Inspirational Craft and Design!

We recently made a visit to the Manchester Craft and Design Centre situated in the Northern Quarter of the city centre.
The main exhibition was created by Elizabeth Jane Winstanley. A riot of neon coloured shapes in sculptural form. This made for a great entrance to the design centre.

We popped into Fibre Designs to say hello! A cosy studio full of hand-stitched cards, framed artworks and leather purses and pouches. While we were there Jessica, creative director of Fibre was finishing a framed commissioned piece for a new born baby.  Below is an example of one of the frames. Jessica works part-time at Belly Button Designs in our hand painting studio too!

Also stocked are the beautifully modern handmade leather pouches finished with a vintage button.

We spotted one of our Paloma cards on the shelf! Once out on the balcony we took in the intricate origami installation made from a variety of interesting papers and pieces.

A new studio we hadn't seen before was Kaper, home to some of the most inspiring paper creatures we have ever seen! 

Our favourites were the owls with their dinky little bodies and unusual colouring.

Found treasure! In R.A.Design jewellery studio we found some of Belly Button's cards from quite a few years ago! It was interesting to see the different techniques we used back then still looking so fresh.

On the way home a beautiful double rainbow filled the sky!