My favourite piece of the year 2017 is a giant crab of orange pinkish colour covered in angelic, intricate lace like a seafood bride.

The piece stopped me in my tracks when I saw it in the Margate textile exhibition in January.

The lace is Azores crochet and the piece is by the Portuguese sculptor and artist Joana Vasconcelos. The lace entirely hugs the ceramic crab, a faience designed by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro. He was a 19th century Portuguese potter who founded a factory that still makes his quirky pieces. Among others this giant crab.

Joana Vasconcelos is currently showing another crochet animal in a group exhibition at the Fashion and Lace Museum in Brussels in an exhibition running until April 2018.