Katie Allen
Katie is an artist from near Southampton in Hampshire. She is a self-taught artist whose work captures the whimsical and ethereal magic of the natural world. Her artistic style, often described as whimsical, is deeply rooted in her lifelong fascination with the interplay of wildlife and the mythical realms of fairy tales and legends. Katie has developed a unique approach characterised by vibrant colours and meticulous detailing, aiming to draw viewers into a realm of wonder and enchantment. Her works promise to offer an escape into nature’s magic, blending reality with a touch of fantasy to inspire awe and appreciation for our natural world.
Leila Alford
Leila is an artist from Bournemouth in Dorset. Leila creates bespoke glass pieces inspired by the vibrant and ever-changing beauty of the Dorset and Hampshire coast. As a local artist, Leila is captivated by the shoreline's kaleidoscope of colours, textures, and hidden treasures. Her aim is to capture the essence of the sea in each piece, creating miniature 'underwater' worlds that evoke the wonders of a rockpool. Each Sea Garden is a one-of-a-kind creation, bringing a piece of the coast's magic to any space.
Sian Appleyard
Sian Appleyard was an established fine art printmaker creating beautiful hand inked images in small editions. Her highly textured collagraph printing plates were created by both cutting away and adding to the surface layer using anything from porridge oats to sand collected while walking on the beach. Richly coloured oil based inks are applied using rollers, cloth and paint brushes allowing for wonderful “happy accidents”. This also means that although prints are similar across a print run, each one is unique in various ways. Her work features scenes and landscapes of the south coasts and the New Forest area. At Chalks we enjoyed many years working with Sian. After her sad passing in 2023, we continue to stock Sian’s work at her request, with proceeds going to Oakhaven Hospice.
Mandi Baykaa-Murray
Mandi, affectionately known as ‘The Feather Lady,’ is an artist from Somerset that creates unique artworks that are as inspiring as they are beautiful. Utilising real moulted feathers as her canvas, each carefully collected for its intrinsic beauty, Mandi applies delicate layers of acrylic paint to bring her intricate visions to life. Inspired by the birds she loves to photograph and sketch, Mandi's finished works are a celebration of nature, emphasising sustainable artistry, turning found feathers into inspiring artworks that resonate with nature lovers and art enthusiasts alike.
Lydia Barclay
Lydia Barclay is an artist from Surrey with a BA (Hons) in ceramics. She makes handmade contemporary ceramics with nature inspired themes and minimal design. Lydia is interested in the balance between decorative and functional and makes a range of ceramics inspired by her local environment. She hand builds using porcelain making each piece unique. Her work is decorated with underglaze or colour inlay. Glaze is used sparingly to contrast with the matt smooth surface of the fired clay body, making each item tactile and pleasing to the eye. Lydia’s ceramics are practical and beautiful.
Jane Bevan
Jane Bevan is an artist from Derbyshire, Using all the familiar little treasures that she picks up on daily walks in Derbyshire, Jane creates objects, vessels and collage from found natural materials. It’s the tiny details, irregularities and unexpected beauty of the smallest things that catch her eye, be it feathers, twigs or acorn cups. These are then stitched, tied or assembled into a collection of artworks which embrace and celebrate the natural world.
Mike Braisher
Mike is a self-taught ceramicist from Lyndhurst in the New Forest. Since taking early retirement from teaching many years ago this has become his main occupation. He enjoys making very large, hand thrown stoneware storage vessels, chargers, bowls and pitchers and jugs with beautiful luxurious glazes. He spends several months each year in New Zealand whenever possible, visiting potters groups and numerous potter friends. He has done many demonstrations around the country and spent time as an Artist in Residence at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries in the Coromandel. He is a Life Member of Southern Ceramic Group and is also an Academician of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts.
