Photoshoot: Summer Solstice

Central to the Summer Solstice, is the sun.  This sun catcher is one my husband brought while we were in Canada a few years back, in Nova Scotia.

In front of it is a little sun brooch.  It's one I have had since I was pretty young.  My Gran used to go to the Darby and Joan club in her village and one time she took me to a tabletop sale there.  I don't know who donated the brooch and so I have no idea of it's story or age, but on that day, it became mine.  It's not in any fancy metal with a makers mark.  I doubt I will ever let it go, but I like to think when I am old, it will pass in to the hands of a young child.

I had to look up Darby and Joan and I discovered that they were an idealised couple, living out the latter years of their lives in quiet contentment together.  Social clubs for older people are still often called Darby and Joan clubs.

I wanted some artwork for the photo and I choose this lovely design by Mycelium23.  I brought several cards, so I am sure they will feature in the future too.  I like the idea of exploring the year as we go.  It's a bright happy picture!  I think my favourite is the Halloween one though!  I love Halloween...  Any holiday with fancy dress and sweets is bound to be great as far as I am concerned...

The bag on the left is from SupaChicDesigns and was something we very much needed right now.  My husband's daily work routine has changed a fair bit over the last few months as infection control has become so important.  He goes to and from work in his own clothes, carrying his uniform in a fabric bag he was gifted by some of the many wonderful volunteers who have been crafting away to make bags and masks.  When he gets home, the bag goes in the washing machine and he goes in the shower.  One bag is often not enough though when he has a run of shifts, so I decided to get him a second one.   The card came with the bag :-)

I hope with everything going on that we continue to stay safe and well, that one day, we get to go to a Darby and Joan club together.  Right now, the sun is shining and everything is good in my little world.

Photoshoot: All That Jazz!

I really love rich purples and this bracelet reminds me of the crinkly foil of Quality Street chocolates and the rich purple foil of Dairy Milk (before it became wrapped in plastic).  It's so beautifully rich and metallic.  It glitters and sparkles from all those lovely silver lined beads.  It has enough Pizzazz to attract any Magpie to steal it away!

So it seemed fitting that it would attract a Magpie to come say "Hi!"  This little Magpie came all the way from Scotland where it was made by Samieston Ceramics.  I adore Magpies.  It's easy to think they are black and white but look closely and they have spectacular multi-coloured plumage.  They seem to have a sense of humour the way they look at the world, and just a little bit of sass.

The Magpie wanted to show off some treasure and some of it's glittery stash sits on the left.  Pearls from GJ Beads.  The Swarovski crystal come from all over as there isn't really a specialist in the UK, different shops have different bits.  For the really unusual things though, I tend to go to Dreamtime Creations.  The postage is prohibitive though from the US so I tend to wait and buy things in one go.  Swarovski changes it's range frequently, so if you see something unusual, buy it will you can...

The short strings of purple bicones are part of Swarovski's Spark range and they are really sparkly.  While some are still available, it's stock suppliers have remaining rather than the original full range now.  I have also included some bicones in Indigo, Rose and other colours.  There are a few rivoli's which are so sparkly because they have foil backs.  The largest stone is a Solaris with eight sides and bands of frosting.

On the right are the sorts of sumptuous fabrics that a human Magpie would appreciate.  On the bottom is a tunic, not quite a dress, by Joe Browns in a beautiful dark blue almost purple velvet.  Above it is a purple velvet tunic which was a bargain from Crazy Clearance I think.  The pink scarf was a Tesco buy and is white with bright pink butterflies.  The scarf on top, at the back, has more of a story.

We had been to Canada, flying back in to Bristol Airport.  We have a lovely little Airbnb we like to stay at to get over jet lag, or break our journey when we leave Cornwall.  It was a hot day as we left there and we were still a little lagged and low on supplies.  We were on the M5 when we realised we were going to have to stop and we were not near a service station so we pulled off at Wellington and headed for the centre.  We stopped at some traffic lights and there was this amazing shop, so after we parked, I of course had to go and have a look...

The shop was Chandni Chowk and was full of beautiful things.  They are a fair trade and ethical company with a range of textiles produced in India.  The scarf I brought was hand printed using traditional block printing methods.  The designs are so lovely.  Their website has details on the techniques used as well as the range of designs for sale.  They also have a whole bunch of other things too and as a bonus it was lovely and cool in there...

At the back is a nice pink glass from Tesco with Vimto in it.  Vimto is one of my favourite drinks but I don't let myself buy a bottle too often!

Photoshoot: Copper Tree!

I love copper.  It's such a great colour and add in that beautiful metallic quality.  It's such a warm and rich colour.  I often pair it with green and this time I decided to pair it with olive green because I had some beautiful Olive AB delicas.  The lustre on these picked up the copper tones beautifully.

I originally wanted to call it olive tree, because olive trees are amazing!  I love their gnarly beauty.  They are not generally known for their copper tones though, so Copper Tree it became.

One the left me have a generic glass ramekin dish with copper leaf in it that I think came from the Range.  It's beautiful stuff.  I brought one of those plain wooden decoupage boxes and painted it black before patchily adding the copper leaf over the top and then varnishing.  It came out looking lovely and I know the friend I made it for still has it.

It is however pesky stuff.  Don't breathe at it or it will all fly away.  Don't let it near damp surfaces and I really would not recommend using a fan around it.  In fact, maybe just don't move!

The two candles are olive and thyme from Yankee Candles.  The holders are cheap glass ones I think I got from Tesco.  The card is also from Tesco, because being badass is a daily goal!

My husband loves a good bargain and he found this in a charity shop locally.  It's so pretty and I have never seen anything quite like it.  It reminds me of the stone, serpentine, but it's pottery.  It has no markings and I can not say anything else about it.  Except it's lovely.

