Had a great show at British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate....lovely company and brilliant accommodation - we got an upgrade to a three bedroomed apartment which meant no one had to hear anyone snoring!
Van developed a fault on the way up but the rental company delivered another one just in time.

I have some good orders to work on and several new customers and just as importantly the gallery in now stocked with fabulous new stock from Guy Routledge, Derryn Relph, Beastie Assemblage, Roma Vincent,  Jane Crick, Hillyhubb, Lindsey Tyson and Karen Risby.  If it were not for room in the van there would have been a lot more work coming home with me...

Derryn Relph

Stack by Guy Routledge

Silver jewellery by Roma Vincent

Joanna Coupland's taxidermy

Karen Risby Bird Plaque

Kevin's new delivery of Orange Bird Ceramics

I have also stocked up on the wonderful 'taxidermy' pieces by Joanna Coupland and this year we have two hares, a mole, a badger and a peacock.  She was the deserved winner of the 'WOW' factor award again this year.

Lindsey Tyson felt pebbles

Nancy Pickard silk scarves

Louise Nelson Lampwork Owls

Beastie Assemblage

                                                                                

 The Gallery is getting ready for the Easter holidays and we have had a super delivery of Orange Bird ceramics from Kevin Warren and are also stocking Nancy Pickard's silk scarves plus Emma Ball's teatowels and lots of my work....never seen the gallery so well stocked...I have been busy.  
Come and see the new jewellery we have too....

Kara has started her first shift of the holidays this morning at the Minack and I can't think of a better place to be working on a day like this...

WELCOME TO CORNWALL EVERYONE...HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT EASTER!

What a week....
Got some hilarious news that made my friends and I chuckle greatly.....but that's as much as I can tell you....

Weather has improved beyond measure...and on Saturday I met up with Carole Cooper who is the best psychic ever ...and she knew the best week of the year to have her holiday in Cornwall of course!  She told me some interesting stuff about the business and me...spot on accurate as usual...have a reading yourselves at www.psychiccarole.com...you'll see what I mean!

I also went on a course that was supposed to be about writing narratives about your work organised by Creative Skills ... in the fabulous AIR building at Falmouth University...but it was not about that at all....it was more of a sales pitch for the Crafts Council which in my opinion is largely irrelevant for hands on makers in Cornwall, and for the University's facilities which they want to rent out to makers. I actually already knew about this so by the time we got to 4.00 and the man talking about how to write copy came on he had to rush his bit...leaving me very frustrated! I should have know to be honest....

Still lots of work coming through the studio....several parcels to pack next week for Scotland and the Lake District.  I am working on samples for BCTF Harrogate at the beginning of April too....very exciting.

I have been invited by Mr Monty of Mr Monty's Fuss and Feed (via his people who were visiting Cornwall) www.mrmontysfussandfeed.co.uk to be part of the Art pages on his website selling cat paintings and ceramics.  This is a great honour and I am delighted to have been asked!

Margaret and I are enjoying our jewellery making classes with Ed Williams and have learned a lot!  We are having a day out at Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery on Monday to learn about PMC....what a treat!

Mist is swirling sideways up Fore Street...this is a sign the the sun will be out dreckly.....

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