I came across Stacey Manser-Knights ceramics while browsing in the IO Gallery in the north laines.

I thought her ceramic work was really beautiful – sweet and delicate.

She mainly specializes in clocks, bowls and jugs but her ‘other stuff’ includes egg cups, earrings and brooches.

I like her work because it’s got a real quaint, country feel to it. The bowls and jugs depict flowers, vegetable gardens, strawberries, hearts, cakes and teacups. It makes me think of sunny days, afternoon teas and peaceful birdsong.

She adds little gold highlights and rims to her work which gives a real glamorous, luxurious finish.

Stacey was born in the U.S.A, grew up in Oxford and New York and has lived most of her adult life in Brighton. ‘I feel most at home in Brighton’ she says ‘it gives me the sea, the city and rolling countryside all in a few minutes’.

She explains that she is mainly self- taught in the ceramics department and she has detailed her ‘method’ on her website. So if you’re interested in the tricks of the trade check it out!

Much of Stacey’s work is made to order and sold through galleries around England. She participates in the Brighton festival “Open houses” during May.

She can be contacted about commissions via her website www.muddypumpkin.co.uk

By Helen Ruff

I collect vintage china – I scour car boot sales and charity shops – and nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a beautiful, elegant bone china teacup complete with a chip or a crack. No matter how small the chip – it ruins the whole effect. And how about a stunning saucer with no matching cup?… Useless but surely no reason to leave the 10p item behind?

In fact I have a whole box of damaged/redundant items. So my heart practically skipped a beat when I came across Anna Tilson who makes incredible mosaics using vintage china. Like me, she scours car boot sales and charity shops carefully selecting vintage pieces to turn into beautiful, eclectic, precious objects.

Anna’s inspiration originates from Indian textiles and Islamic architecture to patchwork quilts and pink roses! She describes her style as ‘a combination of a Victorian boudoir and 1930s tea room – nostalgic and whimsical’.

Her expanding collection includes fancy mirrors, eclectic vases, romantic brooches, garden tables, flower pots and “wallflowers” (fancy floral wall plaques).

Anna Tilson was born in 1959 in London. She studied textiles and fashion at St. Martins School of Art between 1978 and 1982. After leaving college Anna become a freelance textile designer, setting up a studio in London. She set up her own business, making hand printed scarves and clothes. Outlets for her textiles included Neiman Marcus – New York, Liberties of London, the Crafts Council at the V&A and the annual Chelsea Crafts Fair.

In 1999 Anna changed discipline and produced a collection of beautiful mosaic works.

She works from her studio just off the seafront in Brighton where she runs mosaic workshops. If you’re interested in Anna’s work or would like to book onto a workshop please check out her website www.areaatlas.com

Anna regularly exhibits in the Brighton Festival and the following local shops stock her work: Appendage, Kensington Gardens & Wickle, Lewes High Street.

By Helen Ruff

I have a real thing for tiles. I haven’t been adventurous enough to do some actual tiling in my flat yet but I have collected a few quirky tiles over the years. I display them on my window sills and look at them lovingly.

Angela Evans from Brighton also has a real thing for tiles and she makes each one by hand in her ‘chalet-style’ shed in her garden. ‘I make my range of fruit and vegetable tiles – using casts of the real thing – alongside their cousins growing in the vegetable patch!’ she tells me.

Angela’s fruit and veg tiles are her trademark if you like and have caught the attention of the press. With headlines such as ‘The fruits (and veg) of her labour’ the tiles have been featured in newspapers and design magazines such as Elle Decoration, Homes & Gardens, Period Home.

“Luscious strawberries nestle against tasty looking asparagus and glistening green and red peppers – tiles, each and every one, but with colours so vibrant and lifelike they look good enough to eat.” – Kate Mikhail, The Independent, 1^st August 1998.

Angela’s work has also featured on Channel 4′s ‘Collectors’ Lot’.

Her ‘Hair Harvesting’ kit – a cast nose with scissors dangling beneath – raised some eyebrows and exfoliated some nostrils at one Open House in last year, while her ‘Please Wash Your Duck’ plaque reads like a surreal public health warning.

She employs a carefully accumulated assortment of found objects – golf tees, clock parts, plug chains, bits of flotsam – to make abstract marks in the clay which allow oxides and glazes to pool and create a depth of colour and texture.

Angela has been making ceramic tiles since graduating from Brighton University eighteen years ago. She grew up in Brighton and, apart from a few years in the nineties when she had a workshop in London’s trendy Hoxton Square (‘before it got too expensive!’), she has lived and worked in the city – working from high rise New England House for a decade before moving to her ‘garden studio’.

Angela is currently working on a shoal of fish for the Mackerel Festival on the seafront in May.

Her tiles range from £5.30 for a small feature tile to £14 for a sought-after fruit and veg tile. Angela also works on bespoke commissions. Her contact details can be found via her website www.angelaevans.co.uk

By Helen Ruff