Crying into my Teacup (& Saucer)

Sometimes I need to learn to say "No". When I got a phone call from a customer asking for a tea service for the top table for her wedding I had a feeling I should say no, but I hate turning work away.

We had to order the teacups & saucer moulds which is not easy in July when the Potteries in Stoke have just recovered from the Potters Holiday in June & are about to go off on the factory fortnight holidays. I managed to track down a nice mould so I thought the biggest problem was over.

 Time was very short as they had to be finished in less than a month. So instead of having a few extra days in the caravan with our girls we came home from Shrewsbury Flower show & I got started. I always take longer on orders especially when I am painting flowers from the wedding bouquet which I had never done before. I managed to get them all done & there were only a few items which needed re- firing.

We have had a problem with delayed grazing on some items this year since we changed our slip so I tested the tea set with boiling water, they all seemed okay, I was over the moon. Until the next day when nearly all of the nine saucers & some teacups had small cracks in the glaze. I felt like giving ceramics up that day I have never been so fed up. I was so low I could not face redoing the order, I emailed the customer & offered her all the tea service for free, it was all personalized so I could not sell it as seconds & I felt like I could not charge her for only part of the order. We did re-fire them so I don't know if they have been okay since.

We have since had tests done on the kiln & found that our temperatures were not high enough. We have brought a new kiln & we are now soaking the green ware for longer so hopefully the worst is over. At least it makes me realise the small problems we have everyday with the ceramics are not so bad after all.

Take the dog for a walk.

Ringlet

I don't take the dog for a walk as often as I should as I am always working, but one sunny evening it was her lucky night & we set off down the river. For once I did remember to take my camera & I ended up down the river for hours taking photos of flowers & creeping up on Butterflys & Bees, which is not easy when you have a dog running around like a mad thing. I managed to capture a photo of this butterfly which I had never seen before. On returning home I discovered it was a Ringlet Butterfly which is more common in southern England so it was my lucky night too. Especially as it inspired me to do this new design which I really love.

We love to try out new things.

Bird Air Freshener

I have not wrote here for a while as we have been so busy going to flower shows (& because I can never remember my passwords to get into this site & I always wonder if anybody actually reads my ramblings).

We have been trying out some new items like this Bird Air Freshener. The heart hanging below the bird is not glazed so Fragrance Oil can be soaked into the heart to give off a lovely smell for days. I love thinking of things which have a use as well as looking nice.

 

     

Plant Pots or Planters?

We have also been trying out plant pots & planters on the stall, so far the plant pots seem to sell better than the planters but that can change from show to show.  We are never sure which shape we like best so we end up making both & having even more things to carry around. But it is good to have something which appeals to the customers at the flower shows we are attending, but I do think some jugs can look just as lovely used as a planter too.

Missed Me, I did!

I am somewhat of a slow burner, I think it is because I try to do so much I end up running around like a headless chicken. For years I have said to myself I should try & get into magazines but I never quite got round to it. I would put it of till I had more time in January (& because I don't like rejection) & every year the month would come & go without me doing all the little jobs I had stored in my head.
But this year I actually got round to it. I send off emails & pictures to about five different home magazines & to my surprise I actually got a reply from Period Homes & Interiors. They said they would put me in the May or June issue. So I got on with life, then in May I went to the newsagent to see if we were in, & we were not. So I waited till June & made the trip to the shop all excited thinking it is going to be in this time, but it was not! I ended up ringing the magazine to see what had happened, their reply was that I had appeared in the May issue, which of course had come out in April so I had missed it! Typical I missed out on telling all the mums at the school gate & hovering about in the newsagents so I could exclaim loudly to everyone who would listen that I had some of my work in a magazine. Oh well there is always the doctors or dentists surgery, it is bound to turn up in some of the old magazines piles somewhere. So next time you have an appointment keep an eye out!

I will never be rich!



