I bought these...

because they are beautiful. I am fairly indifferent to the flavour of the ones we get in this country. Pretty bland really. Good baked with something sweet and alcoholic and served with something creamy. Vanilla icecream or clotted cream. I digress... Bland they may be to taste, but not to look at. The colour of a nasty bruise. Except beautiful.
I thought I would try picturing them with my new colander... I am very easily distracted at the moment I have noticed. I know that I should have made the colander the centre of focus of the shot... How will I sell it if I focus on the figs?! After all, I'm not a green grocer. Which is just as well as I think I'd probably just sit there all day gazing at how pretty it all was whilst the fruit rotted.
The figs are no more. I didn't want to eat them because they were better than flowers to look at, but in the end it had to be done. Cut in half they were more beautiful again. I had kept them in the fruit bowl with some pomegranites for a few days, next to a great big pumpkin, and every time I looked at them the colours were just amazing. Autumn in a bowl. Aubergine and purple black from the smooth soft skins of the figs, and flaming oranges and reds from the waxy skins of the pomegranites with little black marks to make them look like they are on fire... It made me feel like I was living in a Peale still life.
A colander or a fruit bowl can look good. It can look beautiful. But no matter what it looks like, who made it, or what they made it from, it can never compete with the fruit that it will hold.

Lucky week continues...

with my little poppy bowl being featured in this storque article - whoooop :)

Lucky!

A weird thing happened today... A friend called round last night and said her friend was opening a shop in Shoreditch (London) and she thought my work might go well there. So she said she'd send her friend an email asking her to look at my etsy shop. So, true to her word, she did that today... And she got a response straight away. Her friend couldn't believe that she knew me as she'd been looking at my work online and had intended to get in touch for just that reason... It's a small world hey? What are the odds? It made me feel quite positive, as it means that my name and work is getting known and seen. Cool hey? But a wierd coincidence too!

Next on the good luck list this week is that a set of these...



Flock ceramic wall art, in both colours has been accepted into an exhibition and art auction at the Waterside arts centre. I submitted both colours hoping that they'd accept one, so I'm very pleased that they wanted both sets. Whoop! They'll be on display for about 6 weeks and then auctioned off. Fingers crossed that someone buys them. And bids big ;)

Also, as of next week, my work will be on sale through a great online retailer - All about the boys. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a great collection of stylish children's wear. I love their selection of classic cute outfits for little boys and girls. My work is to be featured amongst a great selection of giftwear under the heading what Mummy wants. I'm working on something else with them too, but I'm keeping that under wraps for now... watch this space...
And last but not least in the lucky list is that my new facebook page for Prince Design UK has been up for less than a week and has nearly 100 fans!!! Which is a great start for that too. I was a little worried that I'd only get 15 of my friends and family to sign up and would feel a bit unpopular, but my ego has escaped without injury. Don't let that stop you from signing up though!
There is one more thing I should add to this list too. That I am very very very lucky to have the friends that I have. They are amazing, kind, loving, trustworthy, fun, genuine, good-hearted people and I love them very much. I have seen some of the best of them this weekend, have spent some great time, looked around me and really felt lucky.
So all in all a great week, and there's plenty more up my sleeve too, with a full kiln cooking as I write :)
Looking at this list, I wish I'd bought a lottery ticket...

Go with the flow...

Here is my new perforated fruit bowl...

It is called Go With The Flow, because I wanted it to have the dual function of being a fruit bowl and colander in one, so water will flow through it. It has holes pierced through the surface to allow you to wash, drain, display and serve fruit.

When I made it I was thinking about water. Not just the water that would eventually run through it; different types of water. Frothy gently curving waves, bubbly water and sails and flags on boats as they catch the breeze. Deep sea green colours, fluid curves and ripples...

The bubbly texture and shape make it good to hold even with wet hands.

What do you think of it?

Facebook...

OK. I surrender. Today I joined facebook... Facebook 1, my resolve to never join facebook nil.

Here is my Prince Design UK page. Call in and become a fan! And I would love for you to invite your friends too!! My fans list is looking er... short... Well hopefully it will pick up soon and stop me from feeling like a loser ;-) It is only day one after all...
I'm not sure why I have had such an aversion to facebook. Perhaps I'm getting set in my ways! Now I've done it it seems silly not to have done it ages ago. I'm going to be doing a few offers to facebook fans in the near future, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out :)

Wish me luck!

A little while ago

I did a pottery workshop in a nursery school. It was different to workshops that I had done before, in that there was a larger emphasis on the experience than on the end product. The first children of the day were for me the most challenging... the two year olds. All my previous workshop experiences had been with older children, and so this group were tricky for me. Working with clay is a very tactile and sensory experience, and this was the main focus of this age group. I was pleasantly surprised at how much they got out of it, they dipped their fingers in water and felt how the clay softened when they added water to the surface, how it became slippery and easier to change. They hit it with plastic spoons and in some cases poked holes through it. Although nothing recognisable was produced, each shild learned that he or she had the power to change the form of the material.
Next up were the three year olds, who on the whole decided to make "cakes." Or should I say one child decided, and the rest followed suit.
Here are some of them....

Each child selected from a range of objects in the centre of the table, stones, spoons forks etc, and made individual decisions about how to decorate their cake. I like how they picked the forks and spoons as candles.

Every child was encouraged to make what they wanted to make, and the nursery owner specified that I should not come armed with any kind of project. The items were not to be fired, and this meant that all kinds of other objects could be included in the pieces they made. Here are a few images of what some of the older children made. The children were aged up to eight years, as the after school club were included too.

I loved this crocodile :) I asked her what she thought might make the texture of crocodile skin and she selected something from a range to create the texture. Good choice!

And this fab catarpillar! Again, here the child himself selected a number of identical milk bottle tops to create the rhythmic form, and this was his idea.

These hedgehogs were amazing too. Again, a great choice with the straws to make the texture of the spines.
There's something fantastic about seeing a big table full of children's creations....

All in all we had a great (if exhausting) day. I really hope they took something valuable away from the experience. I know I definitely did :) A BIG thanks to all the children who were really lovely and very well behaved!

Nature...

Makes far more beautiful things than I could ever dream of. The hydrangeas are in full bloom everywhere at the moment and they are absolutely stunning. I wish I'd had my camera today to capture these - apologies for the image quality, they were taken with my phone...