The Rayburn is lit so it must be coming on for winter...although it doesn't seem too cold here in West Penwith at the moment.
September and October have wizzed by...helped along by a little holiday in Corfu at The White House in Kalami, enhanced by the energies of the Athena current that runs directly through the building if not my apartment!

So now the accounts are done (Ruby Tuesday is much better at adding up than me as anyone who knows me well will know...and I was grateful for her help) it's time to start thinking about new work for the trade shows in 2014 and a new range of fluffy white sheep are coming along as are the new belted galloway cows,,,,happily drying off on top of the Rayburn right now....these will be glazed in black with the belt in white of course...and will have a little bird on their backs.

Charlotte

Several new pieces have been added to the 'What's New' Section of the website....a small sample below

Thirza

Dog Angel

Curly Tail Cat

Large Chough on Rock

Megalith Hare

How did it get to be nearly the end of September?
The weeks have skimmed past...SO MANY visitors!  What a busy summer....almost  like the old days and the difference in sales has made be realise how poor the last four summers have been.  Good to have a surplus again....as long as I don't spend it all on clothes.

I went up to the NEC Autumn Fair because I could afford the petrol and because I love looking at things.  I ordered quite a lot of new stock actually because if you filter out the rubbish there are some excellent makers on show there, plus it's great for trends and ideas for my own making.  The seminars about how to be a better shopkeeper are worth a listen too - if only to remind one to try harder!

Spent two days there this time, and it paid off because by looking a bit more closely and carefully I really ordered some lovely bits and pieces which are now coming into the gallery in time for Christmas.  I especially wanted affordable jewellery and re-ordered from Gama and found a new company called Pasha who do wonderful, well priced silver plated things, due in the middle of October.

I've decided to do a small amount of Fair Trade and look forward to the colourful scarves and textiles coming in soon.  This little doggie arrived earlier in the week...he fits in very well with the ceramic ones don't you think?

I also met up with the girls who run Skinny Whistle in Quorn in Leicestershire - stockists of my work, and had a gossip and a nice sit down.

Almost immediately after I went up to Wirksworth Festival, to stay with Mo and Peter who are about to buy a house in the town.  We did some ancestor hunting and found our grannies and great grannies lived a few streets away from each other in the late 1800's and would have know each other.  She says her family was much posher than mine and found a skeleton in my family's closet...(nothing new there I thought!).  Here I am outside our former family house....

She now keeps sending me sales details of properties for sale in the town - very tempting I have to say....

We had a lovely time meeting up with Rachel Bonser from Art Foundation days at Wilmorton and Mark Smith, and guess what....we all had a gossip and a nice sit down.  Planning the same again with Rachel as she's visiting The Lizard this week with her family....the venue will be Roskilly's Ice Cream - yummy.

Back to work as some lovely trade orders are still coming in - a sign of how busy people have been over the summer.  New work still being created....a small sample to follow here....

I had dinner with Emma Ball on Monday night...she's supposed to be on holiday but is visiting some of her Cornish customers and all we did was talk about business and the old days when we would sit in village halls all over the East Midlands saying, thinking and hoping there was more to life and of course, there was!  Just as I am writing this I have sold a print and two of her tea towels.  We have had three deliveries of these tea towels in the last six weeks....a brilliant design...thank you Emma!

Kara is coming to the end of her mammoth summer season with the Minack....she has loved working there so much and hopes to do the same again next summer.  We went to look at Bristol Uni but she decided the course was too academic and not practical enough for her so we're hoping for better luck with Chichester and Bath - visits coming up over the next couple of weeks.  What a great excuse to visit these lovely cities!

The best news of all is the arrival of a little sister for Apollo...say hello to Ruby Tuesday who is a smoke Colourpoint British Shorthair and it was love at first sight....I have never integrated a cat so quickly - ever!  She's very feisty too and I think will end up being the boss of all of them.....

Yes...he really does have his arms around her giving her a kiss xx

Oh dear - I was causing gridlock on Fore Street yesterday as the clay delivery was unloaded - just at the very moment we started to unload a coach full of Germans tried to get past and couldn't!  Technically it was them that were blocking the road - not me - so to all of you who were hooting and making rude signs...you were doing it to the wrong person!
Now the clay has arrived there is no further excuse not to get on.

I have had a few days away - to visit father and aunt in Chesterfield...a good trip.
The following weekend I reprised the journey and then turned left at Bristol to go to St David's to see Pippa and Steve and Marion - brilliant to see the work they've done to transform Maen Dewi and the holiday lets are superb! There is a massive menhir in the garden.

