CRAFT Festival 2025: Bovey Tracey
Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey
6 - 8 June 2025
Our friends, the Craft Festival, are back in Bovey Tracey Friday 6th - Sunday 8th June 2025.
Alongside over 200 Exhibitors, there are many exciting things taking place over the weekend:
MAKE Southwest at the CRAFT Festival!
Stand MM29
We are happy to announce that we will have a designated tent, as per usual, at the CRAFT Festival. This year our tent will hold 3 demos per day. See the maker demo schedule below.
Don’t forget to pop over to our Riverside Mill (directly opposite the entrance to Mill Marsh Park), over the weekend too as we will have 3 amazing craft exhibitions and lots of beautiful items for sale. For the CRAFT Festival weekend we will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am - 5pm.
RODNEY’S Café at MAKE Southwest, located on our first floor, will be open all weekend too - a perfect place to relax and refuel if the hustle and bustle of the Craft Festival gets too much. All homemade onsite using locally sourced ingredients, RODNEY’S has a range of cakes, light bites, lunches and beverages to choose from. It is very dog-friendly and has a lovely, sunny rooftop terrace.
20 Years in the Making Exhibition
Jubilee Gallery at MAKE Southwest, 27 April - 22 June
As part of the Craft Festival’s 20-year celebration, we are showing a curated group show selected by Sarah James MBE and the MAKE Southwest exhibitions team. We have selected 21 makers from across the UK; previous prize winners from the last 20 years of the Craft Festival who we feel represent different aspects of the history and current landscape of this high point in the creative calendar. Expect collectable work by some of the biggest stars of the contemporary craft world!
Friday 6th June
Anna Pope | Jewellery
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Since my studies at university, basketry has continued to be an inspiration of mine and a personal connection to the withy pot craft has formed a large part of this. I enjoy creating art work that helps to document and share stories of a traditional craft. I do this by exploring and experimenting with craft techniques first hand and discovering its links with nature, traditions, place and communities. Interweaving these subjects to form art work that can be used as a thread to discover more about a subject. More recently within an exhibition context. Through my work I hope to help document the beautiful connection people have with their heritage, often from a slower-paced bygone era, when people were in tune with their natural surroundings and materials used in craft.
Jane Deane | Textiles
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Jane is a natural dyer, who also hand spins and weaves using mainly natural fibres, with environmental concerns being a priority for her. She has been practicing for 40 years and during that time has taught her skills internationally and throughout the UK.
Jenny Gracie | Baskets
Pledged Green Maker & MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Combining a degree in Integrated craft with professional basketry training has allowed her to celebrate the historical and traditional elements of basket making whilst exploring contemporary interpretations of basketry in her work. Basket making has a long and fascinating history across cultures, meaning she is never short of inspiration. To add to that, the textures, and colours of the natural materials she uses offer endless opportunities to experiment and complement the willow with other materials such as bark, soft fibres, ceramics, and textiles. Jenny describes basketmaking today as an opportunity to connect with these time-honoured craft skills and allow them to remind us of a sustainable and beautiful way of working seasonally with natural and native materials.
Saturday 7th June
Rachel Stowe | Jewellery
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Rachel Stowe is a Cornwall-based jewellery designer and maker celebrated for her vibrant, hand-dyed and hand-printed creations. With a Master’s in Textiles, she brings a deep knowledge of traditional textile techniques such as immersion dyeing, screen printing, and Mono-resist to her work — creating bold, lightweight, and uniquely expressive pieces. A proud member of MAKE Southwest, Rachel regularly exhibits through galleries and craft associations including the Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen, the Worcestershire Guild of Designer Craftsmen, and the Cornwall Craft Association. As part of her creative practice, she also leads workshops and demonstrations, sharing her love of colour, texture, and pattern with others.
Penny Carter | Glass
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Penny creates contemporary hand made glass beads. Working with a flame working torch she melts glass to its liquid state, sculpting beads, pots and vessels. Her interest is in the colours and how they react to each over overlapping and enhancing. In the Make SW tent she will be demonstrating the funky stoppers for her vessels… Cutting glass with scissors!
