A talented artisan and designer-maker of contemporary glass and ceramics, Jessamy Kelly, has scooped the top prize worth £5,000 in the 2009 craft&design Selected Awards. Jessamy, who uses a combination of clear glass and unglazed porcelain to produce simple and elegant limited edition designs, polled the highest number of votes in the ‘Glass Crafts’ category resulting in her receiving the Gold Award. She then went on to achieve the highest number of individual votes, making her the overall winner.

The Awards, launched in January of this year, were introduced by the Craftsman craft&design magazine to celebrate 25 years in publishing. It was also seen by editor, Angie Boyer, as an excellent way to raise awareness of the enormous creative talent we have in this country.

“With the challenging economic climate making it particularly difficult for small businesses, and 2009 marking our 25th year, we thought the Awards would be a good way to put crafts under the spotlight”, she explained.

“We have sponsored a number of awards in the industry for many years now”, she continued, “two of which are the Craftsman craft&design Newcomers and Highly Commended Newcomers Awards at BCTF (the British Craft Trade Fair at Harrogate). The standard of work just seems to get better year on year and we are often hard pushed to select just two recipients.”

“For our own awards we have chosen six key areas to include as many disciplines as possible and the winners were voted by visitors to the online gallery.”

In addition to the winning category of Glass Crafts, the other five Gold Award winners receive a prize to the value of £2,500. The categories are:

• Wood & Metal Crafts winner Jolyon Yates
• Jewellery, Gold & Silversmiths winner Emma-Kate Francis
• Pottery & Ceramics winner Leyla Folwell
• Textiles & Needlecrafts winner Emma Jackson
• Specialist Media winner Samantha Bryan

As overall winner, Jessamy will feature on the front cover of the special Awards issue of craft&design (Jan/Feb 2010) which goes on sale 3rd December. She will also receive a cheque for £1,000.

Individual category winners will receive bespoke artwork to use on their own marketing material that confirms their status as ‘Gold Award’ winners; receive a coveted free promotional feature in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of craft&design, have an upgraded Premier entry on the ‘Selected’ website and an image from their work will also feature on the 2010 craft&design calendar.

For further information on the winners, or to view the wealth of talent featured on the ‘Selected’ website, please visit www.craftmaker.co.uk.