I’ve always had a love of handmade. It’s probably because I’ve never really considered myself a creative person in that sense – I’m hopeless at drawing and painting and all things artistic ! And so when I see that skill in someone else and look at the beautiful  objects they can create, I admire it.  I love to collect handmade pieces here and there and I’m always on the look out for individual, quirky and unique items that catch my eye.

Thankfully, there is no shortage of talent on my doorstep. On a recent trip to St Georges Market in Belfast, I found some lovely new designers and makers that I was discovering for the first time. Certainly, if you are in Belfast and want to avoid the usual tourist gift offerings, then head to St Georges for something more creative and contemporary. Here are a few of my favourites:-

1. James Kelly Art and Design – Colourful vintage style art posters of Ireland.I could quite happily buy loads of these and put them all over the house. There are many great tourist places to visit here and these pictures portray them in a modern take of the vintage travel poster…from the Giants Causeway to Portrush and everywhere in between.

2. Flax Fox – a local artist and illustrator creating giftware inspired by local architecture and heritage. Lovely hand drawn illustrations of some of our most famous landmarks on tea towels, mugs, stationery etc

I particularly liked these mugs depicting the Giant’s Causeway.

3. Sharon Regan Art – probably my favourite on the day I visited. Gorgeous clay sculptures ‘capturing the strength and fragility of nature’. I was quite taken by all the pieces…

but these little beauties really caught my eye. I do love a basking seal and the robins were very cute.

Hopefully this has given you a flavour of the amazing talent and creativity that exists here in Northern Ireland. It certainly gives me a lot of pleasure to discover new finds and I hope to share more new discoveries as I come across them.

All 3 featured above have also lovely websites worth visiting. Here are the links:-

James Kelly Art and Design

Flax Fox

Sharon Regan Art