shawl from general blog

I’ve been knitting as well as potting.

And this is the shawl I finished a few weeks ago, and blocked last weekend, and I’ve been wearing it since.

I love it.

It is called Color Affection (American way of spelling Colour) by Veera Valimaki

It is made from two skeins of The Yarn Yards Bonny yarn in grey and soft mustard colours.

The third colour is called Golden Pear and it’s by Wollmeise that I got from a Ravelry-er who was selling it.

I think they all work really well.

And I’ve just realised that the colours are quite like Alex McErlain and Alice Kettles cup on the previous post.

calling Alex McErlain

If anyone has been reading for a while they will know that I had a wonderful teacher when I did ceramics at University.

His name was Alex McErlain.

And I adored him, as did many of his students.

And today I went to a small museum on the out skirts of Manchester to look at buttons.

And as well as buttons there were clothes, lots of them, from heavily embroidered childs coat of 1620 to a shift dress of the 1960s.

I took lots of photographs, some will feature on here if they come out okay, it’s hard to photograph against a glass case.

But when I came to the gift shop I saw three mugs in a case.

Alice Kettle – Pottery

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the statement.  Then I realised Alice Kettle is not a potter, she is a textile artist, but I know who she has been collaborating with to produce a new body of work.

Alex.

And these mugs were as Alex as you can get in style.

Sure enough there was the familiar potters mark of an A and M, not that I needed it to know who had thrown them.

One came home with me.

I love the hand on the thumb rest part of the handle, and the gloves on the side of the mug, as a glove knitter it’s right up my street, perhaps I ought to tell them to do some with socks.

And Alexs’ pottery mark of A and M and Alice Kettles initials.

Love it.

shop of the week number 11

It’s Etsy shop of the week number 11 this week.

And shop number 11 is the shop of Rachel Elliott, and her shop is called Flyingcheesetoastie.

Rachel makes gorgeous items out of glass, hares, jewellery, dishes, and sculptures.

Rachel makes all her pieces herself and screen prints designs on to the glass, or uses decals, as I do (transfers) that are fired onto the glass.

You can hear Rachel in her own words here on an interview for our Etsy team.

green walk

Green Walk Arts and Crafts weekend was really good.

Hard work, but it was a great experience and I learned lots.

I was amazed at what sold, and what didn’t, completely different to what sells in the Etsy shop.

And what sold on both days were different, what I sold out of on Saturday, I replenished for Sunday, and then did not sell any!

Andrew got good at selling too, he sold a few things when I went for a cup of tea.

I was going to add some photographs, but I can’t find my camera.

 

Edited to add photographs, I found my camera!

The wonderful stick pin pin cushion was made for me by Wychbury on Etsy.

these didn’t make it either

I sold two brooches like this one to the lady round the corner, who wanted some special presents in a hurry.

It’s the first time I’ve sold work out of my living room!

 

sold to the lady………

This won’t be coming with me to the sale at the weekend.

It just sold.

Come and see me at Green Walk on Saturday and Sunday 5th and 6th between 12 noon and 6pm

 

shop of the week number 10

It’s Etsy shop of the week time again, and this time it’s the shop of a lovely lady called Joy.

Joy runs Cutey Critters which sells gorgeous bunnies, foxes, and kitties.

I ought to explain they are all knitted rabbits, foxes and cats, in gorgeous clothes, and there are Teddy Bears there too.

They are lovely and almost too special to give to children.

I forgot to mention the elephants……….

To hear Joy ‘speaking’ to Nadine here.

goth steampunk buttons

After the disaster that was the decal firing I looked at the items and realised they were quite nice really.

Not the pink roses and purple violets that I thought they would be, but beautiful in a totally different way.

See gorgeousness in a different way.

These are a limited edition and once they are gone, they are gone.

Some have sold already, so if you like these, then go and check the shop.

shop of the week number 9

Gosh this is going past quickly we are up to Etsy shop number 9 already.

And this week it is Bex of Rebeccas’ Emporium

Bex makes wonderful items in felt.  She makes rings, necklaces, bracelets, and  brooches.  She also has her own little creations which are called Pheeples.  The name was chosen after Bex asked for names for her little folk on Facebook.

I suppose I ought to introduce you to a few Pheeple.

A pink Pheeple and a Bashful Pheeple, I think the Bashful Pheeple is so sweet.

These rings are so colourful and they are great.

But this is my favourite ring.

You can hear what Bex has to say about her own work in her interview with Nadine.

Interview

i tell it like it is

And just to prove I really do tell it like it is.

DECAL FIRING FAILURE!

Said I would.

I did what I was told, to the letter, took the kiln up to temperature like I was told to, at 770°C I soaked for 5 minutes, as instructed.  Left kiln to cool and have not peeped or been naughty, and left it until it was well below 50°C before I opened it, the kiln shelves were hardly warm.

And all those pink and red roses have turned black, the pretty blue flowers are black, but some have survived, and I’ve no idea how.  There would be a good button and all round it black buttons.  Yea work that one out!

According to the place where I got the decals from they should have survived to over 800°C, so even if my kiln is running hotter in places (like over two whole kiln shelves in the middle of the kiln), I can’t believe it was running 30° hotter than the pyrometer said.

Off to chat to some decal potter and find out what happened…………