Karen Brooking
Karen is a textiles and mixed media artist from Winchester, Hampshire. She creates textile collages with floral fabrics and free motion embroidery, using her own hand-dyed fabrics as backgrounds. As well as creating large artworks, Karen loves to experiment with upcycled fabrics, paper and embroidery to create cards, bookmarks and cheerful stitched and collaged gifts. She has always enjoyed a creative lifestyle and is a member of Winchester Textiles and Embroidery Group, helping to run a young embroiderers’ group. She was the winner of the 2022 St. Barbes Open Exhibition ‘Chalk’s Gallery People’s Choice Award’
Lindsay Buck
Lindsay Buck is the artist behind Slumbermonkey Designs and is based in rural North Dorset, where she works from her little garden studio. Originally from Norfolk she moved to Dorset eight years ago and she designs and makes a wide range of work which always incorporates colour, pattern and quirky details. Inspiration comes from the countryside around her, the birds, flowers, animals and plants that can be glimpsed in the garden and beyond. Also evident is a love of the Mid-Century aesthetic. Lindsay’s work aims to make you smile, to brighten your day and instil a sense of childlike curiosity and wonder.
Gillian Connor
A walk along the beach is not just a walk along the beach for Gillian Connor. It is a treasure hunt! She never knows what she may find or what it will eventually become. She has worked from her Hampshire studio since 2001 where she is surrounded by piles of driftwood, boxes of plastic, glass, rusty metal, old rope and fishing floats. These are all materials that inspire her to create all kinds of boats and some very strange sea creatures! She does it because she loves it, its eco friendly and makes people smile! Her hand tools become an extension of her imagination and she can spend endless hours looking for that perfect piece of glass or just the right rusty nail. Her work has been in many galleries and exhibitions.
CStar Design
CStar Design is a sister duo based in Winchester. Cathy and Lisa work together to design and create original fusion glass pieces. Through their glass work, they explore the colour vibrancy and translucency that glass offers, incorporating natural lines and forms from within nature. Their Kaleidoscope range reminisces childhood memories of sunny days and the magical images created within a Kaleidoscope. In the same way that a Kaleidoscope forever changes its unique forms and colour patterns, they too have developed a technique for creating this in each of their glass pieces. No two creations will ever have the same colours and shapes. They use a range of glass fusion techniques, creating layers and embellishments within their work.
Pete Gilbert
Pete Gilbert has lived a busy life with many career changes including advertising, restaurateur and night club owner, but has always found the time to paint, exploring and developing his own style. His style and approach ranges from the very precise skills needed as an airbrush artist and illustrator to the strong brush strokes and bold colours of his New Forest landscapes. He now makes his living as an artist, painting mainly contemporary landscapes of the New Forest or the Coast from Cornwall to the Scottish Western Isles.
Jade Hodges
Jade is a wildlife artist and sculptor based in Dorset, not far from the New Forest. Jade creates handmade wildlife-based art using polymer clay and other unusual mediums, providing the viewer with an, alternative way to enjoy insects and mushrooms all year round. Inspired by nature, she recreates organic forms from the forest floor. Mainly focusing on fungi, gastropods, butterflies and moths her aim is to create a variation of wildlife-based pieces, including bell jar sculpted scenes, wall mounted creations and freestanding sculptures, often featuring her speciality; her favourite snails and slugs of different species found around the world. More recently Jade has begun to include jewellery in her collection, which most importantly for her, still incorporates the same love of nature into the pieces.
Mia Houghton
Mia Houghton is the artist behind Mijoux Creations. Mia is an independent jeweller in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Crafting exquisite jewellery pieces that celebrate quality, luxury and unique design. Drawing inspiration from nature, colour and the beauty of geometry, Mia uses recycled silver, enamel and gemstones to create jewellery to be loved for generations.
