Meet The Maker – Clare Gage

Clare Gage – Ceramicist

The inspiration for the Clare Gage ceramic range comes from her life-long love of textiles. Whilst studying Clare found a new love for weaving and it formed a partnership with a childhood passion for ceramics. Whilst at university Clare was awarded the 2007 Design Directions: Ceramic Futures Award for her textiles inspired ceramics.

Patchwork Vase

Her designs start life as fabric pieces hand woven by Clare and transformed into bespoke moulds which are used to create inspiring porcelain versions of the textile pieces.

Clare Gage Studio

The cup collection was the beginning of the Clare Gage story and stems from a real affection for the quintessentially English tradition of afternoon tea. Time taken to share a cup of tea is an important part of Clare’s family life and her cups encourage you to take a moment of your day to relax and savour the experience of a good cup of tea.

Tea – Clare Gage

The full Clare Gage collection now includes cups, tableware, vases, jewellery and decorations and Heart Gallery is proud to showcase Clare’s work once again in Hebden Bridge.

Hanging heart – Clare Gage

Meet The Maker – Sue Bulmer

Sue Bulmer – Designer

Sue grew up on a farm in the North East of England and this is where she developed her interest in art from an early age. In 1990 she went to the University of Nottingham to study Pharmacy, and spent the next 15 years involved in the sciences but her passion for the arts never went away.

Sue’s stand at BCTF April 2012

Finally in 2005 Sue came back to her artistic roots when she enrolled on a Foundation course in Art and Design. This gave her the opportunity to enhance her artistic skills and techniques and develop her creative practice. Since then Sue has been mostly self-taught and has explored a variety of media, such as watercolour, textiles and stitch, print, drawing and mixed media. She is constantly learning and feels that as an artist you should never stand still for too long, life is too short and there are too many ideas to explore.

Folded tea towels

Sue loves nature, and is constantly stimulated and inspired by the landscape and the natural world, the changing colours and textures of the seasons. Being outdoors in the open spaces of the countryside or in her cottage garden motivates her with her art. In contrast she is also inspired by home life, and, living in a 200 year old cottage filled with plenty of vintage finds, she finds a wealth of material to spark her creativity within her four walls.

Home Tweet Home tea towel design

Sue loves the comfort and sentimentality of home and family, and being somewhere you feel settled and at peace and thinks this is reflected in her work. She loves nothing more than curling up on the sofa, in front of a roaring fire, with a piece of cake, cup of tea and a good book. She also loves her kitchen, and finds it an inspirational place to be, old pots and pans, coffee and tea pots, herbs and spices and a rack of old cook books, perfect for new ideas.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough tea towel design

Friends Forever tea towel design

We currently have Sue’s fabulous tea towels in stock and Sue will be expanding her range with us in the Summer of 2013 as part of our Wedding Exhibition ‘I DO’.

Meet The Maker – Katie Almond

Katie Almond – ceramicist

Katie produces hand-painted porcelain jugs, cups, cake stands and brooches made using a variety of slip casting and hand-building techniques. Each piece is essentially a canvas for decoration and collage as she combines drawings with found ephemera.

Cup and Saucer

Katie is inspired by nostalgia, old paper ephemera, vintage textiles and a love of drawing.

Brooch

Katie’s collection uses elements from a different era alongside her own drawings, text and collage. She focuses on pattern and detail using mixed media to collage and juxtapose the found and made. The pieces she creates are unique, one-offs that explore a variety of nostalgic themes that Katie is always adding to.

Jug

Currently her themes are; the notions of afternoon tea, ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’, gardening and flowers, and traditional blue and white pottery.

Group of Katie’s ceramics

Anyone for afternoon tea?

Heart Gallery adores Katie’s work and hopes that you enjoy your purchase as much as we have enjoyed showcasing it on our shelves….but hurry, Katie’s work does not stay on our shelves for long!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

The lovely Katie on her stand at this last week’s GNCCF in Manchester

 

Meet The Maker – Alix Swan

Alix Swan – Designer Maker

Described as a ‘textile artist’, ‘fine art bookmaker’, sometimes ‘paper artist’, Alix is a designer-maker with a love of combining paper, print, graphics, textiles and found materials.