Customers Drawing

Finished Plate

The other day I received a phone call from a lady who had discovered me on the Internet. She was looking for someone to paint a special large personalized plate for a person who lectured about wild flowers. She mentioned that she had over a hundred pounds to spend on it. So of course I blurted out "Have you seen my prices" as they are nowhere near that. So the customer was very happy with the forty pound plate & everyone I told about it, from my mam to the woman in the post office reckoned I was mad & I should of charged allot more. But I am not & never will be a great business woman, I do this job because I love it, not for the money.  I earn allot less than I did in 1995 as a graphic designer but I work twice as hard (wait a minute I think the woman in the post office is right I am soft in the head). Sometimes I feel left behind by the world when you hear people complain about the amount of money they earn when it is far higher than what we live on. My daughters friends are already competing about who's dad has the best car, who's going on the most expensive holiday. Our girls have loads of holidays but most of them are working holidays at craft shows, but I don't think it is such a bad life.We are going to Holker Hall garden festival for the first weekend in June there is always loads of entertainment, lots to see & beautiful gardens to get lost in. So although we might never be rich & we work 24/7 there is nothing better than getting back to your caravan on a summers night after a good day at a show & having a barbecue in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere. Rich in lifestyle, who cares about money!

Cracking Time this Easter!

New Square shaped jug that went "Ting"

We have had a great time this Easter attending craft shows & meeting customers & fellow crafters. But we did have a big problem we have never experienced before.
Before attending the shows we put our new stall up in the house & put all the ceramics on display so we knew where to put everything when we have to set up in a hurry. While the stall was in the house I heard "Tinging" noises. Later to my horror I disscovered what it was. Small hairline cracks had appeared on the glaze on some of our ceramics, I had always wanted crackle glaze but not like this. For the next few days we kepted hearing "Ting" every now & then. I had to search through the pots to find the culprits, most of my new fairy jugs & some of the new square shaped jugs we had just made were affected . We tryed to refire them, but they just "Tinged" again.  I had alot of "seconds" on our stall at Hyde End.
 We are hoping it has happened because we fired the greenware too low & not because the glaze does not like the homemade slip Adrian has made in his new Blunger.
We came home from Hyde End show only to discover our hen Sally had hatched a chick, but then had left the other eggs  (which were due to hatch a few days later), to go cold. Then her one & only chick had gone missing so she sat back on the eggs but it was too late. We cracked a few open & there were dead chicks inside. Not such a nice Easter present to come home too.

Fairies for my Mam

A change is as good as a rest, I tend to over work so when I cannot face painting another flower I need a new challenge. So I set about painting some Fairies. My mam is very ill in hospital & she always loved fairies so they always remind me of her. She wrote many fairy stories when I was young which she did eventually get made into a small booklet especially for all her many grandchildren. My favourite fairy charactor was "Fairy Wobble" she got knocked out of a flower by a bad tempered boy when she was a baby fairy so she walked with a wobble. She spent her life getting her own back on the little boy by pulling his hair & pinching him & of course he did not know what was happening. When I was little my Mam told me that story over & over again & I still love it.

 I now have two daughters of my own but I am afraid I do not have my mam's story telling skills, so I guess I will have to stick to painting them instead.

I got my daughters to pose for me I have taken lots of photos so I can turn them into fairy's the next time I need a challenge which knowing me won't be long.    

Something Old, Something New

We are never satisfied with what we've got, we are always on the look out for something new.  I do not know how many different moulds we have for jugs & mugs. Many of them I go off after a while & so they are left on the highest shelve till we have a sort out & we wonder why we never use them.

 Every time we go to a mould maker in Stoke we always say "Have you got any new shapes" & more often than not the reply is "No". The mould makers tend to look after the bigger businesses who pay them a lot of money to make their own exclusive designs which no one else can buy, so we are stuck with the same moulds that have been around since the 1970's. That is the main reason that over the years Adrian has taught himself how to make moulds.

Adrian is getting better all the time & now I think he has surpassed himself. I love this jug he has made. I may not have contemporary designs but it is nice to paint a modern shape for a change. I tend to search junk shops for easy shapes for him to make moulds from. This jug was originally taken from a plain tall vase. Adrian cut a spout out of the mould & the handle was added afterwards. (The handle was from one of those old moulds we had put on a high shelve & forgotton about).

The only problem with creating something new is finding a name for yet another jug. Some moulds already have names from the potteries so they are not a problem. This jug was easy to name as it was made from one of our Tube Vases so of course we had to call it Tube Jug! Easy!