We also had the good fortune to have tickets to the film of the David Bowie exhibition at the V and A - a memorable trip into the past...I'd forgotten how amazing some of his songs were and how much we listened to them as teenagers.

It's the busiest summer for about 5 years and it seems non stop in the gallery as well as being busy with commissions and orders for other galleries.  Too busy in the car park to even think about going for a swim down Cove...have to be September for that I think.

Margaret and I went to the Cornwall Design Fair at Trereife and were glad to see the 20% of new exhibitors from beyond Cornwall - so pleased the organisers  are doing this - it's boring to see the same people year after year.  I bought a chicken on wheels by the inimitable Demelza and a fabulous citrine ring by Jennie Gill from Sheffield.  Nice to see so many buyers - and to know so many people at the show and amongst the customers..what a treat!

I'm busy producing our latest product - Cornish Paperweights using old Ordnance Survey maps - these will soon be available in the gallery and on the website at £11.95....see below.  Commissions welcome!

They measure 75 cms in diameter and are made from crystal glass domes.  All areas of the coast and many sacred sites will be featured.

I'm planning to go away deep a couple more times soon - up to the NEC for the Autumn Fair to see what's new and then to Wirksworth Festival to stay with Mo and Peter and renew my relationship with this wonderful Arst Festival ... the second weekend in September.  Mo and I have ancestors who lived in Wirskworth a few streets from each other who must have known each other - which we both find very intriguing.  Might look at some art too?

I have also decided to revisit The White House in Kalami - this time for a relaxing week in October.  Phew - it's been a very busy year....so far!

Kara passed her exams so will be going on to do her A2's and hopefully pull her finger out a bit with next year's revision...hey ho...I can't do it for her....

I've just come back from my birthday treat - a few days in Brighton - and it was amazing.  We got a brilliant upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony and a fabulous view of the pier, beach and so on....noisy but lovely!  The Grand is such a brilliant old hotel - and the new seafood restaurant serves fantastic whitebait with a singing waiter who brought Kara an extra portion of lemon sorbet with an edible pansy flower on top - she now things all fancy restaurants serve edible flowers.

 

A Grand seagull enjoying the same view as we had.....

 

We had treatments in the new spa downstairs - which were so pampering and luxurious.
The visit was especially lovely because I bumped into Ali and her family - she and I were friends at school.  She was staying at the hotel to celebrate her daughter's graduation.

It was also a work trip and we thoroughly checked out all the shops and galleries - and I am pleased to say we have as lovely if not much nicer stock in the gallery here in St Just - it would pass the test very well.

We added a few more Sally Welchman paintings to our gallery collection....as well as two rusty tables, two birdcages, a carboard display stand, , four wooden seagulls, some wonderful thrift shop clothes for Kara - which were not for display in the gallery!

The best bit of the whole trip was the lovely Grand cream tea we had with John - and Kara was polite to him!

Here is a picture of the monster that was adding to the stress of last week ....

 

 

Bit too big for my liking...

Unfortunately the stress continues as the courier was unable to pick the kiln up Tuesday and now it won't come until Thursday and the electrician was booked for 9 am and couldn't change this because he'd got other jobs booked..but I'm sure it'll all work out.

 

My friends from Derby days are here looking for a house to rent so they don't loose the sale on their house again....and we're taking time to have nice meals and it's lovely to chat.  Can't wait for them to be here full time.

 

In the meantime Margaret and I have been creating these two beauties...mosaic being much harder than either of us imagined...it takes ages and ages to get it right!  These lovely babies will be featuring in our window for the Lafrowda window competition..do you think we'll win??

 



 

Wish us luck...and watch out for more from M & J Mosaics.

 

 

 

 

 



How much stress is too much....funny how all the little things build up into one big stress load?

Last week I was convinced there was some kind of difficult transit going on in my chart....
Fistly a person thought it would be ok to do a really cheeky and thoughtless thing involving potentially passing off as my business...guess what?  He's not going to do it now but I had to endure a very unpleasant meeting with said person.  I've never seen anyone's hands shake like that - and he paid for the coffee...result all round.

Then Kara has started to think she can drive anywhere at anytime and my nerves are in shreds...although she's actually very good and has only dented the boot lid, both front bumpers and had to have only a back light repaired in a week....all of which she paid for!

Then  my darling Percy got himself into a bit of a state and became an out of hours medical emergency with his bladder blocked by a stone.  Two unblockings, two overnight stays and a large dose of diazepam later he seems to be on the mend but was very, very poorly - and I had to cancel my much anticipated trip to Wales.  Perhaps I'll get another invite!  He's doing all his usual stuff now but was leaking badly for a while....

