Dorset Team Christmas Fair - Charlotte Miller

The countdown is on to the Dorset Team Christmas Fair which is taking place on Saturday 1^stand Sunday 2^ndDecember in the Allendale Centre, Wimborne. 

Each week we are going to be meeting a different stallholder who will be selling at the event. 

This week we meet Charlotte of Charlotte Miller Ceramics. Charlotte is a Bournemouth based ceramicist that makes budgies and other small animals in hats and knitwear! 

Charlotte with some of her creations

Her anthropomorphic, whimsical budgie sculptures are both endearing and nostalgic, whilst her range of quirky tableware is a tribute to the eccentric and the kitsch.

As a child, Charlotte became a keen social observer, trawling around car-boot sales with her Dad collecting curios, mid-century kitsch and seaside postcards. Amused by seeing the closeness of people and their pets, she alighted on the idea of melding the two.  Thus, Brian the budgie was born out of the chance meeting of an Elvis lover and his budgerigar.

Before establishing her own pottery studio, Charlotte taught for many years as ceramics tutor on youth, community and degree courses. Through engaging with a wide demographic of students from children to the elderly, her empathy and fondness for people began to feed into her work.

Charlotte in her studio 

Charlotte has a broad technical language in ceramics, allowing her to accurately satirise traditional homely and domestic clay idioms. This results in the fresh and witty social commentary of her aesthetically resolved art works.

Charlotte’s love of print making and sculpture has led her to develop a range of work that concentrates on form as well as illustrative and textured surfaces. Both are influenced by her degree in Contemporary Crafts, where she studied both textiles and ceramics. Charlotte also has a PGCE and teaches ceramics classes from her studio in Bournemouth.

The budgies and other creatures are created by using a combination of press molding and hand sculpting techniques. She uses a stoneware body with underglaze, engobe, earthenware glaze, decal and lustre decoration. All these are made from her Bournemouth studio.

Come and meet Charlotte and our 60+ other stallholders at the Dorset Team Christmas Fair on both Saturday 1^stand Sunday 2^ndDecember. 

More information can be found on our Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1994393970585608/

Meet the Seller - Dorset Team Christmas Fair - Blooming Vintage Craft

Name: Jenny and Ian

Shop Name: Blooming Vintage Craft

Shop Link: www.bloomingvintagecraft.etsy.com

Located in: Bournemouth

Sells: Handcrafted journals sketchbooks, photo albums and scrapbooks with a vintage twist!

Maker's Story: Blooming Vintage Craft is run by Jenny and Ian who started their Etsy shop in 2013. They say...."We're a married couple living by the sea who love creating hand-crafted journals and sketchbooks. We both work in the digital industry and enjoy indulging in traditional crafting in our spare time. Everything on sale is handmade by us, in our little craft room in Bournemouth."

Dorset Team Christmas Fair: Jenny and Ian will be selling their handmade stationery at the Dorset Team Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December at the Allendale Centre in Wimborne.

Please come along, meet Jenny and Ian and our other makers and sellers.

Doors open at 10am and close at 4pm and it is free entry.

For more information please see our Facebook event page or blog post