Lares and penates are so often craftworks nowadays rather than mass manufactured goods, yet our spend on crafts is still relatively low.

To get hold of quality crafts / one-off commissions you need to visit a gallery or craft workshop or buy direct from makers via sites like etsy.com

At the HoBB, all art and craft for sale, is locally produced.

We also have displays of art and crafts created by friends from further afield. The photo (top left) shows a delicate pot shape created totally from handmade paper with shredded banana skin. It’s a very interesting process and having tried to make paper myself out of shredded newsprint and ended up with mucky over thick insulated blotting paper and grey stained hands, I know something of the challenge that Sue at Cinque Port Paper has mastered in creating such a fine craftwork.

The second might be green after it has lived outside in the HoBB Gardens for the next year or two but thankfully, will not be crawling around my jacket. At the moment, this fine, numbered edition of the Sacred Scarab of Ancient Egypt is in terracotta. It has been crafted by Colin McGowan, the Sculptural Ceramist from Kent who’s recent artworks have been passionate large modular ceramic sculpts helixing around the doubly important topical subject of genes and genetic engineering.

For such artists who traditionally showed one off works in galleries, the issue of limited editions and their despatch worldwide, is becoming an essential way to build reputation ahead of the artist’s international exhibition tours. To see more, this link may be of interest to you https://www.notonthehighstreet.com

Waves ~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant