Every two years the artists and makers of Salisbury go into overdrive, smarten up their studios, and throw open their doors to invite you in to share their creative endeavours.

See the Salisbury Art Trail Guide with map here

This year at venue 10, 38 Winchester Street, I am showing artist Charlotte Moreton’s paintings, prints and sculptures, inspired by coastal landscapes and wildlife, alongside my own work. Also, for the first time there will be a fabulous and richly varied collection of pieces on show made by the potters who have come along to join me for pottery sessions at the workshop over the past 20 years or so. A cornucopia of creativity!

As ever, I will be showing my newest work, both statement pieces for special occasions or to establish a focal point within a room or garden, and tableware to enjoy every day. Also, of course, a few bargains for the early birds…

PLEASE NOTE: We will be closed on the middle Monday 1st June, and both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

38 Winchester Street Salisbury SP1 1HG

I’m sharing a what3words address to help you find this specific location. Tap to see exactly where it is:

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https://w3w.co/gifted.haven.analogy

MADE Winchester Craft and Design Festival will bring together the very best in contemporary craft, design, and traditional making all within the magnificent surroundings of Winchester Cathedral.

I will be in the demonstration quarter in the Cathedral Close alongside fellow members of the Hampshire and Berkshire Guild. We will be demonstrating throughout the three days, sharing in depth the techniques and inspiration that lie behind every piece of superb craftsmanship on show, from exquisite jewellery to room-defining pieces of furniture, with covetable glass, textiles, ceramics and wood engravings along the way. It promises to be a fabulous celebration of creativity, skill and imagination - don’t miss it!

How did that happen? The years have turned into decades, and my annual Open Studio has become a calendar fixture. This year I’ll be joined, as ever, by some creative friends ready to welcome you with a warming tot, a mince pie and a cornucopia of creative ideas with a story to tell, to admire and buy direct from the maker. The choice is yours… indulge in a treasure to keep or, if you can bear to, to give to a special recipient.

The Hampshire and Berkshire Guild is highly regarded for the quality of its members’ work. Stockbridge Town Hall will be hosting a dozen guild members including jewellers, weavers and potters alongside makers of furniture and contemporary glass, all of original, individual design and superb quality.

In this sparkling summer show, fourteen members of the highly regarded Hampshire and Berkshire Guild present fresh work. Ranging in scale from contemporary domestic furniture to precious jewellery and exquisite enamelled silver pieces, the exhibition highlights the excellence of design and execution that is the guild’s hallmark.

Soft and tactile woven rugs and blankets, luminous kiln-formed glass, floating printed silks and crisp linens, plus a range of ceramics from fluently painted tin glazed ware to handbuilt smoke-fired vessels all demonstrate the high ambition and honed skills of the exhibiting artists.

The exhibition opens on Saturday May 24th and runs daily from Tues to Sat until Saturday 21st June, 10am-5pm. Entry is free.

An annual ritual; tidying the shelves, dusting down the cobwebs (not joking!) sorting hot pots straight from the kiln and earmarking a few bargains to tempt pottery collectors old and new. Not forgetting topping up the fruit and spices for the mulled wine and picking up the clementines and mince pies to keep energy levels up for a busy weekend.

This year I’m joined again by Clare Lewis of The Weavehouse with her gorgeous, comforting woven rugs, blankets and table linens, Tamsin Loveday, aka the Barefoot Bindery, showing beautiful artists’ books and hand bound journals and sketchbooks, and Charlie Martin whose etchings and linoprints joyfully observe and celebrate the animal world in its colourful variety.

We can’t pretend the secret studio is a glamorous place, but we do put on our best bib and tucker for our annual opening and celebration of the handmade. Embedded in the centre of the tiny but big-hearted city of Salisbury, we are under 10 minute’s walk from the train station and only two minutes from the Market Square.

Put us on the calendar and call in for the warmest of welcomes, friendly chat and glorious handmade goodies to tempt you and delight everyone on your Christmas list.

After a few nomadic years, MADE London is back in the glorious setting of 1 Marylebone, the stunning Sir John Soane Church that provides such a fitting backdrop to all manner of handmade treasures. The best contemporary jewellery, textiles, glass, wood, and of course ceramics in abundance rub shoulders in a setting adorned with the superb skills of past makers.

For details of how to get hold of your tickets, who is exhibiting, and all things MADE, visit https://madelondon.uk/

We all know that food and pots go together, and I’m delighted to have been invited by the highly regarded ArtShop&Chapel.co.uk to show at the country’s biggest and best food festival, Abergavenny in South Wales.

The town will be alive with every kind of food-related offering, and I’ll be alongside a select group of contemporary potters, in the light-filled upstairs of the fabulous Chapel on Market Street.

For more on all the goings-on, visit https://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/

This young festival aims to reinvigorate the pride in the skills that built the UK’s pottery industry in Stoke on Trent, with tours, talks and exhibitions around the city through September snd October... I’m proud to be a part of it.

