Post school education comprised a general engineering apprenticeship, including some basic blacksmithing as well as machining and other engineering disciplines.

 After becoming dissatisfied with humdrum engineering jobs I decided to explore the possibilities of blacksmithing as a career change. I undertook several formal short courses on different aspects of traditional forging techniques, before setting up my own forge.

 Continual practice in my own workshop, occasional periods working for other blacksmiths and regular attendance at county shows and blacksmith events have combined to develop my skills and techniques. Selling through craft outlets and galleries has honed my design style and led to the range of domestic items which comprise the majority of my current work.

 I enjoy the process of heating the uniform stock metal, either new or reclaimed, until it reaches a malleable state and then using hammer blows to transform it.

 Wherever possible I use traditional, ancient techniques in my work, although my forge blower is electric, not hand or foot pumped bellows, and my power hammer also runs on electric, not water or steam power as was once the case. 

Pencil artist focusing on animal portraits.

Billy was born in Northern Ireland and spent his youth roaming the hills of Donegal, exploring the landscape. He completed an MA in Ceramics at Cardiff Institute of Higher Education in the late 1980s and he has been living and working in Wales ever since.

His work is influenced by landscape settings, especially the wild, rugged beauty of Connemara and Donegal, and the dramatic West Wales coastline. He incorporates geological elements, natural colours, as well as the marks of human activity on the landscape into his vessels. He is interested in addressing the relationship we have with the landscape.

He works within the vessel format, combining textures, colours and forms whilst interacting with man made elements. His work questions the concept of the vessel and the tension between function and non-function. Their conclusive forms are recognised as jugs, bowls and vessels; yet they can lead to inquiry of the notion of one’s perception and memory of an ever-changing landscape.

Billy’s vessels incorporate three different types of clay which have varying shrinkage rates. Each piece of work is hand-built and fired between four and five times. After repeated glazing and firing, the piece builds up a rich vocabulary of fissures, texture and richness of hue evoking rugged landscapes.

Billy’s work is collected and exhibited in the UK, Europe and the USA. Billy is a Fellow of the CPA, Craft Potters Association of the UK.

WHY I PAINT

THE LOVE OF COLOUR, STORY TELLING, and sharing the sheer joy of paint are the reasons I make art. It's totally my thing. Almost as much my thing as are simple pleasures of life ... the dog walk, the first snowdrops, the geese on the estuary, the perfect cup of tea, lunch with a friend...

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"Colour is everything. When colour is right, form is right." - Marc Chagall.

I remember being completely in love with colour as early as 8 years old when my Uncle George (he who had been a desert rat, and in his 70’s still sported a rather dapper pencil moustache) presented me with a tin box of watercolours.

They were a thrill to behold! A dazzling array of row upon row of jewel-like lemons, fuchsias, and turquoises. It seemed to my eight-year-old self that I was in heaven and held the key to artistic bliss in my hands. However, this was in fact the first time I was to experience creative disappointment. The colours, when applied with a rough black bristle brush to thin newsprint paper, were lifeless. The paper wore through as I tried to apply increasing layers of the insipid colours to achieve some of the tin’s promised lustre.

After so many years I still vividly remember both the anticipation and disappointment of that event. And it's been my lifelong mission to find colour that satisfies. I think I'm almost there.

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The use of narrative, colour and flat plane gives the work unity and individuality of style along with a sense of joy.  My paintings are immediate, extracting the essential point of a scene or composition and conveying it with colour and innocence. The world I depict is fun and familiar and I hope viewers connect to the scenes and are taken to remembered people and places.

So it likely goes with out saying but  - I love to paint! 

Being creative is my passion, I love being an artist and in living my joy-filled purpose I bring joy to my artwork, to brighten your days.

I think about painting and creating obsessively. I always wanted to be an artist - and I am astounded everyday that I get to do this for my real-life-job. If you want to know more about me, you’re in the right place.

Cyanotype an old photography tradition using uv light to expose the image onto chemical paper.

My original cyanotype work started with my MA Photography and has now expanded into my personal practice. Using my documentary style landscapes I have been able to create visual images in both negatives and positives when creating a cyanotype.

Looking at global warming and climate change has been one subject of many I have enjoyed photo documenting. With the use of light and water to fix the image the use of elements of climate change and the images I have created will only be destroyed by the earth through erosion, also with help of man this will happen sooner.

Gwili Pottery is a family run business in Carmarthenshire. We have been in business for over 40 years, and we are very proud of our reputation for pottery of outstanding quality and style that is 100% hand made.

Mae Crochenwaith Gwili yn fusnes teuluol yn Sir Gaerfyrddin.  Mae’r busnes dros 40 mlwydd oed ac rydym yn falch iawn o’r enw da sydd gennym am greu crochenwaith o’r ansawdd uchaf, a’r cyfan wedi ei wneud â llaw.

By hand made we mean every pot is hand thrown on the potters wheel here at the pottery, not made in moulds or cast.

Chris throws & turns every pot we make on the potters wheel here at Gwili Pottery, taking a lump of mud and making it into something that is both beautiful to look at and lovely to use.
Our decorator, Sarah, (and Chris if needed!) paints amazing designs on the pots using brightly coloured slips. She uses many different techniques, as well as free hand painting, resist methods and scraffito (scratching through layers of paint back to the clay base).
Our pots are a testament to the decorators skills and love of bright colours and although every pot is unique & beautiful great care is also taken to ensure the pots are also really lovely to use, for example, our mugs fit nicely in your hands and feel really good on your lip as you drink from them, not too thick, not too thin – just right!

Through thoughtful selection of both subject and materials, I aim to open a discourse about wildlife that surrounds us and its relationship to the human world.

The animals that I depict can be seen at the periphery of our manufactured environment, surviving just behind the veneer of our civilisation.

The material that I choose is the spoil left in the wake of our progress, painstaking reassembled into tributes to these animals.

www.jkbrown.co.uk

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My name is Kate McCarthy-Keane and I am a stained glass artist based in the small village of Glynarthen in Ceredigion. Working with both stained glass and float glass I handcraft beautiful bespoke artwork.

Each item is lovingly created using the Tiffany copper foil method. I select and hand-cut each piece of glass which is then placed on my glass grinder to create a smooth finish. The individual pieces of glass are delicately wrapped in copper foil, arranged into the design and finally soldered together.

My designs take inspiration from nature, and the beautiful Welsh landscape. My love for succulents, flowers and the natural world has inspired me to capture its beauty in stained glass. All my creations are as unique as nature intended and crafted using the finest materials sourced from local and UK-based businesses and stained glass specialists.

My project aims to translate the delicate nature of flowers into glass while exploring the symbolism present in flora. This collection's deeper meaning derives from my indigenous heritage, where nature has a significant role in our history and culture, as well as illustrating our connection to the world around us. Whether it's the species of plant or flower, the pigments that may be used as dyes, or the application of plants in herbal medicine, floras have special significance. Since plant life is declining, it is important that we preserve what remains and devote our attention to everything that has been lost.

Flora, Heritage, Glass, Nature, Endangered