This series promotes the work of talented new makers by showcasing their work within the craft space bringing contemporary craft to a wider audience.

Lynn Walters
Craft Focus
22 July – 25 September 2005
Lynn Walters is known for her wire and metal work inspired by memories, people and places from her childhood - valley houses, washing lines and recently beach scenes, depicted in a witty and energetic way. A new body of work recently developed will be launched especially for this Craft Focus showcase portraying the artist’s exploration into new themes and materials.

Anna Noel
Craft Focus
15 May – 4 July 2004
Swansea based ceramist and former student of the Royal College of Art, Anna Noel makes expressive ceramic sculptures of animals, her Riders on Horseback are particularly significant, taking inspiration from Celtic myths and legends and her love of animals.

Sarah Noel
Craft Focus
3 May – 28 June 2003
The work of Swansea based ceramicist Sarah Noel is largely two dimensional and pictorial in character, combining influences as diverse as medieval art, theatre, costume and the sea.

Anna Lewis
Craft Focus
26 January – 17 March 2002
Inspired by a family photograph and the strong bonds we feel to our personal possessions, the work of Swansea based artist Anna Lewis evokes memory by expressing delicate, ghostlike and ephemeral qualities. By using the feather as a symbolic material Anna has created some emotional body pieces which wrap around and embrace the neck and shoulders like a security blanket.
Before graduating from Middlesex University in June 2000, Anna worked with milliner Dai Rees on several occasions as well as assisting designers Natasha Kerr and Helen Carnac, before returning to Swansea to set up her own business. Anna’s work also features in Ruthin Craft Centre’s ‘Destination Unknown’, a platform for new designers to show their work as well as the arts Council of Wales Collectorplan re-launch celebrations in the National Botantic Gardens in November 2000.

Virginia Graham
Craft Focus
30 June – 2 September 2001
Cardiff based ceramicist Virginia Graham makes teapots and tea services using a combination of slip casting and hand building techniques. These forms are created with duplicated components which have been cast directly from original factory produced teapots and tableware. Their surfaces make reference to the utilitarian ceramics that have been produced by the British ceramics industry for many centuries. In addition to using earthenware glazes in a traditional manner, she uses a computer to create designs that are screen printed onto the clay. Virginia is keen to produce objects that marry industrial processes with hand made ceramic tradition, purely for decorative purposes.

Louise Hibbert
Craft Focus
3 March - 22 April 2001
Louise Hibbert graduated from the University of Brighton in 1994 with a degree in 3D Design specialising in Wood and Plastics. She has continued to develop ideas within the field of woodturning, designing and creating a range of products all having an equal emphasis on design, function and finish. At present her work comprises of a standard range of practical items (salt & pepper mills, bottle stoppers) and more whimsical one-off pieces – boxes and vessels. Her ideas derive from an exploration of form, texture, colour and symmetry. Inspiration has always been dominated by a fascination with the natural world, particularly marine life, microscopic creatures, plants and fossils which together offer a fantastic repertoire of imagery.

Emily Collins and Karen Jones
Craft Focus
8 April - 11 June 2000
Emily Collins and Karan Jones are two makers originally from Cardiff, both studying at Cardiff Institute of Higher Education before undertaking degrees in jewellery design.
Emily Collins works principally in silver, creating small objects including jewellery. She also designs and fabricates larger objects.
Karan Jones works in nylon and aluminium, both dyed in a variety of vibrant colours and used to create exciting combinations.

Eylem Binboga
Craft Focus
24 September – 5 November 2000
Vibrant colour and bold forms are the key elements to the work of London based designer-maker Eylem Binboga. She incorporates unique hand drawn designs and fabric into layers of laminated perspex. Since graduating from Brighton University in 1998, Eylem has seen her work exhibited widely and is keen to explore the potential of this technique. Her range now includes jewellery, mirrors, plates, screens, vases and tableware. Eylem draws upon a rich background of visual inspiration from Kurdish culture to Islamic Art, creating individual and colourful pieces or work which celebrate light and colour.