For details of exhibitors and events, visit

https://www.stokeonclay.com/exhibitors

Yippee!! Potfest have a new venue, just outside Shaftesbury in Dorset, and I’m looking forward to nipping down the road to my local event…

More details coming soon…

I’m delighted to have been selected again for Ceramic Art London in 2024. CAL will be celebrating its 20th year and over that time it has become recognised as the most exciting contemporary showcase of current ceramic art, with exhibitors drawn from all over the world. It aims to showcase the best in contemporary studio ceramics, across the full range of styles.

The main exhibition is accompanied by a full programme of additional activities, including talks, demonstrations and films.

More details coming soon!

Last year I took part in York Ceramics Fair for the first time, and loved it! It’s a calendar highlight for students of pottery, first time enthusiasts and seasoned collectors and I’m delighted to be invited back this year. It’s outside my home territory and it feels good to spread my wings a bit.

I’ll be showing alongside some great potters and makers of ceramics of all styles, shapes and sizes from around the country from Cornwall to Scotland. The venue, York Racecourse, is easy to find and makes the whole show enjoyable for both participants and visitors with lots of space and natural light, easy parking and access on site and a regular shuttle bus to and from the city centre.

I hope to see some friendly faces from last year, and no doubt lots of new ones…

December, and time to fling open the door to the workshop and extend an invitation to enjoy a tot of something warming while browsing the creative delights of five talented makers. I include myself, of course!

Alongside me this year are fellow potters Bridget Timoney and Jonathan Garratt, makers of distinctly different but equally practical pots, in stoneware and earthenware respectively. Patterned or plain, to use everyday or for special occasions, there’ll be a great range to choose from for those on your list who would appreciate a beautifully balanced handmade mug, jug or bowl.

Joining the gang for the first time this year, Clare Lewis is a weaver who makes cosy blankets and comforting rugs from her studio in the New Forest. Influenced by Scandinavian weaving traditions, she uses natural fibres and a colour palette that’s at once muted and joyful.

Also new this year, though familiar to many a Salisbury resident, Tamsin Loveday will be bringing her beautiful handmade books with their colourful and ingenious bindings - perfect for the artist in your life, or to encourage a reticent diarist to start keeping that journal!

As always, we’ll be welcoming visitors with mulled wine and mince pies, so a relaxed and convivial atmosphere is guaranteed. It’s also my opportunity to blitz the shelves and create space for the year ahead, so end of line bargains are there to be found alongside brand new work fresh from the kiln - possibly new enough to warm your hands on!

Back to Brilliant Brighton for three sparkling days this November, in the spectacular grandeur of the newly renovated Corn Exchange. Can’t wait! Fantastic company in a fantastic venue, it promises to be a bit special. For details of all this year’s exhibitors visit the website here.

Lights, cameras, action!

A must visit on every pottery enthusiast’s calendar, Art in Clay takes place in Farnham’s characterful Maltings, a stone’s throw from the railway station and neatly timed to provide a wealth of choice for the festive season. There’ll be talks and demonstrations, and a range of exhibitors from newly qualified and emerging ceramic artists, to established makers with many years of creative work behind them. With ample parking and onsite cafe, it’s the perfect pottery lover’s day out.

https://www.artinclayfarnham.co.uk

Once every two years a creative explosion hits West Wiltshire, and this is it! The Wyle Valley Art Trail is a riot of creativity on show, and I’m thrilled to be exhibiting in truly illustrious company again this year. Along with celebrated glassmaker Ruth Dresman and the man himself, I’ll be showing off my latest pieces in the beautiful showroom in Hindon that is home to Matthew Burt, furniture designer and maker extraordinaire. Along with Celia Burt and a team of highly skilled cabinetmakers, Matthew has forged a path that fuses respect for the absolute fundamentals of craft skills with an ambitious, forward looking ethos that results in a marriage of superb making and audacious innovation.

I’m really proud to be invited alongside makers of such quality.

See Matthew’s furniture here and Ruth Dresman’s glass here.

https://wvat.co.uk

It’s back! MADE BRIGHTON returns to the atmospheric St. Bartholomew’s Church, festooned with fairy lights like Aladdin’s cave and packed with wonderful handmade delights to tempt you.

Salisbury’s own Open Studio event is back in style! The city’s artists and makers throw open their doors to welcome in audiences from near and far and show off their wares.

There’ll be a printed and online guide to steer you to all Salisbury’s creative corners, and I’ll be doing a spot of high dusting in Factory Four to provide a characterful backdrop to my newest work.

Craft and early human history go hand-in-hand. Every find unearthed by archaeologists was made or marked by human interaction with the materials they bent, cut, carved, hammered or built. The innate curiosity of the mind, allied to our desire to create, has embedded the act of making deep in time and the human psyche.

Planned pre-Covid by curator Tara McKinney Marinus for the Hampshire Cultural Trust, this exhibition at the Willis Museum has been nearly two years in gestation. Shown to brilliant effect in the Sainsbury Gallery, it features 22 Hampshire and Berkshire Guild members’ work alongside photographic portraits by David McKibbin and biographical notes on each maker, written by me.

Entry to the the exhibition is free, and it runs until July 17th.

The light, clean-cut exhibition space at Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum is a sympathetic setting for contemporary craft, and the Hants and Berks guild members are delighted to be showing again at this venue after an abence of a few years.

You can see examples of the guild’s work on their website here