Emma Hiles
Emma Hiles is a ceramic artist from Laverstoke, Hampshire but grew up in Christchurch Dorset surrounded by the sea and coastline. She has worked in design for nearly 20 years specialising in designing Holograms for brand and currency. 5 years ago she started a pottery class in her local town for a few hours a week and got completely hooked on clay. She finds that clay is an amazing medium for experimentation, and she has loved playing with clays and glazes over the last couple of years. Opening the kiln is always a surprise and a huge lesson in patience and resilience The glass used in the Bombay bowls is from Bombay Gin bottles from the distillery which is based a mile down the road from where she lives.
Vikki Lafford-Garside
Growing up in rural Oxfordshire, Vikki had an appreciation for the countryside and a fascination with nature and wildlife. This love of nature combined with a passion for art and textiles led her to achieve a degree in Embroidery, followed by a Master’s degree in Textile design in 2006. Since then, she has worked as a designer-maker of wearable art, textile jewellery and accessories and she continues to be inspired by exquisite beauty found in nature. Vikki works from her studio in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Using machine and hand embroidery, cutwork, heat manipulation and hand painting techniques, she transforms simple fabrics and thread into unique and entirely wearable, decorative and colourful accessories to wear and treasure.
Sarah Maddison
Sarah Maddison is a textile artist, producing unique pictures, jewellery and jewellery boxes, purses and greetings cards. She takes a very fluid approach to her mixed media work, combining painting, free-motion machine embroidery, traditional hand stitching techniques and beading. She is constantly inspired by the ancient landscapes near her home on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border and the spirituality and stories of those who have walked those paths before us. The animals that inhabit those landscapes are often also featured. She loves standing stones, hares and crows and the moon.
Jill Maguire
Jill Maguire specializes in creating illustrated porcelain homeware and jewellery. Jill’s work is inspired by nature, her love of gardening and her passion for Wild Swimming. Jill builds her vessels using slabs of clay which have been impressed with interesting relief patterns. They are then biscuit fired and hand decorated using underglazes. Each pieced is dipped in a clear glaze, fired and then topped with gold and other metallic lustre, before a for a third firing. Jill is happy to produce bespoke bowls and jugs as commissions, adding personal images and text.
Anne-Marie Marshall
Anne-Marie is a ceramicist from the New Forest. She gained a degree in ceramics from Middlesex University in 1992 and her work was selected for the Young Contemporaries exhibition at the V&A. She went on to set up her studio in the New Forest, where she was inspired by the animals around her. Anne-Marie’s more recent work is based on the domestic and wild animals that inhabit the Forest around her studio. Anne-Marie uses a variety of techniques to construct her work including slab building, press moulding, pinching and coiling.
Vicki Matthews
Vicki Matthews is an artist from East Hampshire. She originally studied art at Portsmouth School of Art in the 1970’s but was unable to pursue a career in art at that time. After a long career in nursing she returned to art several years ago. Vicki loves to fuse together paint and textiles. Like a magpie, she collects beads, yarns, threads, pieces of fabric and sometimes sea glass and uses them together with acrylic paints to create an expression of the beauty of nature. Vicki believes that as artists we have a duty to give, and share, testimony to the joy and wonder of this world.
Emma Mayle
Emma Mayle is a glass artist working from her studio in the village of Balderton in Nottinghamshire. Since graduating in Contemporary Decorative Craft, Emma has attended several masterclasses to further develop her understanding of the material and is now an active member of the Contemporary Glass Society. Primarily inspired by colour and light, Emma finds the experimentation with glass as an art medium both fascinating and addictive. 2023 saw Emma retreat to her studio to focus on developing several different design ideas from her sketchbooks. From much experimentation, a new body of work is now emerging that has a clear link to her love of the woods. Subtle hushed colours provide a calming backdrop for the imprints of leaves and wildflowers, beneath smooth raised textural details offering an organic tactile quality.
Gillian McCormick
Gillian is a glass artist from Dorset. After studying drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of art she went on to study decorative glass in Glasgow. Here she learnt the traditional skills of painting and staining glass plus acid etching, and fusing. She takes her inspiration from the walks she takes through the atmospheric woods and fields of Dorset and the sense of connection she feels with those that have gone before and the creatures that have made this landscape their home. A deer leaping through the woods, a badger emerging from the ferns or a fox skulking along the hedgerows, all make their way into my painted stained glass.
