Handmade Ceramics, Textiles, Glass and Wood

Individual pieces: thrown and hand-built pots, woven cloth, silver and brass jewellery, blown and kiln-formed glass, turned bowls, stitched leather and bound books. Each one is posted on British Artists by the person who made it, usually with a note on the material, the method and the size the thing actually is.

Material does most of the talking. Stoneware fired in reduction comes out different from the same glaze in an electric kiln. Cloth woven on a floor loom hangs unlike anything off a machine. Silver that has been chased and patinated reads as handled rather than finished. Listings tend to say which it was, because in the workshop that difference counts.

A listing takes images, video, audio and rich text, and all of that is available on every one of the twelve disciplines. Potters use video for the wheel and the kiln opening, weavers post close detail of selvedge and weft, bookbinders show the sewn spine before the case goes on. Reading a listing takes no account. A commission is discussed with the workshop, at the address on its profile.

Almost everything here was made to be picked up. A bowl has a weight and a foot ring, cloth has a drape and a wash, a bound book opens flat or it does not. That is what ends up in the note: capacity in millilitres, the weight of a scarf, whether a glaze is food safe. A photograph tells you none of it, which is why the text under a craft listing runs long.