I went along to the Spike Island Open on Friday evening. Unfortunately I wasn't really in the mood, so I didn't get as much out of it as I'd hoped. However, there were some artists who impressed me...

Ceramicist Karen Welsh was showing an unsettling series of domestic porcelain featuring little doll hands and feet. I especially loved the tiny little milk jugs with a hand instead of a handle. Unfortunately the only photos I could find were tiny, so you'll have to go to her website to look.

I've been aware of Philippa Lawrence's work for a while now, ever since I saw her stunning gilded lightbulbs in [AN] Magazine a few years ago.

Philippa Lawrence: Glow

For this event, she was showing some wonderful melted lightbulbs (they'd clearly been slumped in a kiln) and large photographs of her wrapped tree pieces.

Philippa Lawrence: Bound

Keep an eye on this one, she's definitely an artist to watch!

Patrick Haines makes gorgeous cast sculptures based on birds and deliciously spiky houses from thorn branches. I love his stuff because he such has a light hand: his work captures the essence of birds, rather than being literal and boring copies. As a birdwatcher, I appreciate this feeling of a bird that's only just alighted on a branch and is just about to flit off again - there's a real sense of movement in his work.

Patrick Haines: Blackthorn and Swallow

Nicola Donovan was my favourite artist of the night, she makes edgy works in textile that references clothing and childhood toys and her sinister but funny fetish rats made from black vinyl and leather knocked me for six. Unfortunately they're so new that they're not online yet (I overheard her telling someone that she'd finished the last one the night before the private view - btdt!). She makes works with pins too.

Nicola Donovan: The fur sedition-21st century silver fox

Kate Raggett was showing her latest works, ink drawings based on visits to sacred landscapes. I'm a big fan of her drawings, I own a small one and it's my favourite piece in my art collection. I couldn't find an example of her most recent drawings but this is typical of her work.

Kate Raggett: Discatom

Jessica Bartlett makes exquisite drawings by burning images of natural forms into thickly primed canvas.

Jessica Bartlett: Feather

Invariably, there were several other artists that I wanted to showcase but who don't have an online presence - their loss!