Liz Clay | Textiles
Pledged Green Maker & MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Textile Artist Liz Clay specialises in hand-felted textiles for fashion and interiors. British wool plays a significant role in her designs, combining traditional and experimental work practice, inspired by the textures and natural colours of this sustainable and beautiful material. Collaborations with haute couture and private commissions present a diverse portfolio of unique items recognised both nationally and internationally. Her book ‘Nuno Felt’ celebrates the versatility of this extraordinary textile
Sunday 8th June
Ania Wawrzkowicz | Jewellery
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Ania’s jewellery comes from her observations of the natural world, from the largest expanses down to the smallest particle. Her work is sculptural, given depth by subtle characteristics such as detailed surface textures, intricate shapes or uneven sculptural qualities. Trained in fine art, her practice is informed by contemporary art as well as the surrounding landscape.
Kathy Appleyard | Jewellery
MAKE Southwest Maker Member
Inspiration comes from elements of nature, a fascination with a leaf forms and methods of articulation are an important focus. Curvaceous Euphorbia leaves are well suited to ‘sit comfortably’ with the body. Rolling waves and small pebbles, reference the soothing ebb and flow of the tide. Handmade links are connected by rings, allowing a soft, fluid movement as the form circles and drapes on the neckline or wrist. I enjoy the tension between form, function and the practical and aesthetic considerations of the fit, comfort and movement of jewellery on the body.
Esme Cooper | Textiles
Pledged Green Maker & MAKE Southwest Maker Member
I’m a textile designer working from my studio in the garden of my Mid-Devon home. I design surface patterns which I screen print by hand onto natural fabrics, making these into furnishings, lampshades and household textiles. Recently I have been combining my lampshades with a handmade driftwood lamp base to make complete table lamps. I have always been inspired by the shapes and colours found in the natural world, taking the details found in everyday forms into my work. Living in the West Country gives me access to such varied landscapes and coastlines for inspiration. Observations are often just a catalyst for my designs, I then let my pen take me on a journey to a finished design. I also design textiles for interior commissions such as roller blinds, curtains and wall hangings. I also teach Screenprinting at the Double Elephant Print Workshop in Exeter.
Our Associate Maker Members at the StartUp Tent
Stand D21
Located in the Craft Festival’s StartUp tent you’ll find 5 of our Associate Maker Members.
MAKE Southwest Kids’ Tent Activities
FRIDAY 6 JUNE:
SATURDAY 7 JUNE:
SUNDAY 8 JUNE:
Tambourine Making (schools invite only)
QEST & Saturday Arts Club
Willow Sculpture Making with Vivienne Turner
Exhibitions at MAKE Southwest during the Craft Festival
Image: Collaboration between Mike Thompson and Celia Smith
Time and Tide
All about estuaries
This MAKE Southwest Member-led show aims to capture some of the movement and openness of estuaries in Devon coastline; it includes a range of work including ceramics, printmaking, film and photography.
26 April - 5 July | Riverside Gallery | Learn More
Image: Molly Lemon
Maker Member Show 2025
Our annual show, this year celebrating 70 years of making
In 2025 we will be celebrating our 70th anniversary by showcasing our Membership, showing selected work from Maker Members, and through 'behind the scenes ' stories of our making community.
28 June - 1 November | Jubilee Gallery | Learn More
Craft Festival Ticket Prices
Please book in advance, tickets on the door will be very limited.
Per Day
Advance: Adult £10 | £9 concessions
On the Door: Adult £12 | £11 concessions
Weekend Super Saver Ticket
Advance: Adult £19 | £17 concession
On the Door: Adult £21 | £19 concessions
Under 18s FREE (under 18s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian).
Concessions are Students, OAPs, registered disabled and those in receipt of benefits. Accompanied carers are FREE.
Opening Times:
Friday - Sunday, 10am - 5pm
(Last entry 30 minutes before the end time)
Alternatively, you can buy tickets from MAKE Southwest in person (cash), on behalf of the CRAFT Festival. Tickets cannot be posted.
Volunteer at the CRAFT Festival
There are many opportunities to volunteer at the CRAFT Festival, such as selling tickets at the box office, helping set up the event and assisting with the children’s activities tent.
For full information and how to apply to be a volunteer, please visit the CRAFT Festival’s website.
The Craft Festival is a separate organisation and not run by MAKE Southwest.