British Craft Trade Fair - Award Winners 2009

Our congratulations go out to Mike Hunter and Daniel Kavanagh, two of our exhibiting Scottish artists who have both recently won awards at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate.

Mike Hunter’s highly skilled process of ‘Zanfirico’ glass blowing, earned him the 2009 BCTF Award for Excellence in design, innovation and creativity. This is the Selkirk based artists second accolade for excellence this year.

Daniel Kavanagh from Nairnshire won the Best Newcomers Award, which was presented in recognition of the quality, design and craftsmanship of Daniel’s work. He was also presented with a Highly Commended Award at the ceremony.

Mike Hunter's Award Winning 'Zanfirico' Glass

Mike Hunter - Zanfirico glass bowl

The highly collectible work of multi-award winning glass artist Mike Hunter of Selkirk, really is of the finest quality, each beautiful piece is hand crafted and intricately designed with great care and attention to detail. He has a real passion for working with glass, which shows in the quality and defines his years of experience gained from working with some of the finest glassmakers, including Wedgwood and Perthshire Paperweights.

The Zanfirico glass blowing technique, is a highly skilled process and a specialty of Mike Hunter’s that has earned him the 2009 BCTF Award for Excellence in design, innovation and creativity.

‘Zanfirico’ is the more commonly used term for the extremely technical glass blowing process of Twisted Filigree (Filigrana a retortoli).

Filigree, is a general term used to describe embedded threads or ribbons of coloured glass, either in parallel or network patterns. The Filigree cane is melted into the glass mass and re-pulled, often twisting as the cane is stretched.

Mike Hunter has been taught by some of the worlds greatest glassblowers and has developed his own unique style. His work includes both functional and decorative pieces.

Mike has received high recognition and exhibited his work throughout Scotland and England, most notably at the Victoria and Albert Museum. His beautiful creations are stocked at the most exclusive outlets in major cities such as New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris and of course right here at Artery Gallery in St Andrews.

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Prince's Trust Enterprise Award 2008

Here at Artery Gallery, we wish to congratulate Lora Leedham, one of our extremely talented jewellery designers, in winning the Prince's Trust Enterprise Award 2008 for the West Midlands.

(Lora Leedham accepting her award)

The Prince’s Trust Celebrate Success Awards West Midlands honoured the achievements of disadvantaged young people supported by The Trust who have succeeded against the odds, improved their chances in life and had a positive impact on their local community.

The award ceremony took place at the Birmingham ICC and was hosted by ITV Central presenter Joanne Malin. All the finalists were selected from the 3,800 young people supported by The Trust in the West Midlands over the past year.

Birmingham based jeweller Lora Leedham had a tough start in life, growing up in an area where underachieving at school and lack of opportunities were the norm. But Lora went in search of something more and was determined to make something of herself against such difficulties.

She took a huge gamble by starting up her own jewellery company with the help of The Prince’s Trust. The gamble paid off and her business is now booming with nearly forty stockists across the UK and Europe, including both branches of Artery Gallery.

Lora has been selling her work succesfully here at Artery Gallery for the last two years, with her Venitian Glass Heart Pendants in particular proving a massive hit with our customers.

Well done Lora and may your success continue.


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Creative Scotland Awards

The Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards are amongst the richest arts awards in Europe. They reward, honour and celebrate established and leading artists in Scotland and raise the profile of the arts and their contribution to Scotland.

To learn more about these artists and to discover the range and diversity of these amazing lottery-funded projects, visit the Creative Scotland website at http://www.creativescotland.org.uk/


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