Badges – Alix Swan

Apparently for Alix it all began with a paper doll she made who told her that her name was Alice. Alice started Alix reminiscing about childhood story times with her mother and grandmother and the world of books and stories these opened up. Alix remembered too how she drew constantly, cutting out her miniature portraits and using them in larger storyboards and little books. Now her Fine Art bookworks are based in traditional tales. She fuses old and new technologies through found materials, original drawing, digital photography, stitch, collage and bookbinding together with direct quotations to echo ideas and phrases that are universally familiar.

Artist books – Alix Swan

Everything is made by Alix from start to finish.  She cuts, sews and assemble by hand.  She has a computer, digital camera and four old typewriters and her home is a treasure trove of found and second-hand materials. Alix is happiest working on a small, even miniature, scale and her eye for detail and finish is of great importance. 

Thumbelina – Alix Swan

The themes of her work are vintage stories, rhymes and sayings.  She has learned the universal human need for these traditional forms and the importance of keeping them alive which is why she offers her work as a quirky twist on the traditional that connects with reminiscence, rediscovery and joy.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Alix Swan

Heart Gallery awarded Alix an Outstanding Makers’ Award at Holmfirth in 2011 and we are so proud to be showcasing Alix’s work for the first time here in Hebden Bridge for our new exhibition ‘May All Your Dreams Come True’ which is inspired by fairytales, folklore, stories and dreams.

Alix’s fairytale text we should maybe all listen to!

Meet The Maker – Sarah Dodd

Sarah Dodd - textile artist

Sarah graduated in 2010 from Winchester School of Art in BA hons Textiles, Fashion and Fibre, specialising in Textile Art.

Blue Tit - Sarah Dodd textile

She has always had a passionate interest for free hand machine embroidery and for a long time enjoyed making machine embroideries as a hobby. 

Woodpecker - Sarah Dodd textile

Sarah’s main passion in life is being environmentally-friendly, so she endeavours to make her pieces as eco-friendly as possible; using recycled card, and found and re-used fabric. 

Robin - Sarah Dodd textile

She loves making things with fabrics that she finds all over the place, from old clothing to pieces picked up at car boot sales (bits of old envelopes to old felted jumpers). 

Goldcrest - Sarah Dodd textile

Sarah makes all her creations in her studio at home, which is a horder’s paradise – filled with ribbons, buttons, and fabrics galore!

Kingfisher - Sarah Dodd textile

Nature is her source of inspiration, each piece Sarah creates is unique, a one off with its own personality, just like anything within nature, even if tried to replicate there will always be a slight difference.

Whitethroat - Sarah Dodd textile

Past work has included the study of lichens, rising damp and mould, Sarah loves to find beauty within natural forms that get over looked & make beautiful creations inspired by these natural occurrences to adorn our homes. Sarah is currently studying birds, drawn to them for their physicality: their movement, beauty and texture but also as a concern that bird populations are decreasing due to noise pollution. ’Birds of a feather, flock together’: hoping that by replicating birds people become more aware of and appreciate the birds that are taken for granted.

We also sell framed textile pieces of Sarah's lovely birdies

 Sarah doesn’t want to have to imagine a land without birdsong and we totally agree. Do call in soon to see her mounted and framed pieces as I don’t think they will be around for long, they will fly!

Meet The Maker – Rachael Taylor

Rachael Taylor - Surface Pattern Designer

Rachael Taylor is a fun, enthusiastic creative designer and textile artist with over several years industry experience in a variety of fields. Since leaving university this young designer has achieved so much in such a small time span working for a number of prestigious clients worldwide.

Rachael's bright range of oven gloves and matching pinnys!

