LONDON.-Sesame is proud to present new work by the hottest names in craft. Taking a cut-and-paste approach to the domestic arts are craft stars Danielle Proud, Kate Westerholt, Whitney Lee, Jenny Hart, Boo Davis and Nicola Malkin - international female artists whose stitch work and surreally outsize ceramics are quickly gaining notoriety. These designers represent the fantasies and foibles of modern femininity and are quickly supplanting graffiti as the latest art collectable.

Danielle Proud is the face of modern craft in the UK and author of House Proud: Hip Craft for the Modern Homemaker. Described by Dazed as a ‘much hipper Martha Stewart’ and by Sunday Times Style as ‘the Nigella of homemaking’, her fresh take on craft eschews ‘make do and mend’ ethos for luxurious design-led pieces that defy highstreet giants. In her first programme for BBC2, (aired in July) Proud combined avant-garde design ideas with her passion for recycling. A series is planned for 2008. For Wild Styles, Danielle has created jewelled sculptures inspired by gothic architecture and gargoyles, supported by Swarovski.

At first sight, Kate Westerholt’s needlepoint samplers are typical mid-Western heirlooms, painstakingly stitched with colonial American motifs. On closer inspection, what would once have been biblical or moral refrains become pop cultural quotations drawn from films, hip-hop, and the Generation X vernacular. Westerholt’s challenging work undermines the perceived wholesomeness of American traditional values, questioning the longevity of our consumer culture.

Wryly challenging stereotypes of Madonna and whore, Whitney Lee rescues old discarded latch-rugs and digitally doctors them with soft-porn images from 70s Playboy Magazines. Emblazoning homely craft rugs with graphic images of women, made by, and for, men, Whitney questions the incompatibility of the motherly and the sexy, and questions the exploitation of self-confident women under the male gaze.

Jenny Hart creates embroidered portraits of rock ‘n’ roll stalwarts like Iggy Pop and the White Stripes, making Iggy’s self inflicted wounds look like cosy, decorative embellishment. Strippers, Bill Hicks and Mexican wrestlers also feature in her unique handicrafts that focus on issues of celebrity and stardom, tinged with a touch of kitsch.

Su Blackwell has become hugely successful for her fantastical paper sculptures featuring scenes cut from the paper pages of great books encased in beautiful hand-crafted oak boxes. For Wild Styles, Su will create a new piece that is semi-biographical. It will be a sumptuous scene with velvet and red lights depicting the changing rooms at the Moulin Rouge featuring the only existing photo of her great-grandmother, a dancer there in 1918.

Working under the pseudonym of “Quitsryche”, Boo Davis’ handmade comfort blankets sit in the cosy domestic sphere of Americana – except that her soft furnishings absorb a harder edge of life. Embracing the wrath of heavy metal, Boo’s one-of-a-kind crafted quilts capture the hardcore hedonism and raucous rabble-rousing of a nasty night in the mosh pit.

Nicola Malkin is well known for her python-sized pearl necklaces that featured in Agent Provocateur’s window. A huge talent in contemporary decorative art, Malkin makes large ceramic versions of everyday fragile objects. The sheer scale of her boulder-like charm bracelets and oversized jewellery brings the viewer closer to them, conjuring the fascination and awe of the little girl allowed to look but not touch. Malkin takes our perceptions and obsessions , presenting them via commercial fetishism to make beautiful objects with both function and feeling.

Sesame is an Islington-based gallery dedicated to discovering and promoting emerging artists, as well as presenting curated shows that reflect new movements in contemporary art. Artists recently exhibited include Matthew Small, now gathering wide spread recognition as an urban artist, and Sarah Harvey, runner up as best newcomer at the Royal Academy and on the cusp of achieving international success for her paintings.