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.

Creative Spaces Part 2

Following on from last weeks creative spaces feature there are three more folksy sellers featured today. Thanks to Bonita Keay, Hannah Pinnock and Momtaz Begum-Hossain who have let us into their world.

First off is Hannah Pinnock who is based in Lulworth, Dorset. You can read up on Hannah via her blog and buy her lovely resin and silver jewellery via her folksy shop.

Hannah works with silver and resin, the versatility of which, offers a mixture of many qualities including high gloss finishes & unlimited inclusions, resulting in pieces, which are mystical, lively and enchanting.

This is a Silver Gripped Pebble Love Heart necklace set into blue hand pigmented resin which is then gripped by the handmade brushed sterling silver clasp. View it in Hannah's Folksy shop here.

She takes pride in hand crafting each piece, every one an individual gem to capture the imagination. Hannah works with found objects using iridescent and translucent pigments to hand dye the resin, and this is where it all takes place. It looks like a great workshop with loads of space.

The second folksy seller is Bonita Keay (Beaky), who lives in a little victorian terrace where she knits, crochets and sews. You can find out more about Bonita via her blog. Here are just a few items in her shop, pin cushions, lavender dolls, bags and scarfletts, i love them all!

Here is Bonita's workspace, she has to keep it tidy as i mentioned before she lives in a little terrace house. Looks like a great use of space, and very tidy too!


The third maker is Momtaz Begum-Hossain who lives in Greenwich, South East London. Momtaz makes Colourful, shiny, textured, felty, knitted accessories, textiles and sewn things. You can visit her folksy shop here, her blog here and her website here. Below are a few brooches from Momtaz's folksy shop.

Momtaz crafts all over her flat,in the bedroom, living room and a little 'office' space in the corner of a spare room she shares.Here she is busy at her sewing machine.

and when Momtaz says she crafts anywhere, she really does, even in bed!


So that's it folks, thanks for taking part, and thanks for visiting, I'm off to list some items on my online shops now, I'm feeling inspired!