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.