Featured Artists from Leicester(shire):
Emma-Jane Rule
Emma-Jane’s metalwork combines traditional silversmithing and fold-forming techniques. She draws inspiration from nature’s rhythms and patterns. Her collection comprises three decorative yet functional pieces for the home: a fruit dish, bud vase and candlestick. Whilst designed for everyday use, these pieces also serve as striking centrepieces for special occasions.
Influenced by leaves, trees and wild landscapes, she transforms natural energy and beauty into unique, sculptural designs. The works combine modern fold-forming with traditional skills like hammer forming, silver soldering and patination. Leaves and stems, created in hammered copper are intertwined into garlands that contrast beautifully with simple, fabricated elements.
The surfaces are finished with different patinas, whilst preserved hammer marks reveal the making process. Burnished edges catch the light. This collection celebrates the joy of metalworking through time-honoured tools and techniques, transforming two-dimensional concepts into refined three-dimensional artworks.
Jade Webb
Jade is a textile artist whom builds new ways from the traditions of loom weaving. Loom weaving is a precise and logical and Webb embraces this is in her work, which is formidably controlled. But she deliberately allows the process to develop in ways that are less controlled than traditional weave.
In Webb’s work there are frayed edges, unpredictable lines and erratic patterns that emerge from the highly controlled process of weaving. Webb talks about this divergence from the standardised grids of traditional weaving as being similar to the neurodivergent experience. The work creates something new and beautiful by working around the constraints of the loom on which they were created.
Jo Cope
Jo’s practice explores cultural relationships with shoes. Her handcrafted sculptural artworks are made using traditional footwear processes. They become vessels to communicate different ideas and stories. Jo often uses the red stiletto, an outdated female shoe stereotype. She does this to make feminist statements by challenging its form.
‘Pressure’ is a new subversive craft artwork in object and film. It examines crafting shoes to raise questions about body politics and the act of craft. The series of handcrafted high heels were hydraulically crushed. This destroys the ‘perfect’ aesthetic and symbolises the pressure women experience.
The work also references Jo’s grandmother, a heel coverer who covered 144 heels per day to support her family. The repetitive work took a toll, leaving her unable to rest or self-care during an extremely difficult menopause. Jo’s mother had to take time off school to assist her.
Keisha Brittle
When working with glass, Keisha loves to explore a range of processes using both hot and cold techniques. She has found ways to further develop layering, colour, and pattern through blown glass. By using techniques of cold-working and embellishment, Keisha emphasises the light within her glass to highlight the patterns in the forms.
Keisha incorporates colour to explore how each pigment interacts with another. She blends colours in a single piece and overlaps them in multiple pieces to give a unique combination and pattern. Keisha hopes that her work communicates her passion for the material and the joy of making.
Keisha’s work also represents her Jamaican heritage and expresses her journey of reconnecting with her family. Her glass pieces are inspired by Jamaica’s natural beauty.
The patterns in her work are drawn from nature there and photographs that were sent to her by her Grandad in the Caribbean.
Sarah-May Johnson
Sarah-May was drawn to weaving for its tactile qualities and mathematical processes. Taking inspiration from the natural world, she continuously experiments with weave techniques. pushing traditional boundaries to pioneer new methods.
Her series draws from nature’s intricate patterns and the appeal of repetitive, symmetrical designs. The works are particularly influenced by Ernst Haeckel’s natural history illustrations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Each work is woven using Sarah-May’s innovative ‘Crossing Warp Threads’ technique. She developed this by modifying one of her looms. Unlike traditional weaving where warp threads remain parallel, her process enables selected threads to cross and twist over the surface. Resulting in complex and dynamic patterns. This new technique opens vast possibilities for pattern exploration.
All pieces are constructed on the loom as a single length of fabric. They are made using Sarah-May’s original techniques and loom modifications. Nothing is added once the weave is taken off the loom.
Martha Wiles
Martha, an illustrator, ceramist, and food activist, creates playful ceramic trophies to engage the public with food system issues. Her previous work celebrates organisations fighting food waste. Martha’s pieces serve as conversation starters, designed to inspire change in domestic food waste habits. She believes in art’s role in activism, using craft as a medium to make people more receptive to change.
For ‘Made in the Middle’, Martha plans to use clay and illustration to spark meaningful discussions about regenerative agriculture, ultra-processed food and farming.
Other Participating Artists in the Exhibition
Aishah Carberry
Olivia Ricketts
Clare Pentlow
Lucy Baxendale
Oxana Geets
Mahawa Keita
Paul McAllister
Francesca Buxton
Rachael Colley
Melanie Tomlinson
Robert Maurice King
Jennifer Collier
Michaela McMillan
Roo Dhissou
Natalie Cole
Ruiya Xu
Johnny Armstrong
Nilupa Yasmin
Karina Thompson
Nobuko Okumura
Verity Howard
Katie Smith
Oliver Bliss
Zoë Hillyard
Keeley Traae
Artists (Invited) curated by Jazz Swali
Christopher Day,
Farwa Moledina,
Halima Cassel,
Klara Szafranska,
Tereza Buskova
Xin Chen.
