My involvement in The Contemporary Craft Festival really opened my eyes to the incredible standard of craft in this country. On the Saturday evening, after the festival had closed to the public, all of us makers were free to wander the site and see everyone else's stands, and I was blown away - honestly, I could have been walking around Liberty or Heals - two design-led businesses that champion craft - the standard of work was so high. What really struck me was the attention to detail and creativity - from jewellery to glassware, wood to metal, ceramics to textiles - it was astonishing. BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour recently ran a Craft Prize competition and if you haven't already, you can listen to the first of 12 finalists talk about her work. Between the ages of 11 and 18 Laura Ellen Bacon built tree houses in her garden out of pieces of wood her Dad brought home - one of these tree houses spanned 5 different trees as she let her creativity run riot. Today she weaves willow into huge nest-like installations and doesn't always know what will appear until it appears. I can relate to that with my porcelain and when I'm making I have no choice other than to feel the clay and see where it takes me. Not so long ago there was a time when anything 'home made' was slightly frowned upon as not really good enough in our fast-moving consumer world, but this is really changing. Craft is extremely desirable and as a movement it is having a huge resurgence; people want to know who the maker is and where they got their inspiration from and where they learned their skills, and more and more people are tapping into their innate creativity and using it to make really beautiful things. This is wonderful and heartening. Things made by the human hand and mind bring surprise, joy, individuality and imperfection ... which is just perfect.