Then I had a creepy person contacting me when they shouldn't have - which exposed an interesting online dating internet scam that's now in the hands of Action Fraud....brilliant result.  But it was a bit scary how easy it is for this to happen - beware!

Then because of incompetence all my kilns weren't working and one of the controllers burnt out with a small fire - Jason to the rescue as usual - and he fixed the gallery lights too.  He's worth every penny.

Then I found a second hand kiln on Gumtree - which is being delivered tomorrow - so I hope it can be installed without any setbacks - but I would not have bought this if I'd known Percy was going to be ill....

There are hardly any visitors and one who did come in said my painting on driftwood of seagulls would make a good scratching post.  This is either extremely rude or an idea for a new business...haven't decided which yet!

Thank goodness I have friends like Leyla and Mo - who calm me down and tell me there was a massively full supermoon last night - which could be the only explanation...
The stress will pass as the moon wanes..back to normal in no time I expect.
I have managed to make some new work in response to the kilns not going up to stoneware - a lovely creamy glaze with a subtle crackle - pictures next time - everything happens for a reason as Carole always says....and she's right!

Forgot to mention the exciting news that Kara has passed her driving test first time...well done sweetie....just drive safely please...
and here she goes in her Ka....past the gallery and out into the wide world..it only seems five minutes since I was bringing her home from the hospital - you may have heard me mention that before...

After all that lovely weather where I managed to lobster myself on Porthcurno beach we're back to the standard issue fog...which is just blowing away now as the wind has got up nicely.

It still doesn't feel like there are THAT many visitors around but the ones that are here seem to like what I'm doing in the gallery so that's good.

Margaret and I went up to Bovey Tracey Contemporary Craft Fair for a bit of a works outing and came back with some exellent new ceramic/mixed media work from Claire Baker and some clever little upcycled tins by Louise Dawn Wilson.  With some notable exceptions the show was very much the same as last year and badly needs a fresh hand on the tiller to liven it up.  They've got the catering and outside stalls right now but are not looking to innovate the makers enough - in my opinion and you know I'm never wrong (to quote my dear father).

Here's how Claire's work looks in the china cabinet in the gallery!





Dawn's work on the old pine table at the front

 

 

Kevin Warren has dropped off a fantastic new delivery of his orange bird ceramics which are exclusive to us here in St Just, and they look brilliant on the old dresser as you can see

!

 

 

 

Margaret and I have been inspired by our visit to Bovey to make something entirely new for the gallery and we've been really busy over the last few days working to get the pieces don - but you'll just have to wait to see what it's all about....

 

 

Just a final shot of the gallery which I'm going to use in the programme for the Cancer Research exhibition at Cape Cornwall School - which needs to be thought about as it's coming up fast.

 

 







Open Studios was brilliant!  Thank you to all the lovely visitors who made a specific journey to come and see the pottery again this year - it was great to see you and I hope you enjoy your purchases very much.
The weather was brilliant -  much better than last year and we were able to serve teas in the Tea Garden all week....(except the Bank Holiday Monday when it poured and poured with rain...).
The studio is now much emptier - homes have been found for 4 entire shelves full of mishapen and wonky cats, dogs, hares, sheep and chickens etc....that makes me so happy! Also I can now reinvest in another half ton of clay to start again.  I have laughed long at the kind lady who told me 'I should make seconds because they sell really well...' long ago when I first came to Cornwall and ran St Agnes Pottery - how right she was.
I am still having problems with the kiln - wrong elements? Elements fitted wrongly? Kilns need replacing with  new ones?  Who knows - and if the engineer doesn't then I certainly don't but I have to have working kilns so will persist.

On a sour note considerable damage was done to my car and Kara's last Friday night - got a pretty good idea by whom - but I can't even get the police to call me back and tell me what they've been doing about it!  It's hopeless and very upsetting - and we were only two among about twenty cars targeted that night - wing mirrors broken, bodywork jumped on and dented and number plates torn off and thrown goodness knows where.  Despite fingerprints and CCTV images showing the youths committing the crime no arrests have been made....and the damage comes to over £600 for us.

Half term is over now and it was brilliant hin the gallery whilst it lasted but nothing really happening now!  Time to get back to orders and commissions - and to lots of admin which was ignored for 10 days at least.

I'm going up to the Bovey Tracey Contemporarty Craft fair tomorrow - what a great day that'll be - so looking forward to seeing friends and other makers and to buying a little something perhaps....
I hope it's sunny - I bought a super big pink straw hat off Ebay especially for the day....

Kiln at 920 degress - fingers crossed!

