AMBLESIDE’S new 5+ Contemporary Ceramics gallery celebrated its opening with a lively and colourful display of the work of some of the most imaginative ceramic artists in the area.

The 5+ resident potters - Sue Bartholomew, Abigail Jacobs, Mike Eden, Vicky Eden and Pauline Yarwood - are all working in Dixon’s Yard, off Lake Road, where visitors to the gallery are welcome.

The five have transformed Dixon’s Yard from a dark little corner in Ambleside into a light, flower-filled courtyard, with a new gallery showcase not only for their own pieces, but also for the work of other potters, many of them Cumbrian.

A wide variety of work is on display - from the exuberant, witty gold-handled teapots and jugs of Philomena Pretsell and the broken volcanic-effect craft crank work of Pauline Yarwood, to the soda-fired stoneware of Joe Morgan and the zany figures which decorate the pots of the French ceramic artist Francoise Dufayard.

Also represented are Jane Smith, Maggie Berkowitz, Alex Ashton, Jenny Eaton, Karen Woof, Angie Mitchell and Helen Fletcher. The ceramics gallery is open seven days a week, with a changing exhibition.

For details, tel 015394-33821.