A woman leans against a marbled plinth. She faces away from the camera. Her torso, every muscle accentuated by dramatic spotlighting, is seductively encased in a partly laced-up corset. Her arms aloft, she keeps her head down, her face focused on the floor. Is she crying? Sad? It's hard to tell, though there is unmistakable melancholy in this black-and-white photograph.
We don't make things any more - not on the scale we used to. We can't compete with the Far East - they can make things for a price we can't match. The skilled workforce we once prided ourselves on is no longer here.
A lone chicken? "Yes," says Alan Richardson, director of arts organisation Conflux, with one of those wry looks that suggests I'm getting little more information out of him on this issue. "A chicken lady." But chickens can't really fly? "It's one of the little stories that happens in amongst it."
One week before the results go on sale at a pop-up shop in Glasgow, we meet the teams behind three of those objects.
"Uppity women unite". "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle". Not the kind of badges you would wear? How about a retro number with the slogan "Women together are strong" across its rounded front? Personally I like "Housework", a plain white badge with a drawing of a pinafore-clad woman pegged by her hands to a washing line. It makes me laugh. Plus the wee frown on the woman's face reminds me of my own vexation at having to vacuum the house.
It is, I think, the ultimate potato dilemma. I've been thinking about it for the last few days, since I found out I would be interviewing TV presenter, writer and self-confessed potato lover Dawn O'Porter. Chips, I assumed, would be too obvious and boiled, well, no one chooses boiled as their favourite do they? I toyed with the idea of throwing in mashed as an option, but dismissed it at the last minute.
He's a character, that's for sure. One that's warm and instantly lovable, brimming with as much personality, excitement and colour as the coveted shoe collections he creates.
Then the colours. The greens, blues and greys of the sometimes bleak but always beautiful Outer Hebridean landscape captured her imagination.
The grey sandstone architecture of the Borders town seemingly has little in common with the air kissing and chiffon swishing of the fashion world, but there's a little secret tucked away- a fashion fan's dream - filled with covetable cashmere creations and designer labels. That place is Barrie Knitwear.