Shabby Chic

I had never heard of Shabby Chic until a couple of years ago when I spent that long on Ebay I came across it. Now I am a big fan, I love the rustic, old look I just never had a name for it. So I am so glad I can now join in with it all. We are now doing ceramic tiles in shabby chic frames & I love them. I did start off puting my tiles onto Canvas but they never quite worked but now at last I think I've got there, it always takes me a while.
The only problem with the framed tiles is they cost me a fortune in spray paint (for the background to mount the tile on). I think I've got spray paint all over the attic floor & almost passed out when I forgot to open a window before I started spraying but it is worth it, well it will be if they sell well!

Ken & Deidres Kitchen

This is a mock up of Ken & Deidres kitchen at the Ideal Home Show. If you look near the window you can spy the Fork & Spoon I painted. (see earlier Coronation Street blog).

This is not my only claim to fame regarding Coronation Steet. Years ago when I worked for Umbro I did a range of designs for tracksuits. I was sat watching telly one night & I spyed a very young Nick Tisley wearing a tracksuit top with my design on the back, thats the most excitement I've ever had while watching corrie.

Decisions Decisions

I don't know if it is the same with all ceative people but I can never make a decision. Years ago when I was still working as a designer I got called to the office & my boss told me off for giving the customer too much choice, I am still doing the same now because I can never decide which designs I like the best. Sometimes I meet my match with customer's who stand at my stall for half an hour because they cannot decide what to buy, then they ask me which one I like the best?
Anyway today I had to make a decision. I had a letter in my hand with a stamp on I was standing next to the post box & I just could not decide wether to post it? It was an application for a craft stall at Hyde End (somewhere near London) this Easter, but it is a long way to travel, quite expensive for the stall & I always worry about having enough stock if I do sell well. So there I was stood at the post box with this letter in my hand when my eight year old daughter grabbed it off me & posted it! Well decision made then, Hyde End here we come.

I need a new Wardrobe!

Over the years we have had a number of different stalls, none of them were ever prefect & they never quite had the right look. But this time we had a professional in, our next door neighbour Mel. He's a builder & odd job man & likes nothing better than a challenge to get his teeth into. So we asked him to make us a new stall which looks like a dresser but folds down to carry about & he's just about managed it. I've seen half of the stall today & I'm really pleased with it. I can't wait to get it painted  & full of pots for Harrogate Flower Show. We did have to make a small sacrifice however, our wardrobe. The doors were perfect or the sides of the dressers & the drawers have been used at the bottom of the shelves & they pull out to use in the display. So I guess I will have to get on Ebay & start looking for a new wardrobe!

Coronation Street

I recently sent a email about my ceramics off to a few different magazines. A few days later I got a phone call from someone who wanted me to do a special order for the Ideal Home Exhibition. So I just assumed it was the magazine who had called me, so of course I'd agree to anything. In actual fact it was nothing to do with any magazine it was a product buyer who wanted a copy of a spoon & fork from a Coronation Street set from years ago. She had been looking all over & had come across my website. I agreed to make the ceramics for her, we already have a spoon rest we could use so we had to make a spoon then cut it up to look like a fork. Because it was such a rush we had the fork & spoon drying by the fire last weekend. I finally got to paint them which I was dreading as I had to copy the original designs which are nothing like my work, but I managed it  & got them sent of on time. So if you are going to the Ideal Home Exhibiton this March see if you can spy my Spoon & Fork on the Coronation Street set.

Spring Lamb

Spring Lamb

I love this time of year, the first signs of spring are all around us. I saw my first spring lambs this year which inspired me to go all out over the top for spring & paint this spring lamb jug.  It is not a design I do all year round so I enjoy it even more when I have the excuse to paint all things spring like. This design is not currently on my website but you can email me to order it on any of the ceramics available on my shop pages.

Bus Man's Holiday

A rainy day at the Gladstone Pottery Museum

We have just returned from a "working holiday" in Stoke-on-trent.  We managed to buy enough slip to last us for quite a few months & we learnt a bit more about how to make our own slipusing our new Blunger.We tryed to source a few new moulds but it is a waste of time we have to end up making them ourselves.

We enjoyed our visit!

 My daughters had a go at the potters wheel, but I could not get my husband Adrian to have a go. They both managed to make a small vase (with a little help!) we are going to try & fire them in the kiln so if you see some wonky vases on the stall you know who made them.


In training to join the family business!