Jo Middleton
Jo Middleton is a ceramicist who lives and works in rural West Sussex. She graduated from Falmouth College of Arts in contemporary crafts. With a love for nature and working in porcelain she went on to start Wild Hare Ceramics. Drawing inspiration from her time spent in Cornwall, her love for animals and living in the beautiful countryside of the South Downs she creates a range of sculptures and whimsical ceramics. These are carefully hand built using a variety of techniques in porcelain, paperclay and stoneware.
Jessica Mitchell
Jessica Mitchell is a jewellery designer based in Dorset who creates a whole world of cute miniature earrings. Her designs are endless and often created in collections throughout the year to follow the seasons. Mostly inspired by sugary snacks and drinks, her pieces are often tiny scrumptious versions of your favourite seasonal foods!
Sally Ovenden
Sally works from her garden studio at home in Sway. After studying ceramics at Falmouth and running a small studio in Cornwall, Sally returned to her home in the New Forest. Although having not practiced ceramics for a several years, creativity has always played a big part of Sally’s life, until the clay drew her back in about 10 years ago. The local environment and bounty of wildlife has been the main inspiration for Sally’s work, which is constantly evolving and changing much like the seasons. Sally is currently exploring the patterns and textures created by the sea, sand and eroding coastline and well as the surrounding environment.
Tony Palmer
Tony is a self-taught artist based in Southampton. Tony discovered his love of painting in his 40's and he has developed his unique style over the years. His early work was in acrylics, pastels and oils but more recently, he has been creating semi-abstract landscapes in watercolour. Colour is the driving force in all his work as well as the use of non-traditional methods of paint application. Tony's use of bold bright colours applied by dripping, spattering and spraying, characterise his latest mixed-media works and their semi-abstract nature.
Rachel Palmer
Rachel is a ceramicist from Lymington. She enjoys the elements and processes required to create unique pieces and loves the fact that there is always something new to learn. She has a studio at home and divides her time between working and potting and relishes the expectation and surprise when it is time to open the kiln. Rachel creates functional pieces and sculptures of natural objects taking inspiration from plants, fruits, seeds and the forest floor. She is currently working on garlic, chilli and spice sculptures, sycamore and acorn sculptures, bud vases and garlic jars. Rachel is a member of New Forest Marque Inspired.
Quirky Metals
Jim & Laura Stringer are the designers behind Quirky Metals. They have worked in the metal industry in Sheffield since both graduating with design degrees over 30 years ago. They gained recognition for their designs from The Worshipful Company of Pewterers which encouraged them to set up their workshop. They particularly enjoy working in pewter as it lends itself to being handled in a way which does not require industrial machinery. Their work from their small workshop using mostly silversmithing and hand tools. Their designs take inspiration from the natural world and include themes from the insect world, flora and nautical.
Jo Richards
Jo is a jewellery designer that grew up within walking distance of the sea on the Dorset Coast. She now calls the city of Winchester home and enjoys the beautiful countryside, rolling hills and chalk streams that surround her. The sea, water, and natural world often feature in her work. You will also find designs inspired by travels with her family, visits to art galleries and organic architecture. Since 2006 Jo has specialised in working almost exclusively in Silver Clay – a product made from recycled silver. This medium has helped her develop the feminine, romantic, and organic style that she is now recognised for. Jo’s jewellery is not only unique and beautiful, but impeccably made; an enduring piece of wearable art that can be treasured and enjoyed for years to come.
