THE New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham has handed the top prize in its Rising Stars 2019 contest for up-and-coming craft-makers to ceramicist Mitch Pilkinton.

Rising Stars is a platform for some of the most exciting new crafts by emerging makers in crafts, design and applied arts.

This year, the exhibition – which is free to attend at the gallery in Waggon Yard, Farnham until April 13 – is bigger and stronger than ever, following a record number of applications.

The participants are graduating students, recent graduates or at a pivotal moment in their early career due to changed circumstances.

"We are delighted to announce that Mitch Pilkington has won the 2019 Rising Stars Award," said a New Ashgate spokesman.

"Mitch is at a pivotal moment in her career. She studied Ceramics at Falmouth School of Art and Lowestoft School of Art obtaining and HND in Ceramic Design. After college, she started a family and looked after her children, one of them autistic.

"Only recently, Mitch has returned to her creative practice and, in 2019, she was selected for the Crafts Council’s prestigious Hothouse programme for new talent."

Mitch’s ceramics are inspired by the natural forms of her coastal finds, both at home in North Devon and on her travels. Her stoneware vessels hark back to the dry, worn spirals of old conch shells collected on Caribbean beaches.

Mitch uses grogged stoneware and porcelain clays, often coloured with body stains and surface treatments of slips and oxides, to enhance the natural sculptural qualities of the work.

She employs techniques such as coiling, pinching and slabs and creates a haptic quality that invokes a sense of calm, serenity and connection. Mitch is latterly based in South Molton.

As reward for her Rising Stars win, Mitch will receive a solo exhibition at New Ashgate, career support and a grant towards her professional development.

The Rising Stars programme also includes free events of professional development, open to all artists.

Jeweller Catherine Rua (2017 Jewellery Design and Manufacturing, The British Academy of Jewellery) was selected as the runner-up.

Catherine handcrafts each piece using traditional goldsmithing skills and is committed to creating pieces with unique design and craftsmanship.

Through her ’Times Series’ collection, she explores the fluidity of time, and it’s passing, through bold lines and forms that signify movement, dynamism and direction - inviting wearers to reflect on the nature and passing of time.

The other 28 shortlisted makers are: Angelina Jane, Arra Textiles, Louise Bell, Georgia Buck, Holly Burton, Eve Campbell, Jenny Chan, Sara Chyan, Kim Colebrook, Mihaela Coman, Natalie Eagle, Tamir Erlich, Alice Funge, Alysa Freeman, Susanna Gogarty, Iona Hall, Qiang Li, Marek Líška, Sam Lucas, Ruth Martindale, Bekky May, Annette Mills, Poppy Norton, Benjamin Pearey, Nastassia Ramazankhani, Kyle Ramsey, Jinya Zhao and Marissa Ziesing.

View the catalogue at: https://bit.ly/2SuVcqE

The judges consisted of a panel of craft professionals and were Rebecca Skeels, University for the Creative Arts, Gemma Curtis, the Farnham Maltings and Dr Outi Remes, New Ashgate Gallery.

Dr Outi Remes said: "We have had a fantastic response to Mitch’s work by our visitors - the timeless, elegant shapes and beautiful colour tones are second to none. Mitch’s work is uplifting."

At the same time, the gallery hosts a new exhibition, ’Carnival’, by Emily Jane Bruce. Emma Jane won the Rising Stars award in 2018. It is a weirdly wonderful celebration of all things fantastical, bringing to life characters and creatures from the secret world of the circus and bygone showman’s era.