BATTERSEA POWER

Sebastian Mann’s brand Mann Made produces urban furniture from its Battersea workshop. These surroundings have inspired its new ‘Battersea’ collection. Each design in the 13-piece range, from the ‘Rozel’ vanity (left, £885) to the ‘Howie’ (right, £685) and ‘Alexandra’ (far right, £1,475) storage units, is handmade to order using natural materials, compressed fibre panels and sharp lines of blackened steel (mannmade london.com).

Vicky Lindo and her partner Bill Brookes work out of a Victorian pigeon club in Bideford, Devon, producing pieces for their brand, Vicky Lindo. Lindo is focused on creating colourful sgraffito ceramics, making relief illustrations on painted plates and vessels by scratching the unfired clay. Meanwhile, Brookes is the chief mould maker and clay master, mixing Devon ball clay and Cornish china clay. The tale of the evening-courseturned-lifelong-passion applies here: in 2009, while on maternity leave from her job at the Burton Art Gallery, Lindo signed up for a 12-week pottery course and ‘caught the bug’. From there, the pottery practice – inspired by folk art, from American quilts to the traditional North Devon slipware collection at the Burton – rolled into her home kitchen. Brookes was working as a cabinetmaker at the time, but offered to make her plaster moulds (on the living room table). Fast-forward to today, and Lindo and Brookes remain dedicated to enjoying the process of their craft, as they believe it shows when ‘things are made with thought’(@vickylindo; vickylindo.co.uk).