Ayrshire Makers Open Studios Preview Exhibition

Virgil Bauzys

Hastingwood Basketworks employ the highest standards of craftsmanship and the best quality willow in the creation of beautiful and affordable willow baskets, garden features and willow furniture, including children's willow furniture.

All our willow baskets, garden features and willow furniture are made here in the UK with British willow. Our specialty is in custom made willow baskets.

Willow is a fast growing, sustainable crop, which grows well in wetland areas, such as the Somerset Levels. There are many varieties of coppice willow grown for many purposes, including basket making.

Nicola Beattie - Ayrshire Makers/Craft Town Scotland

Nicola Beattie's range of finishing techniques and choice of lush colours combine together to make these exquisite candles.

Each candle is made with individual care and attention, using good quality wax, colour dyes, a variety of moulds and carving

tools, all these elements combine to make each range of candle design unique to itself. Decorative yet functional, they are made with the intention that they will be lit so the client can enjoy them even more- watching the beautiful flicking flame as they slowly burn.

Lise Bech

Lise Bech lives and works in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, where she grows a wide range of willows (Salix species) for her basket making. In addition to her cultivated willow beds, the local landscape provides a rich source of other traditional basketry materials (heather, fieldrush, hairmoss) and more experimental fibreplants (birch, broom), which are occasionally used for embellishment.

Her initial interest and motivation in taking up basketry was her desire to be involved with the whole process of making beautiful and useful organic objects: from the growing and harvest of the raw materials through to design and and final execution of the piece - each step satisfying her love of and commitment to the natural world. Working exclusively with Scottish willow - much of it organically grown, tended and harvested (coppiced) by hand - she weaves traditional as well as contemporary pieces for today's lifestyle with integrity and in a sustainable fashion.

Maggie M. Broadley - Ayrshire makers/Craft Town Scotland

Maggie graduated from Glasgow School of Art, Ceramics department in 1997.

She was also a Design School Prizewinner and recipient of the Chase Charity Award in 2024.

Inspired by her Gaelic heritage, Maggie takes elements common to a variety of Crofting implements - notches, pegs, rivets, metal blades - still found in current manufacturing processes and uses these as motifs in her sculptural vessels. Hand-built stoneware forms echo the control evident in the manufacture and use of the tools upon which they are based. Freely applied glaze layers are re-fired many times with the smooth, pitted surfaces reflecting the effect of sea and climate. The work also alludes to encrusted objects recovered from the sea.

Liz Brown - Ayrshire Makers

Heartfelt is a home-based company that flows with the momentum of family life. As a florist who came to felt making almost 10 years ago, I find my love of nature and natural forms and colours come through each piece I make.

Felt making is an ancient textile skill that uses natural, renewable resources for limitless creation. Much of the wool I use comes from local sources. Wool is a natural renewable resource, which is warm, breathable and hardwearing.

Presently I work from Heartfelt Studio set within my garden, which is a custom-built space perfect for small workshops.

Margaret MacDonald - Ayrshire Makers

"Margaret MacDonald is a well established Scottish potter, who from her studio in Stewarton, Ayrshire, has built a reputation for creating distinctive and highly individual ceramic designs.

Margaret works exclusively in porcelain, using its fine clay body to produce an extensive selection of glazed and lustre jewellery as well as a range of decorative ware."

Sue C Wilkinson- Ayrshire Makers

"I work in my sketchbooks, out of doors, throughout the Scottish seasons.

Back home in the workshop, I enjoy translating my drawings/paintings into small copper foiled stained glass sun catchers and panels.

I undertake commissions for all occasions."

Brian A. Young - Ayrshire Makers

Based in Drybridge, Brian Young established his label in September 2024 as a print, knit and constructed textile studio.

Brian graduated first from Glasgow School of Art, then from the Royal College of Art, London.

The aim of Yungi Contemporary Textiles is to produce a versatile portfolio of innovative modern products and concepts suitable for

fashion or interiors.

Clare Gillies

We Make Pots design and make functional stoneware and earthenware ceramics in their studios in Southwest Scotland.

Their pottery is made using traditional and semi-industrial techniques, and is available in a variety of colours and glazes.

Clare graduated from the GSA in 2024, with a BA(Hons) in ceramics, specialising in celadon glazed stoneware. "The stimulus for my work stems from an interest in the relationship of ceramic tableware to food and its role in contemporary dining. The emphasis is on conveying the enjoyment of making and using handmade objects whilst capturing expressive elements within the work. I enjoy the immediacy of throwing, and how the process enables a language to be formed between the clay and the potters' hands. Considered mark making becomes accentuated by the translucent depth of the celadon glaze."