Meet the Team
UK Handmade is run by a hard working team of artists, designers and makers from around the UK. We all contribute to the magazine in our spare time because we are dedicated to supporting the Handmade movement that is currently sweeping across the country. Please read a little bit about us and what we do.
Karen Jinks - Creative Director
I am a mixed media artist, illustrator and web designer who has been making cards and gifts for family since I was small so setting up a business doing just that was a natural progression for me after I left college and started a family of my own. I've always understood the importance of taking the time to make something for a loved one - it is so easy today to go out and buy mass produced items but something that has been made by hand has a significance that goes beyond price, especially in today's climate.
Seeing the ethos of Handmade spread so far across the country over the last 10 years since I started my business has been wonderful, plus through UK Handmade I now have the privilege of working with a group of amazing talented people I would not otherwise have met. I consider myself to be a very lucky lady!
You can see my work over at www.chalkhillstudio.co.uk and my blog is www.karenjinks.blogspot.com I would love for you to come and say hi!
Anna Stassen - Editor
I am a self taught jewellery designer/maker living in Surrey with my Dutch husband and two gorgeous Siamese cats. I left my previous career as a corporate lawyer almost 4 years ago to devote all my time and energy to Sakura Jewellery.
"Sakura" is the Japanese word for "cherry blossom". It is a name I chose because, like the cherry blossom, my hope for my jewellery is for it to be delicate, luminous, ephemeral and beautiful and I also wanted to honour my half-Japanese heritage. This is also the reason why "Sakura" feature quite prominently in some of my designs.
I also make special one-of-a-kind pieces combining my handmade ceramic focals with gemstones. I do recreate designs but in extremely limited numbers so that each piece is as unique as the person who wears it.
I am inspired by colour and nature and my designs incorporate a melting-pot of materials from semi-precious gemstones to pearls, my own ceramic creations and much much more. My preferred metals are sterling silver and Karen Hill Tribe silver (99.9% pure silver) which I source from a very reputable company with a strong fair trade policy as this is something I feel strongly about.
It is my sincere hope that the joy I derive from designing and hand-crafting my jewellery is shared by those who wear my designs.
I feel priviliged to be part of the UK Handmade team comprised of so many talented and pioneering artists/designers and happy to be able to call so many of them great friends :)
If you'd like to know more about me, my jewellery and life in general please have a wander over to my blog: sakurafubukidesigns.blogspot.com/
Jo Askey - Design
I am an illustrator and graphic designer living in Cheshire with my husband, our 10yr old girl and our 4yr old boy. We share our house with an ancient staffordshire bull terrier, and our garden with two lop eared rabbits.
After having initially studied fine art, some years later after the birth of my son, I returned to study graphic design.
It was during a module on illustration, that I fell in love with digital art - with it's delicate lines and solid blocks of colour, and have never looked back.
I am very proud to be a part of UK handmade, and the amazing quality and creativity of the work featured in the UK handmade magazine makes my job very easy!
Gill Smith - Events
Hello, I?m Gill Smith. I am a self-taught designer maker with a passion for floral jewellery, which led me to set up Gillyflower Jewellery in 2006. I adore bold colours and shapes, and draw inspiration from my love of nature. Each piece of jewellery features one of my handmade flowers, created by weaving together glass beads and pearls to form a unique focal point. My tiny garden flat in Lincolnshire overlooks my little herb patch, which provides a wonderful resource for new ideas - I love to name each design after my favourite herbs and flowers :)
As well as jewellery making, I bake *lots* of cupcakes, make herbal remedies, and then blog the recipes at http://gillyflowerjewellery.co.uk/blog
The handmade ethos is important to me because I value buying goods that have come from the heart and are made to last. With so many throw away mass-produced items on the market, there is a growing desire for quality handmade arts and crafts and I am proud to be part of a magazine that is supporting this movement.
