Craft Makers

Jules Jules was formed in 2005 by Jules Miller.
After a career in graphics she found a new way to express her creativity and began making and designing jewellery. Due to the ever increasing popularity of her fused glass pieces she has put aside the jewellery and the business has grown to include her partner Charlie.

Together they design and handmake art glass gift items focusing on supplying the small independent retailer with new and fresh collections with prices at an affordable level.

From making our own clay to the finished product, each piece is handmade and decorated by a small team of craftspeople in Lochinver and Ullapool, Scotland. It takes time to create our products. Each item is hand painted. The artists are encouraged to innovate and develop designs, so no two pieces are the same. Individual pieces are signed by the artist. As each piece is different and will vary from the photographs.

Robyn Kinsman-Blake. After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art’ Jewellery and Silversmithing degree in 2009 I now work from my studio as part of the Kinsman Blake family gallery.

I love stories and try to infuse there life and movement into my jewellery, capturing characters as small as a starling and as dazzling as a trapeze artist full of circus magic.

I am aware of the environmental impact of the jewellery trade and where possible uses recycled and ethically sourced materials.  Increasingly I am being commissioned to create new jewellery from old pieces. New jewellery designed personally for the customer yet retaining the history and sentimental values of the original piece.

Gordon Finch has been turning wood since he can remember

Abi fell in love with the whole felting process immediately – getting soapy with wet felting or the precision detailing of needle felting. Fairly soon our house became full of felted objects as I experimented with my new found skill.

I’ve always loved creating unique presents for my children and family. One of the gifts I have made for my girls, was a pair of felt fairies which they loved. Whenever they were invited to a party, they would always ask me to make more of these as presents for their friends.

The reaction from both the children and their parents was so positive that I was encouraged to start making them to sell, and the idea for red cat was born!

About Michael James Hunter

Since starting as a trainee glass blower at Wedgwood Glass in 1974, Michael has exhibited internationally and has work in both private and public collections across the world.

He has demonstrated and given presentations of his work across UK, in Cologne, Germany as well as New Jersey, Chicago IL, Texas, Oklahoma, New England, Tacoma WA, Norfolk VA, Dearborn & Flint MI in the US, where he has been a regular visitor since 2006.

I specialise in wheel-thrown porcelain.

I attended Art College as a student but I never quite found my place in the usual artistic range. Something always seemed to be missing. I eventually chose a different path, closer to nature. I discovered my passion for clay by pure chance, and I have now come full circle, to a material as ancient as the Earth, and to a place that feels like home, behind a potter’s wheel.

I’m incredibly passionate about ceramic – I pour my heart and soul into it. For me it’s both a meditative process and a constant challenge.

I would define my work as minimalist. I favour shapes that are simple yet sophisticated, with clean lines and a quiet but powerful presence that works in any decor.

George Young is a potter. He went to art college in Dundee and taught pottery at Peebles High School before setting up his own pottery.

The problem with pottery is that when you’re buying a pot, you’re buying a piece of time. It’s not like a machine that you can turn the knob up and make it go faster, it’s not like a warehouse where you can just go and get another box off the shelf if people want more things. Each thing takes a specific amount of time.

It’s totally labour intensive. And especially when you do everything… I mix the clay, I mix the glazes, I make the pots, fire them, decorate them, glaze them. All the processes, each one of those takes a certain amount of time.

The Pots

All the work is hand thrown and turned stoneware. No machines or moulds are used and the traditional techniques have taken many years to perfect. The pottery does not try to mimic the past but draws on skills rarely practiced today.

Combined with high temperature stoneware glazes, fine brushwork, wax resist and glaze trailing, the finished pots with rich copper red and cobalt blue glazes are both functional and decorative whilst still having a contemporary look. On the Specials range, gold lustre is hand decorated on to the stoneware pot and then fired again, adding a luxurious opulence not normally found on studio pottery.

The glazes and pigments are made up from raw materials in the pottery and are fired in a gas kiln to over 1300° Celsius. This fuses both clay and glaze together in an impenetrable bond, giving the pottery both its brightness and its depth of colour. Although decorative, the pots have been designed to be used and are oven and dishwasher safe.

As hare spotter and potter at the March Hare pottery I moved into the idyllic surrounds of a restored Victorian Laundry in April 2023.

I have been creating and potting for much of my life and have gained experience and skills from talented local potters including Borders ceramicist Marianne Finlayson and tutors at Edinburgh Design School.

As well as making my own ceramics I love sharing the therapeutic qualities of working with clay. With many years of experience in community education, it is a delight to now be able to welcome groups and individuals to my own studio to discover the joy of creating.

Marion Boddy-Evans is an artist living on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. As well as painting landscapes and seascapes inspired by Skye and the Highlands.

Marion also combines her painting and drawing skills with jewellery techniques, to produce her Wearable Art. This includes a range of wirework accessories that is a bit like 3D drawings designed to be worn. These designs are quite realistic, inspired by the beautiful landscape of Skye and the numerous sheep; others are abstract explorations of textures, colours and patterns inspired by the ever-changing weather.

Please visit our gallery to see Marion Boddy-Evans’s work, or buy from this maker and many others.

Gaynor Hebden-Smith creates bespoke hand crafted pieces of jewellery and accessories using a contemporary combination of reclaimed sea glass, sterling silver, metals, beads and crystals. She collects all the sea glass used in her designs from the beautiful coastlines of Scotland’s beaches.

The glass used has found its way into the sea either accidentally or through littering. Over the years the power of the sea naturally breaks and tumbles the glass, resulting in the uniquely shaped, smooth and frosted pieces of sea treasure.

As no two pieces of sea glass found and used are ever the same, wearers know that a piece of Scottish Sea Glass is truly one of a kind.

Please visit our gallery to see Scottish Sea Glass’s work, or buy from this maker and many others.