Kate Smith
Kate Smith is a printmaker living in the New Forest, England. She uses her drawing skills to create images of wildlife, plants and trees. Her fascination with biodiversity is reflected in her work; from close up images of tiny elements in nature, such as micro funghi, to larger creatures such as whale sharks. Each print shows the unique relationship between the main subject and its habitat. Her love of bold colour and detailed mark marking makes her style varied; moving between detailed one block prints to colourful multi-plate images. She lives and works in the New Forest where she finds inspiration from the surroundings of the beautiful National Park. She is a proud member of the New Forest Marque Inspired.
Sparkletastic Glass
Sparkletastic glass is run by a husband and wife team based in Fordingbridge. Amanda makes dichroic glass cabochons by layering dichroic and bullseye glass and fusing it in her kiln. Some of the more complex pieces are then cut from mosaic glass slabs before they have a final fire polish in the kiln. Amanda and Mark also make many of the silver findings and setting using eco-silver (recycled sterling silver) and traditional silver-smithing techniques.
Vicky Swift
Vicky Swift is the designer and maker based in Stubbington, Hampshire. She uses a combination of vintage cutlery, driftwood, and reclaimed stained glass to hand craft collections of unique eco friendly up-cycled sculptures, including her range of handmade upcycled cutlery birds, fish and dolphins. Sustainability has been at the heart of Vicky’s work for over 20 years.
Mary-Anne Toop
Mary-Ann is a textile artist, sculptor, designer, dreamer, and observer of the natural world. Her imaginary dreamland, Concordia’s World, is full of her mixed media fairytale sculptures and automata. Inspired by childhood memories, fairytales, a love of nature, and a preoccupation with winged things, her sculptures are a synthesis of textile art and engineering. Using primarily recycled materials, Mary-Ann is constantly learning new skills and experimenting to develop her own unique methods and techniques. Her small, highly detailed, story-telling artworks enchant the viewer, helping them re-enter the endlessly curious, playful, and imaginative world of childhood - that rich inner world where anything is possible.
Harriet Wesley
Harriet Wesley is inspired by the surrounding New Forest, archaeological finds and ancient ceramics. Her work has a textured and organic exterior; the inside is often, by contrast, smooth and glazed, as are the rims of vessels, making them fully functional items. She often creates work that bridges the gap between functionality and sculpture. Her current pieces are hand built stoneware, using a cross between coiling and slab building techniques and are decorated using a mixture of coloured clays and slips, stains, oxides, glazes and metal leaf.
Rosie Wesley
Rosie Wesley is a metalwork and jewellery designer based in the New Forest. With a focus on texture and form, her sculptural works and jewellery are individual, site-responsive pieces to locations in the New Forest and are made using burn-out casting techniques to create replica textures of tree bark or other natural materials. Rosie transforms her pieces into metal objects that you can keep forever and often works on commission pieces which are perfect for remembering loved ones, encapsulating unique experiences or commemorating special moments.
Monica Wilson
Monica Wilson is a jewellery maker from Stockbridge in Hampshire. Monicas jewellery is hand-made using sterling silver, sometimes highlighted with elements of gold, semi precious stones, pearls or amber. Monica uses traditional silver-smithing techniques such as repoussé and chasing, lost-wax casting, hand forging and enamelling and sometimes cast using actual seeds, leaves and twigs. Flashes of sunlight are added by burnishing. Occasionally, her images of flowers are printed onto aluminium, layering them and incorporating silver elements. Every piece is a celebration of nature, a deep ‘thank you’ for the beauty of nature and a little wearable work of art which can remind them of nature, especially when times are tough, connecting them to the natural world.
Sue Woodger
Sue Woodger creates original painted paper cut artwork that is inspired by nature from her home studio in Surrey. Fascinated by the patterns and movement found in the natural world, Sue’s work most regularly features swarms of paper butterflies, shoals of fish, and flocks of birds. Sue cuts a silhouette from hot pressed watercolour paper and paints each piece with a highly vibrant watercolour. Every picture has depth, movement and variation. Sue’s work is available in a wide range of frame sizes, and Sue often works to create custom commissions.