Some amazing and unprecedented weather here over the last few days has meant the brave customers who made it into the gallery were greeted like members of a returning polar expedition and congratulated for their hardiness.  In fact it was a miracle they could stand up long enough to get down the road.
Many many wonderful and scary photos have been posted on facebook ...

Much terrible damage has been done to the Prom and seafront....and some parts of the coastline will never be the same again.  We are very worried about the main train line being cut off at Dawlish...let's hope for a speedy repair and usefully employed buses and coaches....

I am so excited to be getting a new batch of Sally Welchman's latest paintings shortly.  I absolutely love her work and her amazing style and portrayal of animals never stops being a delight.  She is getting highly collectible and I don't expect them to hang about for long!

What a great bat!

I have just returned from Glasgow Spring Fair at the SECC with a rather full order book.  The Scottish economy seems to be booming!  It was lovely to see many of my regular galleries and shops and to meet several new ones.  Just got to make it all now...which is what I say every year.
The van had a puncture when I came back to it on the Friday morning but Enterprise dealt with it swiftly and fairly.

I have just had a phone call from Marianna Sheldrake of the lovely Happy Glastonbury shop in Glastonbury (!), which is a fantastic family business.  Marianna and I have worked together before and she has now asked me to design a range exclusive to her shop - with all the pieces especially adapted to her designs.  This is a great opportunity for me - and a brilliant excuse to go up to Glastonbury more often.

I have also commissioned her to do a range of her hare cards featuring famous megalithic Cornish sites, such as Men an Tol and the Merry Maidens....so watch out for those coming into the gallery in the Spring/Summer.

Better get on with these orders now.....

As everyone who knows me well will tell you, Christmas and New Year are my least favourite times...anything that has ever gone wrong in my life went wrong at this time...so we have escaped disaster this year and the tree is back in its bin bag with all its ornaments on ....as it has been for the last 20 years!
Talk about recycling.

The weather has been exciting and dangerous and parts of the coastline have been changed in Cornwall for ever....but it's passed now...with some of the biggest waves I have ever seen down Sennen Cove...and Margaret who has lived here all her life says she's never seen the like either!

My attention is turning to new work for the Scottish International Trade Fair at the SECC 19th - 21st January, and I have added loads of new work to the website....lots of dogs and sheep to amuse my lovely Scottish customers.

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And some new people too....

The galley has been really, really busy over the Christmas period...even selling a big Heather Howe painting on New Year's Eve!

Kara has accepted a place on the BA Theatre course at Falmouth...I am delighted for her..a really good course in a fantastic town!

Happy New Year and hope to see all my lovely customers at the show, and hope to meet lots of new ones.

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!