National Maker Directory

Inspired by a lifetime of working with wood, Olneya Knives makes beautiful handcrafted kitchen knives. Customers can choose from a selection of beautiful pre-made knives, or alternatively design their own perfect knife by selecting from a variety of design variables. We use excellent stainless steel blades and use the highest quality exotic hardwoods, as well as a variety of other materials to create distinctive and ergonomic designs.

I use traditional copper foil and lead techniques to create my lamps, panels, terrariums, tableware and jewellery. The copper foil technique I employ is the same as used by the Tiffany Studios in the late 19th century. However, I use it to create unique designs that fit any interior. It is a labour-intensive and slow process but the results make it worthwhile and I like the fact that I am keeping a little-known skill alive and combining art and artisan. I am inspired mainly by the style and ethos of the designers of the Arts & Crafts Movement and love the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods particularly.

I make wall sculptures out of drift wood branches, ceramic bowls and platters wrapped in papier-mâché and ceramic collages that hint at a story. I love combining different textures to create very tactile pieces. My work is influenced by the weatherworn surfaces of the Manx landscape, the coastline, and my love of the sea, then wrapped with papier-mâché. The papier-mâché is a wrapping of love! It’s a memory of my sister and I, who with great care and glee unwrapped the Christmas decorations. These wonderful jewels had been so carefully folded in old newspaper ‘skins’, now my papier-mâché skins! My repeatedly worked surfaces of clay are under constant revision, referencing the endless remaking of the shoreline, then decorated with oxides, under glazes, glazes and gold lustre.

I hand-paint silk scarves with my own designs. Each scarf is unique. Inspiration comes from clouds, water, leaves, flowers, French balconies and abstract ideas. I was a self-taught acrylic landscape painter for many years, and diversified after being shown the technique. I am also experimenting with digitally screen printed scarves based on my pastel paintings.

I have been a professional silk painter & tutor for 17 years. I first came across silk painting whilst studying surface pattern design and got hooked on the technique and taught myself. I am an active member of the Guild of Silk Painters and Silk Painters International and teach a wide range of workshops on the subject.

I paint using the traditional resist technique, this is where the design is outlined on the silk using a resist medium called gutta, before being painted & fixed. My main subject areas are flowers, stylised buildings & landscapes.

I completed a fine art degree and MA at Manchester Metropolitan University over twenty years ago and have been teaching art while painting and making since then. I recently left teaching and moved to the Yorkshire Dales, where I am surrounded by a landscape that constantly inspires me. The changing light on fells and moorland catches my painter’s eyes and I find myself increasingly fascinated by the people and animals that inhabit and visit the area, the climbers, fell runners and cyclists who make use of the land. All ceramics are hand built and are glazed and fired multiple times to give the layered more painterly effect.

I first started working with clay three years ago and I am self-taught; I love the beauty and clarity of porcelain and I enjoy the freedom of hand-building my pieces one by one and seeing their shapes appear. I add gold and platinum lustres at the final firing stage, filling my work with depth, optimism […]

Working in porcelain from my studio in Hampshire I produce pieces both on the wheel and with hand building techniques. My current wheel-thrown work is functional tableware suitable for everyday use, decorated inside with my speckled glazes and finished outside with a hand drawn daisy chain motif.

My hand built work, including vases & tea lights, is more decorative with a variety of finishes – printing of pattern & words, simple pencil drawing & slip decoration.

Much of my work is inspired by a childhood punctuated with visits for ‘Tea’ with my Grandmother, everything looking as good as it tasted and always beautifully presented. I originally learnt my craft at evening classes in my local college, moved on to studying a couple of days a week with my tutor, finally moving in to my own studio during 2008.

Peris and Corr is a textile and screen printing company run by Dyfrig Peris and Jennie Corr who both have backgrounds in Fine Art. With a passion for great design, screen-printing and the environment, Peris and Corr was born.

All our products are designed and hand printed in our studio located in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. We create a range of hand-made organic textile products and screen-printed greeting cards.

All our textile products are hand screen-printed using Permaset Inks that are solvent free water-based inks. All our textile products are made with organic cotton and / or hemp unless otherwise stated.

The joy of carving is that it is difficult. You can’t stick a piece back on and you are always constricted by the size of the block. This calls for ingenuity and a fluidity of expression that does not exist for me in other materials.

I use predominantly lime stones like Bath stone because I like the warm colours and Serpentine because you can polish it.

The carvings are sometimes cast into bronze or iron resin to make limited editions I do public and  bespoke commissions, show in galleries and have many pieces on Facebook.

My work invites the fingers to explore the nuances of grain. Starting with a locally sourced, sustainably cut “coppiced” tree, I cleave it using the ancient technology of the bodger. The pieces that emerge from this technique follow the undulating curves within the tree, and give my work a fluid, organic feel. My interest lies […]

I began to make pots at school. The art room, and the art teacher, provided a quiet calm space, which became an oasis of contrast to the noise and chaos of boarding school life. I went to Harrow Art School in the early 1980s, chosen mostly because it had a crèche, and found a course […]

I am an artist working in the medium of glass. I am constantly inspired by the beauty and clarity of light in the Isles of Scilly, where I live and where my studio is located.

Having trained in traditional leaded light stained glass which I still make to commission, I also make small scale traditional hanging panels, fused glass freestanding sculptures and framed pictures using pallet wood and fused glass.

My work blends innovative design with classic style to provide unusual creative pieces of high quality silver and gold jewellery. Inspired particularly by wildlife, animals and trees, my work is all about the detail, incorporating intricate saw piercing with form and movement to make tactile pieces with hidden details. I love problem solving to achieve a piece that reflects what I can see in my mind’s eye. My pieces vary in size from small designs to large statement pieces and I am open to commissions.

Some time ago I decided that it was time to dust off the 19 Century Letterpress in my old outbuilding at my home in Braunston and start creating my own work again, and so Please Shut the Gate was established! At first I produced a sign for my front gate (as my hens were getting a little too free range) and then a pile of Christmas cards as the festive season approached; now my range of products has expanded, with a collection of kitchenware, home furnishing & fashion accessories.

All the designs are unique – they may be printed from the same lino block but the ink, fabric, pressure, temperature in the studio all play a part in making the pieces individual. Once printed the designs are then made up into a range of items including tea towels, bags, cushions and even a satchel.

Having worked as a Product Designer for 8 years (specialising in Kitchenware) I left full time employment 2 years ago to renovate retro furniture and become a freelance designer.
I am currently working on new ways to up-cycle old interesting items and also design a range of retro inspired clocks and furniture to complement the original pieces on sale too.

Polyanna Designs was founded in 2007 in North Wales. I’m self-taught and I design and create very feminine original pieces of jewellery made from sterling silver, semi precious gemstones and Swarovski crystals. I believe my designs are unique. My main collection is made using Swarovski Elements, a synonym of quality and luxury.

Whilst doing my Master’s degree in Finance and Banking I was gaining experience in fashion design. It was then that I discovered a greater passion for jewellery making, which started through my never ending wish to change things that I see. This made me think “why don’t I just make exactly what I want?”

I am based in Penzance in Cornwall in a workshop full of old singer sewing machines and spotty, stripey, flowery fabric. Me and my little band of stitchers design and make a range of quirky accessories for fashion and the home. We use freehand machine embroidery to draw the designs in stitch onto a variety […]