SEPTEMBER 2011

Dear Buyer

Welcome to our BCTF and Design Edge Newsletter.

Despite the late burst of sunny weather, it's clear that Summer is almost over and that means one thing... Christmas is coming!

For those of you currently ordering Winter stock, don't forget that the Design Edge Online Catalogue offers you a completely FREE and incredibly easy way of sourcing quality British giftware without leaving the office.

Every week we add more makers to the catalogue, some young and just starting out, others with a lifetime of experience and skill, all ready and able to accept your Christmas orders. So don't miss out - click here and enter the password arts2000.

BCTF

As you can see from our extensive exhibitor listing, the Fair is proving as popular with makers as ever. With more than 500 makers expected to exhibit in 2012, there will be an amazing variety of products, many at surprisingly affordable prices. Whether you have a small gift shop or a top-end gallery, you'll find products that will delight your customers.

See below this month's four featured makers.

Kind regards,

Margeret

Glover and Smith

Nature is a huge inspiration and living in the beautiful area between the Wylye Valley and Cranborne Chase has brought a treasure trove of ideas from the wonderful organic shapes of the natural world.

For example, an oak leaf found on a walk in Grovely Wood has become our very popular oak leaf jar spoon from 'the woodland' collection of tableware.

Every piece is handmade in our studio from lead free pewter. Great care is taken to use the highest standards of craftsmanship combined with the highest quality pewter. Lead free pewter is an eco-friendly, non-tarnishing, recyclable metal, safe to use with food and easy to care for. Simple, low-energy making techniques mean each piece has a very low carbon footprint.

Glover and Smith now supply over 250 exclusive gift shops, galleries and collectors as well as buyers abroad. Recent commissions include a commemorative spoon for the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London and others for Canterbury Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral. We have also received an award for "Excellence in Design" from the body which represents the huge UK gift industry - The Giftware Association.

To see more of Glover and Smith's work, visit them on stand 309 at BCTF 2012.

Love and Peas

Love and Pease, founded by Jenny Blair, creates beautifully adorned journals and wall hangings, to compliment her range of paintings and prints.

The inspiration behind Jenny's mixed-media paintings is seeing the good things in life and celebrating them. Her unique journals are created to house the seeds of your thoughts and dreams and give them the room to bloom and grow.

One of Jenny earliest memories is sitting at the kitchen table in front of a mound of cardboard boxes, paint and glue...that's where her love affair with creativity began!

Whilst she's spread her wings and flown around the world, trained as a midwife, fallen in love and had 2 beautiful girls of her own...she has always returned to that kitchen table and her love of creating.

To see more of Jenny's work, visit her on stand N56 at BCTF 2012.

Julia Thomson Silversmith

Using traditional tools and fabrication techniques, Julia hand- crafts bepoke silver boxes, lockets and unique pieces of art jewellery from ethical precious metals that incorporate semi-precious, precious and lab-grown gemstones.

She works from her unusual workshop gallery, a converted classic caravan which is sited at Muchelney Forge near Langport, heart of the Somerset Levels in England.

Since training at Wimbledon School of Art London in 1997, Plymouth University and in Mexico, Julia moved to the Somerset Levels in 2004. She is a member of The Somerset Guild of Craftsmen and is also currently teaching.

Extensive travel, a love of nature and a fascination with vintage costume, sign writing detail, tattoo art and eras past, are just some elements that have inspired Julia to create original contemporary pieces that are often ornate, quirky and increasingly iconic.

To see more of Julia's work, visit the Design Edge Online Catalogue or on stand 406 at BCTF 2012.

Ruth Shelley

Ruth Shelley specialises in contemporary glass design.

Her work's signature is the use of vivid, dramatic colour in fused and kiln-formed glass which includes panels, tiles, mirrors, bowls, coasters and jewellery.

She also designs and produces more traditional leaded lights and has worked alongside architects on numerous restoration projects.

Much of her work is inspired by the dramatic shapes and forms of the mid-Wales landscape where she grew up.

Ruth is a member of the Makers Guild in Wales and the Society of Designer Craftsmen. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and works from her studio in Cardiff. Ruth Shelley is bilingual in Welsh and English and is available to undertake commissions for bespoke pieces.