Gallery
Cove arts and crafts studio offers a unique range of local and UK crafts and gifts. Hand made by individual and original crafters and artists. Our aim is to support and recognize all aspects of the visual arts and bring together the flourishing cottage industry under one roof. With the studio at the back you might even catch a glimpse of an artist at work!
Crafts include glass (stained, leaded and fused), jewellery, textiles, ceramics, cards and more....
Meet the artists
Hilary Butler - Water and Glass
Although Hilary lives in land-locked Cambridgeshire, she is at her happiest in or near water, especially the sea. It is this that influences most of her work. The reflections and sparkle of sunlight, on and through the surface, and the endless range of colours, from pale turquoise to bright blues, greens and browns. All these properties and colours are to be found in the glass fragments washed up in the surf. These are the traces of human litter, tossed carelessly into the sea, where it waits for Hilary to find it and make it into something new.
Hilary visits Devon once or twice a year and spends a lot of time on the beach - mostly with her head down looking at the ground! The glass, driftwood and other objects in her sculptures were collected there. Hilary says, 'It seems so right to represent the sea using glass, worn smooth by the sea'.
Hilary has always loved and collected glass beads, so she can't resist incorporating them into her work too.
A few years ago some good friends gave Hilary a training session in glass fusing as a birthday present. 'It was one of the best presents I've ever had, as it gave me a whole new perspective on using glass in my work. I make pendants to wear and to hang on the wall!'
'I like to think of my hangings as jewellery for walls'.
Helen Fonnereau
Helen Fonnereau graduated from Anglia Ruskin University in 96 with a BA (Hons) in Study of Art. She worked with various mediums throughout her career but mainly focusing on painting. Helen discovered a passion for glass by accident when renovating her previous house. Two missing panels from an old door prompted a need to make something to fill it. Courses in leading and staining resulted in her making two leaded panels restoring the traditional Victorian feel of the property.
Helen now also makes smaller copper foiled pieces abstract and traditional. Work is mainly inspired by nature particularly the sea, a constant theme in her work reflecting her upbringing on the Channel Island of Guernsey. She finds glass that evokes the colours of the sea and uses water worn sea glass found on beaches to create panels that look like rock pools or seascapes
.A recent trip to Iceland prompted the Northern Light series, she says of the visit 'I was so inspired by the wonder of the lights and the contrast between the stark sky and the organic shapes of the ice I just knew that it would be something I could express in glass. Glass comes in so many different textures and colours as do the ice formations.'
You can now find Helen at Cove Garden Nursery working at the craft shop on a variety of glass projects.