Anna Hull - Research and Blog Author
I am Anna and I live in West Sussex in a small village surounded by oak trees and birds. I run my business, Half an Acre, from a messy little room in my house. I also have a husband and three small boys. It is noisy, as you can imagine, and I retreat to my work room on a regular basis! We have no television but loads of board games and lego and pencils. It is full of colour and interesting things. My life is colourful and chaotic and that is reflected in the bright hand painted decoration I design and sell though my online shops. I also make sock bunnies which are threatening to take over my life and ultimately the world over at www.halfanacre.co.uk
Lorrie Whittington - Network Co-ordinator
My name is Lorrie. I am a 47 year old mother to daughter Orla, and wife to Luke, ex Rock Chick and general nere do well. We live on the South Coast of the UK in a village just outside Chichester. I trained in Art and Design in the early 1980's, undertaking a Foundation programme in Art & Design and a Diploma. I then studied BA Fashion/Textile Design + Women's Studies at the University of East London. In the late 90's, and early 2000, I gained an International Diploma in Adminstrative Management and an HNC in Business Studies. I hold various vocational qualifications and awards.
I specialise in drawing, painting, fibre art and photography using tools both traditional and digital, including ink, pencil, pastels, paints, embroidery, photography, tablet and stylus. My work is abstract in nature, and includes many influences from the Baroque and Roccoco to Pop Art. I take my inspiration mostly from nature. I sell my work online www.illusiocreative.co.uk and occasionally through Galleries.
I am incredibly excited to be part of a new renaissance of art and artisan crafts. When I first trained, gaining any kind of exposure was costly, and difficult. Getting your work to the public either meant funding your own exhibitions or hoping a gallery would offer you a place and taking a fairly hefty cut of your work. The Internet changed all that. But, it's not just about the 'net'. In a time where so much of what we consume and use is mass produced and built for obselence, people are desperate for quality, uniqueness and longevity.
Larissa Joice - Tutorials
My name is Larissa, I’m 37 and mother to 3.5 year old Brynn and due another one in January. I studied Illustration & Graphic Design at Norwich school of Art & Design in the 90’s and left college at 22 planning to be a famous illustrator. However I found the constant traipsing around publishers not to my liking (the internet was not fully grown back then) and since then have had various careers.
Giggleicious was created while I was pregnant with Brynn. At the time the only baby clothes and toys you could find where pale pinks and blues (a lot has changed since then) and I wanted Brynn to have brighter clothes, blankets and toys. So I started designing and making my own.
Slowly over the last 4 years my work has developed and evolved. I have found what sells and what doesn’t (not always what I expect) but also managed to stay true to myself and what I enjoy making. I get a lot of commissions for bespoke pieces but also sell one off pre-made designs as well.
Despite the huge influx of colourful clothes, blankets and toys over the last couple of years I have still managed to stay individual and because of the nature of my products I retain a good quality as well. I have never wanted to mass produce my designs , although if a company came along and wanted to purchase a design from me I wouldn’t say no!
I also design web sites, run a family photography business, create business identities and stationary, write for UKHandmade and love to cook so what with all of that, a part time job and a family to run I am always busy!
UK Handmade is a wonderful thing to be part of. It’s a wonderful team of people and a great network of artists and craftspeople. We can only hope that it grows and grows from it’s humble beginnings!
To find out more about me go to: www.giggleicious.com or my thoroughly under-updated giggleicious.blogspot.com/
Vikki Chatfield - Author
Somewhere in Deepest Darkest Devon a strange woman lives surrounded by piles of felt, thread, material, paper and paint. Not knowing how else to dig herself out, she fashions these raw materials into plushies, brooches, dolls, paintings and textile pieces. One day she will be free - but only if she stops buying more stuff!!!
I love bold colours and making pieces of art and craft that make people smile! I use natural materials wherever possible in my work (wool, cotton etc) and when I can recycle something too that makes it even better.
Hand made items have soul - you can literally feel the love that has been poured into them. You know that every part of the piece you own has been carefully thought out and given care and attention.
I love to share some of my articles and tutorials with my friends here in UK Handmade.
If you want to know more about my life and art or just to find out if I DO manage to ever dig myself out of my craft pile, hop over to www.koolkookykreatures.typepad.com.