Originally from the Wirral, Merseyside (UK) Rachael graduated from the University of Leeds in 2005, with a BA (Hons) in Textile & Fashion Design. Her first job was as a print & design technician whilst also working as a part time freelancer in the textile industry. She then went on to progress with her textile and stitched screen printed pieces and held her first solo exhibition called ‘stitched’ in 2006 at the Brahm Gallery Leeds. Later that year Rachael was awarded 1st prize in the Janome creative competiton for a layered paper skirt design.

Rachael's much loved cow parsley design tea towel in sea green

Then specialising in surface pattern design, she developed her early signature style of layering, textures and quirky hand drawn linework. This style is present in both her screenprinted pieces and digital work. Wanting to obtain further experience and technical knowledge Rachael applied for a job with one of the greetings market leaders, where she worked as a mac designer for two years specialising in surface pattern design. She then set up her own design studio in May 2008 (based in Leeds) where she now works as a freelance surface pattern designer and textile artist.

One of Rachael's greetings card designs

Rachael has recently had over twenty pieces of her work published in four renowned designs books including ‘Print and Pattern’ by Bowie Style (LKP Publishing), ‘Patterns‘ by Drusilla Cole, (LKP Publishing and ‘The Exciting World of Pattern Design‘ by Zeixs Feierabend (Unique Books)’ ‘Patterns’ by Maomao/booQs publishing. She is also featured in the keenly awaited ‘Print and Pattern 2’ by Bowie Style (LKP Publishing).  Her unique web styling and design attracted the attention of ‘by Zeixs Feierabend (Unique Books)’ as they showcase her website in their brand new book ‘Websites 3’. Rachael regularly receives design commissions from trend forecasting companies and has had work published in trend books for Trend Bible & Mudpie. Her designs and products are regularly featured in the press and have made appearances on TV and more recently has attracted a celebrity fan base.

Books Rachael is featured in

Rachael likes to bring her own personality to her work and creates fun quirky designs ‘patterns to make you happy’. Her positive & energetic approach was recognised in 2009 as she was awarded the title of ‘the happiest person in Britain 2009′ from her excited and happy twitter posts. Her patterns are spontaneous as Rachael loves to draw with her right and left hand and sometimes even with her eyes closed. This way her patterns are unique & full of energy, she takes inspiration from everything around her and a lot of her motifs come from her own mood & personality.

Three of Rachael's new designs on tea towels just arrived at Heart Gallery, yippee!

Three of Rachael's new designs on tea towels just arrived at Heart Gallery, yippee!

Rachael is also actively involved in education. She has delivered a number of workshops and career presentations in schools, colleges & universities throughout the UK. Rachael played a huge part in the Liverpool Design Stars challenge for 2011. She was commissioned by the Design Initiative to oversee the surface pattern category. This involved writing the brief, presenting and running workshops in schools, judging entries, selecting winners, presenting awards and delivering a masterclass weekend for select nominees. Rachael was invited to speak at the renowned Do What You Love art & creative enterprise retreat (held in May 2011) in front of an international audience.

Brand new box of 20 notelets by Rachael have now arrived at Heart Gallery

My favourite notelet would make a fab birthday card and there are 4 other designs to choose from

Full set of notelets in a gorgeous box now in at Heart Gallery

Rachael has recently launched a groundbreaking new e-course called ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design’ where the successful designer teaches and shares her expertise and knowledge in surface pattern; from sketch through to product combined with business tips along the way. The course is a collaboration between Rachael and award winning entrepreneur Beth Nicholls of  ‘Do What You Love’. It has attracted a global audience and has received fantastic support from industry leaders.

Rachael on her stand at BCTF April 2011

Rachael with some of her textiles in Heart Gallery September 2011

Read Rachael’s interview on the inspirational Do What You Love for Life website  here folks and call in to Heart Gallery soon to see her range of textiles and stationery, thank you.

Group of 6 of Rachael's latest tea towels at Heart Gallery

Meet The Maker – Lauren Crawford

Lauren Crawford - Textile Artist

Using luxury silks and woollen fibres, sourced from traditional Scottish mills, Lauren designs and produce 100% hand made fabrics for those who love something unique and special. 

Reflection Corsages

Her fashion accessories are suitable for all occasions and include scarves, skinny scarves, corsages, brooches and wedding garters. 