Having survived the extreme two hour storm on Tuesday night I'm relieved the weather is a little more normal now!  The extreme depression with winds gusting up to 77 mph came from nowhere and struck just as I was delivering Kara to work at the Minack.  A woman let her car door dent my car in the wind so I was wound up anyway and had an anxious drive home dodging flying trampolines and waving flag poles and then had to wait for the safe delivery of my daughter courtesy of the lovely Minack staff.  The performance was cancelled which as we know is VERY rare for the theatre.  What a shame!

Margaret and I have been mucking out - err - cleaning up the pottery for upcoming Open Studios.  We are open this year Saturday 25th - Saturday June 1st - having decided to close both Sundays so we can look at some of the other artists in West Cornwall. 

Once again there will be masses of studio bargains and seconds and things that are just too plain weird to put in the gallery!  Hurry though because they sell out fast.....

 

Here are a few photos to show how busy we've been...if only it could stay as clean as this all year....says Margaret rather pointedly..

 

We're also serving teas and cakes and some snacks weather permitting - here's how is SHOULD look...hope to see everyone here...

 

 

 

Harrogate BCTF was a marvelous show this year - I had my usual sunny stand near the centre aisle and had the advantage of Kara coming to help me set up and carry stuff.  We treated ourselves to all our favourite things at Bettys afterwards.  The Kimberley Hotel was very comfortable with lots of TV stations and room service.
I took many more orders at the show than last year - hard to say exactly why and most unexpected given the general retail climate.  I was particularly pleased that my ceramic people were well received.
This year I concentrated on buying sustainable craft - buying Joanna Coupland's vegetarian taxidermy animal heads made from tissue and wire and incorporating vintage spectacles, fabric and scarves.  She won the 'WOW' factor award - richly deserved!

I also bought some of Richard Shaw's work again.  He uses recycled tin and wood to make Alfred Wallis inspired seascapes with whales and boats and rows of little wonky cornish cottages.

I needed a reasonably priced range of jewellery and look forward to getting Dee Barne's custom made map pieces shortly, featuring recycled maps of Cornwall around St Just.
I found an new maker called Clare Ashton whose range of printed felt books and lampshades which make a fantastic addition to the gallery.  Giving further fuel to  my obsession with felt we are now stocking Lindsey Tyson/s gorgeous felt pebbles printed with ammonites which can be used decoratively or as pin cushions.

Lesley Nason's understated and detailed ceramic wall pieces have also arrived depicting hares and sheep in the landscape with subtle oxides and glazes.

So although it was an exhausting few days the gallery is looking brilliant and we are truly ready for a busy summer season!

I just have to make and send all those orders before Open Studios at the end of May.....

I've been asked to make House Signs so many times I've added a small range to my website.
There are three sizes - a small round one that is suitable for a number only really at £29, a larger rectangular one for longer names at £42.00 and an Enginehouse shaped one for names or numbers.
All have a Cornish flag featured and are made from a sandy stoneware clay.
Any kind of personalisation is possible - just ask.
Can be ordered online or by phoning me on 01736 786695.  Please allow 14 days for delivery due to longer production processes,

I'd like to give thanks for how blessed we are not to be covered in 8 " of snow - as many of my Derbyshire friends and family have been these last few days.
Although it is cold by our standards at least it's bright - and would be a great place to visit over Easter....so please come down all you lovely visitors - assuming you can get out of your own front doors!
I'm putting the finishing touches to work for BCTF and will be travelling up next weekend via Chesterfield and a visit to Dad who assures me the snow will have gone by then.
Here are the latest pieces to come out of the kiln....

A Plump of Seals

Ganglamb Style

I can't believe how cold it's been - it was -5 in the pottery this week but with urgent orders to go out I had to get on with it...and had the aches in my fingers all day.  Hope all those galleries appreciate my dedication.

New work is flying out of my imagination.  I hope all the pieces will prove to be 'classics' like the Woolly Jumpers which have been selling steadily for around 10 years and are still going strong.

I'm ready now for the British Craft Trade Fair which is one of the most important shows of the year not just for buying, but for selling too.  Just the brochure to do.

I had to have a little break on Tuesday to go to the osteopath in Marazion and had my back 'done' whilst gazing at a framed photo of Sai Baba and looking out of the window towards St Michael's Mount.  It was lovely afterwards - just got to save up for the right side of my body to be done next week.  I am two inches taller on the left at the moment!

Apollo is still growing and at three months old is as big as Baby is fully grown.  He is a little treasure....as you can see!  Here he is demonstrating how to have a sleep!

 

 

I have put up a few more images of new work showing at BCTF....hope you like them...