It seems fitting then that Mel’s home and studio are situated by the sea. The Art Deco house she shares with her husband Will and her four children sits on top of a hill ‘like a white sugar cube’, says Mel, overlooking a wide bay. Mel is from South Wales and Will spent childhood summers in the area. Cas Pollen, an artist who specialises in verre églomisé, made a glass splashback for the kitchen that reflects views of the sea. I watch them tacking across the bay, the red sail fluttering as if in a scene from Arthur Ransome’s book Swallows and Amazons.