Skinny Scarves

Available in rich colours and styles, fabrics are woven on a 16 shaft dobby hand loom, before being machine felted, air dried and hand finished.

Lambswool Corsages

Accessories feature innovative double sided woven structures and textures, inspired by Venetian opulence and architecture.

Skinny Scarf-Burgundy

All fabrics are woven in her workshop in Staffordshire and Lauren is also available for collaborative projects and is happy to receive commissions for custom pieces.

Brooch

Heart Gallery is proud to have been selected by Lauren to showcase her gorgeous scarves and corsages.

Skinny Scarf-Teal

Meet The Maker – Tania Sneesby

Tania Sneesby - Textile Artist

Tania uses a variety of new and vintage fabrics, combining them with unexpected materials, to create beautiful tactile craft pieces. 

Sister - mounted original textile piece in Heart Gallery

She doesn’t like to over plan the work, preferring to start with just a simple sketch, and “feel the work”, enjoying the flow of extemporizing, letting the fabric determine the outcome. Tania loves the imperfection of working this way, leaving edges raw, and threads loose, emphasizing the hand made care and fragility of the work.

Grandad - mounted original textile piece in Heart Gallery

As her work grows and develops, She is planning to continue with further experimentation, incorporating photographic elements, and creating new combinations and discoveries.

Tea for 3 - mounted original textile piece in Heart Gallery

Tania graduated from the University of Central Lancashire, where she studied illustration. She is fascinated by the relationship between text and pictures, and is particularly interested in children’s book illustration. 

Gran - mounted original textile piece in Heart Gallery

Tania loves traditional stories and fairy tales, and is looking forward to further development of different characters. This means that a new body of work inspired by folklore will be in our ‘May Your Dreams Come True’ Exhibition in May 2012. However, if you can’t wait that long Heart Gallery is proud to showcase a small range from Tania for our Christmas Exhibition.

WHAT A CRACKER – Christmas Exhibition at Heart Gallery 13 November 2011

Heart Gallery kindly invites you to WHAT A CRACKER launching on Sunday 13 November at 12pm

What goodies can you buy this Christmas at Heart Gallery? Here’s a sneak peek of what’s new for you, for your loved ones and for your home.

Louise Wilson - Mixed Media Artist

Karen Dell'Armi - Jeweller

Tania Sneesby - Textile Artist

Caroline Cowen - Jeweller

Jacqui Sharples - Letterpress

Heart Gallery has now launched a fantastic Loyalty Scheme and we have been really busy cutting, stitching and preparing lovely little heart shaped felt pouches for you to keep. Feedback from customers has been amazing so here is some info for those of you who haven’t heard about it yet:

Heart Gallery Loyalty Card

Collect your loyalty card from Heart Gallery when you spend over £50.

Receive a heart stamp every time you spend £50 or over.

Collect 5 heart stamps on your loyalty card and exchange it for your Heart Gallery 10% Token.

Your Heart Gallery 10% token is a pewter heart and is yours to keep, for life.

Use your Heart Gallery 10% token every time you spend over £50 in Heart Gallery.

Heart 10% Loyalty Token

Live with the art you love …

It’s easy and affordable to buy and collect contemporary art and craft at Heart Gallery with Own Art which lets you spread the cost of your purchase over 10 months with an interest free loan.

Own Art loans allow you to borrow from as little as £100 up to a maximum of £2,000 for the purchase of works of art by living artists.

Own Art loans are available from Heart Gallery for the purchase of contemporary art and craft of any kind, and in any media. That means you can choose more or less anything you want from Heart Gallery from paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture, to glassware, ceramics, jewellery, furniture and textiles.

There is no limit on the number of times you can use Own Art, but we recommend that you don’t apply for more than one loan at a time. This is because each loan application is subject to a credit check, and your application may be declined if you have not yet already established a repayment record for an existing Own Art loan, or if the bank considers that the total amount of credit you are asking for is too high in relation to your income.

