To head the line up is Mary Woodin, illustrator and artist. Mary works from a studio in the garden of her rural  farmhouse, interrupted only by a flash of azure from the resident kingfisher or the cluck of a passing chicken. With her eye for detail and pattern, Mary excels when painting natural subjects, she works mainly in watercolour, but also enjoys the added flexibility that photoshop can give to her design work.

For this exhibition Mary  has produced a series of delightful garden bird paintings including blue tits, wren and bullfinch.

New to the gallery is ceramicist Iris Milward who designs poetry tiles. She uses clay as a medium to carry poetry so that it can be a constant visual presence in our lives. Tiles can be used for walls, floors, parts of furniture, ‘read-as-you-go’ footpaths and fountains – “a thing of beauty” either indoors or out in the garden

Each tiles is unique, made individually by hand and decorated with words. Most of the tiles are inlaid, a process in which she carves the pattern in the clay while it is still wet.

Automata designer/maker Jane Ryan has always been more interested in decoration and form than clever mechanics and her toys have very simple mechanisms designed to charm rather than amaze.

Jane studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and moved to West Cornwall in 1988. She started her own business –  ‘OPI’ making simple mechanical toys (for grown-ups) in an attempt to combine motherhood and work. All the pieces are one off, no two are the same. There have been recurrent themes over the years which reflect her seaside home, gardening, food… she hopes that her work is infused with a genuine humour.

Also new to the gallery is contemporary glass designer/maker Ruth Shelley. Her works’ signature is the use of vivid, dramatic colour in fused and kiln-formed glass which includes panels, tiles, mirrors, bowls, coasters and jewellery.

She also designs and produces more traditional leaded lights and has worked alongside architects on numerous restoration projects. Much of her work is inspired by the dramatic shapes and forms of the mid Wales landscape where she grew up.