Stitched Up

Amidst the hustle of last year's Country Living Christmas Fair at the SECC, these ceramic creations spoke to me with a quiet but elegant voice. Handcrafted in fine white porcelain, which lends each piece a refined delicacy, decorative stitching, button embellishment and lace imprinting adds homely appeal. It’s craft, but not as we know it.

Cath Ball, the designer-maker behind these pieces, is based in Cumbria, but luckily her work can be bought online at http://www.madebyhandonline.com.

She has also just been featured in a new book Handmade in Britain that pays homage to 90 contemporary designer-makers from the UK. As its pre-amble says: 'In these days of mass produced objects where people have become strangers to the process of making, it is comforting to know that there are still craftspeople working by hand and creating wonderful, unique products.'

Here, here.