TRADITIONAL North-East crafts blossomed at a botanical garden at the weekend.

Silversmith Les Howe and his wife, Vivienne, an artist and card designer, demonstrated their skills and techniques to visitors at Durham University’s Botanical Garden.

The rich traditions of North-East cultural heritage provides Mr Howe with the inspiration behind his creative work.

His wife adopts techniques, including parchment craft, decoupage and quilling, as well as turning to traditional watercolours and sketching in her work.

She said has been drawing and painting “since I was old enough to hold a pencil or brush”.

Many of her cards are printed from her original work, some adapted from religious iconography and manuscripts, while others were favoured by ladies of the Victorian era.

Mr Howe, a member of The Society of Northumbrian Craftsmen, specialises in Celtic jewellery, inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels and other knot-work designs found in the region.

He also gains inspiration from other historic artefacts, including St Cuthbert’s Cross, in Durham Cathedral.

All his work is hand-crafted in silver and nine carat yellow, red and white gold in his County Durham workshop, before being hall-marked at the Sheffield Assay Office.

He has been commissioned to perform work presented, among others, to Prince Charles and the former Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, as a private commission.

Mr and Mrs Howe regularly demonstrate their crafts at Bede’s World museum, in Jarrow, South Tyneside.