Things that begin with C

I've been busy glazing cup cakes this week. I will be getting the next batch out of the kiln later so watch this space.

I stayed with a friend a few weekends ago and we visited some venues as part of London Open House. There were so many to choose from and after seeing a mile queue outside the Bank of England we chose to seek out venues less unknown that didn't have huge queues.

Our first stop was at some artist studios in Shoreditch, Village Underground, they are ex London Underground tube train carriages recycled to form creative studios on an abandoned viaduct. Check out their website, they've also got an amazing warehouse space.

(Photo from the Village Underground website)

We also had a tour of Hackney Town Hall that has some amazing original Art Deco features and a few really bad modernisations, i wish I'd got a photo! The weather was great so we stopped off at the London Fields lido for a wonderful open air swim then a nice cup of tea. On the way home we spotted this..... a spiral stair case for a cat! I noticed the cat flap first then the ladder, what a great invention.

So there are a few things beginning with C, Cup cakes, creative carriages and a cat ladder! I'd recommend London Open House for next year, so much to choose from and some fab venues to see, a weekend just isn't long enough.

Preview

A few things I've been making lately. Thanks for all the feedback on Folksy, I've been busy making more and hope to have them stocked in my shops in the next few weeks. Watch this space.

Cupcake candle holders

Pen pot with bubble detail
Green bubble texture coasters

Green and white flock textured coasters.

More coming soon.

Midweek Making

It's been a busy day today. I made this! It's a ring shaped vase, some will have more holes and others will have just one. It's a miracle it came out of the mould but I'm glad I persevered with it. I'm quite excited about finishing it.
The vase above came out of the mould below that I made about a year ago and hadn't had much success with getting a whole piece out of it. By the laws of mould making it shouldn't really work as the clay shrinks around the centre of the mould and sticks to it often resulting in cracking. When I've tried it before it's always broken, i think it was because i was too hasty trying to get it out, this time i left it to dry for 3 days and it worked. Hope i can get a few more out over the next week and fire and glaze them to add to my shops.

I also found some time to make some raspberry vodka. I've been meaning to make some for ages and have only just got around to it. Just the look of all that sugar makes me want to clean my teeth. I've got to let it mature for 3 months, might try and make it longer as we still have 4 litres of sloe vodka from a few years ago that we should drink first.

When i was searching for a recipe i came across a really informative blog called The Cottage Smallholder, it's written by a lady called Fiona Nevile and is about her journey towards being partially self sufficiency. Check it out for some great recipes and food ideas, it's a really interesting read.

Recycling

How cool are these? Not sure what i am going to do with them yet but i love them. I acquired them from family, well really i intercepted them, they were on their way to the charity shop but i couldn't let them go. ( i think they are buckles!) I've spent the last hour or so freecycling some bits and bobs as well as ebaying some larger items for my parents. It's been a real weekend of recycling and getting things for free! My dad harvested his first pumpkin last week so i collected a quarter to make into soup. It was huge, i had to use 3 saucepans!

It started like this....

And ended like this. I've got nearly a drawer full of soup in the freezer now. Tastes great, i wish i could share it via my blog.

Please note my cooker isn't usually that messy, making soup is a messy business, all the clearing up takes soooo long.

Another weekend...

What a weekend! We headed down to Reading Festival as it's only about half an hour from our house which means we don't have to camp, yeah!

This is what we got up to, ate, drank, got dusty and watched some bands. Check out the giant yorkshire pudding, it's the size of a plate. Radiohead topped off the weekend nicely, especially after Kings of Leon had a strop on stage on Friday, they are so last year now!

Now I am all rested up and back to making pots. Firing some porcelain slip this week....will post pics when they're out. Also updated my other blog and www.revealshowcase.com with photos of confirmed exhibitors.