Fairy

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.

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

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!

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!