Spring Fling Artists in Craft & Design Selected Awards 2012

16th January 2012

4 Spring Fling Artists are competing in the Craft & Design Selected Awards 2012! These highly regarded national awards, first launched in 2009, are based on an Online Public Vote for British and Irish designer makers with work represented in Selected, Craft & Design’s prestigious online gallery at www.craftmaker.co.uk. The Public Vote determines six finalists in each of six categories. Specialist Invited Judges, together with the craft&design panel, subsequently assess the work of the finalists to establish one Gold Award Winner, two Silver Award Winners and three Finalists in each category, with just one person being awarded the top accolade of craft&design Maker of the Year Award.

The Sping Fling Artists involved are:

Adam Booth started Pipers Forge in 1987 and quickly began to make a name for himself, exhibiting at the Glasgow Garden Festival and winning the Rachel Reckitt Sculpture Award in 1989 before going on to represent the UK at the EU Exhibition of Craft in Avignon, France. Recently Adam was made a fellow of the worshipful company of blacksmiths (FWCB). His work is now in great demand with commissions all over the world.

Christine Hester-Smith: I have been making pots for a living since 1978 when I graduated from Bath Academy of Art and set up the workshop in Dumfries and Galloway.  I have developed a range of cheerfully decorated slipware pottery, mostly thrown, the majority of which we sell from our own showroom. My work combines my love of illustration with the delights of three dimensional form and while many of the designs reflect Galloway - such as seabirds, boats or sheep, you are just as likely to find the odd crocodile or tiger making an appearance. Pictorial elements frequently include beaks and jagged teeth.

Hannah McAndrew: My work is predominantly thrown on the wheel using red earthenware clay. I use two traditional techniques of decoration in my work - slip trailing and sgraffito. I make functional pots because I enjoy seeing my work used and enjoyed, my pieces are created to be useful and at the same time beautiful to look at. I am fascinated and thrilled by constantly developing the skills and techniques of my craft. I am particularly focussed on making pots that are of a very high quality and that perform their jobs to a very high standard.

Amanda Simmons: Amanda makes kiln formed and cameo engraved glass vessels from her studio in Corsock. She is fascinated in the forms created by gravity within the kiln, the vessels becoming more complex as she perfects the slumping method. She has worked with glass for the past 9 years, studying Glass & Architecture at Central St Martin’s School of Art & Design in London, graduating with Distinction, before re-locating to Dumfries & Galloway in 2005.