filled it with lovely things she had made including shrinkies made to look like vintage buttons which she had attached to cards and pretty notebooks. I'm hoping she'll be setting up her website soon.
The final designer we spoke to on the day was Khadijah Kholwadia who has produced some stunningly rich textiles using velvets which she hand dyes and decorates with screen printing in rich colours and foils. As well as hanging her lengths of fabrics she had had a beautiful piece of furniture professionally covered in one of her fabrics.