The minimum you can borrow is £100 (monthly repayment of £10), but this can be used to cover a group of lower value items whose combined total adds up to £100 or more. This means that at Christmas you can purchase a number of presents for your friends and family interest free so there is no need to use your credit card!

If you are buying something more valuable than £2,000 you can use an Own Art loan as a part payment. Please note that you cannot apply for multiple Own Art loans to cover the costs of a single purchase.

Own Art is available to all UK residents over the age of 18, subject to status. This means that you must be able to meet the following criteria in order to be approved for a loan:

• Over the age of 18
• A permanent UK resident
• Working at least 16 hours a week (employed or self-employed)

If you are not working but are married to or living with a partner who does have a full time job, then you may still apply provided that your partner is happy for their employment details to be included on your application form.

You’ll need to have proof of ID with you in the form of a driver’s licence or utility bill, along with a credit or debit card as proof of signature and it only takes 10 minutes!

Staff in Heart Gallery will take you through the loan application process and once you’ve given all the information we need, you’ll get an instant decision.

Once your application has been approved and you’ve signed the paperwork you can take your purchase(s) away with you – simple as that!

Own Art bank partner Hitachi Capital Consumer finance will send you a welcome letter and the 10 monthly payments will be collected by direct debit from your account starting a few weeks after you’ve made your purchase.

Heart Gallery is Five!

Heart Gallery has been open for five years!

This little post about our birthday celebrations is really late so I must apologise for that … it’s all to do with  the ‘time’ thing and how it can play tricks on you! I actually can’t believe it is five years since I first opened the amazing doors of Heart Gallery to you all; it really doesn’t seem that long! In the same respect I thought our party to celebrate five years in business was only last week…..it wasn’t!

Beautiful packages from Lisa Murdoch

Lots of thought and careful planning goes into an exhibition at Heart Gallery and the Birthday one was such a celebration of achievement it had to be right so the contents of these little packages from Lisa were just perfect. Lisa cut, snipped, stitched and styled the bunting then delivered it wrapped like a birthday present and I was over the moon with it.

Happy Birthday Bunting

Happy Birthday Bunting

Happy Birthday Bunting

The weather the week of our party wasn’t that great and the theme for FIVE AND FABULOUS was a Garden Party! However, we kept our spirits up with positive thoughts and were blessed with a dry afternoon and evening in the end so we were all happy bunnies….the Makepiece models for the fashion show were happy little sheep!

Makepiece fashion show at Heart Gallery September 2011

Makepiece fashion show at Heart Gallery September 2011

Makepiece fashion show at Heart Gallery September 2011

We celebrated with pink fizz, cake pops, frozen yogurt and the perfect music provided by two members of professional local string quartet Ariana.

Pink Fizz

Srawberries and Cream - Cake Pops baked locally by Sarah at Perfect Baking

Pink Gerberas bought from The Willow Garden in Hebden Bridge

Ariana - enchanting music for a special occasion

We all got glammed up.

Some might say this is our best side!

Alison and Bart

Alison, Julia, Mandy, Cathy, Nicolette and Heather

We chatted to customers and some of our makers.

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

Five and Fabulous Exhibition Heart Gallery September 2011

We showcased work from new and emerging UK makers alongside new ranges from our ‘old faithfuls’.

Lasercut Gardens Of Delight by Katie Heeks

Ceramics by Rachel Foxwell

Textiles by Rachael Taylor

Oxidised silver corrosion bangles by Shirley Smith

Parakeets, Budgerigars and cockatiels by Cathy Miles

Violet Monkey Ring by Helen Noakes

We lit the lanterns that we had made and hung them from the trees in the garden when it started to get dark.

Hanging out the lanterns at Heart Gallery

Heart Gallery lanterns trimmed with butterflys

Heart Gallery lanterns

We all had a jolly good time at Five And Fabulous Exhibition and after 5 hours on my feet it was time to call it a night and head off home.

Tired feet!

I really want to say a big thank you to all those who came along to celebrate with us and a big sparkly hug to Sarah Mason at Zebra Photography for doing a fab job capturing the magic of the day ❤