Maker of the month / Mixed Media

Thomas Forsyth is an artist with an impressive ability to think outside the box. Many of his pieces are imaginative re-workings of traditional forms to which he gives new functions and meanings, some incorporating reclaimed or re-cycled elements. Recent pieces include a chess set with extra, moveable squares, wooden spinning tops that are spun with a pencil so creating artworks in the process, and a chest of drawers which is in fact a series of secret compartments and a coffee table.

London-based artist Shane Waltener is a man of many interests who works in a variety of fields including basketry, sculpture, textiles, sugarcraft and guerrilla gardening. But what unites these diverse threads, is a passionate interest in making: ‘Making is really essential to what I do and a lot of my work is about celebrating the process of making’, he says.

Lizzie Lee is a maker with a mission. She is passionate about re-cycling and makes one-off bags and lampshades using a material she’s developed out of melted-down plastic milk bottles. She’s also keen to spread the re-cycling message to others and runs workshops designed to teach people how to make new things from old materials: ‘It’s a part of the process of changing the way people live and teaching them new skills’, she says.

Su Blackwell makes intricate, narrative paper sculptures out of old books. Her delicate forms are cut from the pages and seem to grow out of the body of the book to create a miniature fantasy world in paper. It’s all part of Blackwell’s interest in the cyclical nature of life, taking found objects and giving them new life by turning them into art objects.

Hampshire-based sculptor Flora Gare makes delicate suspended structures which explore ideas about transience, memory and the passing of time. She works using a variety of materials – fibre optics, nylon threads, copper wire, resins, acetates – and has recently started incorporating old family photographs into her work. ‘I want to create the illusion of a solid volume in space, but to define the form using unexpectedly insubstantial, light-weight materials’, she says.

Christopher Jenkins, who places himself half-way between craftsman and fine artist, makes quirky, humanoid sculptures out of other people's rubbish. As well as being witty and original artworks in their own right, his ingenious sci-fi looking figures make an important statement about today's consumer society and the amount of waste we produce. 'I take what other people consider junk and give it a new value,' he says.

Mixed media designer Mandeep Dhiman creates exuberant, decorative pieces out of a range of found materials, ‘the plasticy the better’, she says. They range from knitted body adornments to large-scale sculptures bursting with colour - a love of colour being a legacy of her Indian heritage. ‘I love my work because of its decoration, intricacy and over-the-top nature,’ she says.

Eleanor Glover is a complex character. As well as working in graphics and book design, she has spent time as a Community Development Officer in Sri Lanka, has run a home support group for the elderly in Bristol and taught dance and art. She now spends more time on her calligraphy and sculptures, but her previous varied experiences have given her a strong understanding of human nature and feed directly into her work, a powerful - often dark - mix of humour, pathos and the macabre skilfully moulded into an emotionally charged whole.
Visit Eleanor's website