The purse is made from cork and I got it from a tourist shop somewhere around the bottom of the toboggan run in Funchal on the island of Madeira.  I like the idea of cork trees finding a new reason for being kept around so that they do not get ripped up...

The snake is Voldermort's snake from Harry Potter taken from the lego minifigure set.  He is called Nagini.  

Photoshoot: Light Combined

I had thought of basing this on the primary and secondary colours of the wheel but instead I ended up using a primary and a secondary and the tertiary that lies between them.  Roughly speaking...

One issue I have with some colours, is not that that I do not have anything in that colour but that the things I have are too big or unsuitable.  Teal for instance is a colour I love and one I needed for this photoshoot.  I have a bunch of teal in my house, concentrated in our bedroom.  Duvet set, sheets, pillows, curtain and even one of those printed fabric hangings.  That's why the item in the top right is a pillow case. 

It's a lovely set of bedding from Dunelm Mill.  Luxurious.  The underside is cotton but the top is velvety, or velour?  I am not sure of the difference.  It was actually my husband that spotted it and it was an instant love for both of us because of the colour.

On top is a piece of patchwork I made by hand, because I am not really sure about sewing machines...  yet...  My Mum liked to do machine quilting and she was part of a local group that would put on these days she would take me to.  There would be five or six groups so you could do different things.  Generally there would be something that did not require great sewing skills.  One time I learnt Kuminho and another time I learnt how to make thee little quilted blocks from a circle and a square.  Pretty sure it was Japanese.  Afterwards I made two of these mats.

My husband and I have grown in confidence the more we have travelled.  The first time we went to Canada to stay with friends we booked all our flights with one provider and travelled all the way to Heathrow for the privilege of direct flights.  Last time we went, we flew from Bristol, which is much closer and the parking is a lot cheaper.  We have found that if we are willing to do a little transfer on the continent, it may delay us a couple of hours but reduces the price considerably.  

It's been a good thing.  We like food.  Our transfers have allowed us to buy chocolates in Brussels, sausages in Germany and stroopwaffels in Amsterdam.  We had frankfurters for breakfast in Frankfurt and Kroketten in Amsterdam.  Kroketten are delicious potato filled croquettes which also had some tasty meat and cheese inside.  In Amsterdamm we also brought a set of fridge magnets, two of which are in this photo, centre back.

On the left is a glass vase that was my Nana's.  I don't know anything about it, except it has attractive swirls of colour and I really don't ever want to have to give it a good clean inside...

The dish in front of it is from Malta where they have a long history of glassmaking stretching back to the Phoenicians.  We visited the Craft Village at Ta'Qali and had a pleasant time wandering around.  I don't know the name of the glass shop we visited but we enjoyed it.  They had a seconds area and we picked up a couple of things in there too...  I am sure they will feature in a photoshoot!  This dish, I think must have come from that shop, but I am not really sure, it is a few years back.  We may have brought it in Valetta otherwise.

I added some silver foil lined beads in various colours from my bead stash for some extra sparkle and colour.  I think these all came from a friend who was reducing the size of her bead stash before moving.  She always says buying beads and making things with them are two different hobbies....

Photoshoot: Rainbow Bracelet

The rainbow bracelet was designed as a simple introduction to peyote stitch pattern and can be found free in this blog post. It was intended to show support for our keyworkers during this time of lockdown and difficulty around the world. It's easy to focus on the NHS, but they were not alone in their efforts.


My husband works at our local hospital and I have included a badge he wears on his uniform. These were distributed as part of the Rainbow Badges Initiative which aims to promote inclusion with a focus on LGBT+ community. The programme was begun by the Evelina London Children's Hospital and has been adopted by many hospitals across the country.


The set of elephants was purchased at the Japanese Garden in St Mawgan. We went a couple of years back on a really hot day and it was such a cool and peaceful treat to wander around. I adored the shop and this set of elephants was one thing we brought. It was a dull day when I took this photo and they are not catching the light as normal. They are made from recycled aluminium and then enamelled by a fair trade company called Namaste in India. They are sold individually but I wanted a herd, because elephants belong together, well, the lady elephants and young do. They live together on a shelf, traveling together.


The little glass dish was I think from Ikea and is full of skittles whose slogan is taste the rainbow. It's a cheat but we don't have many rainbow coloured things. I also love sugar way too much. Skittles did a limited edition a while back where they made white skittles in white packs for pride. I would have brought some but there was no way! I am allergic to orange and I pick out all the orange sweets and give them to other people. If I can not tell which ones are orange, that gets a little tricky!

The lack of rainbow items is why I made a rainbow out of lego. Lego is great and I really enjoy playing with it. I have a basic classic set and a bunch of minifigures. Growing up we had a whole tub of lego and my Mum kept it for any children that visit to play with. It's amazing what you can create with basic blocks and a bit of time. Olafur Eliasson created a magnificent city for the In Real Life exhibition at the Tate Modern I went to. You could then go and work on the city and change it. There was a huge queue to do this and people were not getting bored and leaving very quickly! We watched from above... It was amazing what people were doing! It would have been great to see how it actually changed over time.

 

The three little dishes were brought in the old town of Lisbon. We had been to the Castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge) and walked back down the hill through Alfama, popping in a few shops with a visit to Lisbon Cathedral and the Miradouro de Santa Luzia. We have a dish and a bowl as well and I hope to expand our set of these lovely pieces as I adore their bright colours. None of the bowls are the same size but with this style, I think they look great, all mis-matched. They are just so cheerful. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the shop. I have tried looking on street view but we were wondering a little aimlessly.


The card was brought for me by my husband and I love it very much. I think he got it from Tesco but looking online for Rainbow Sheep card, it looks like it can be brought on Amazon and from Hallmark. It's such a great image. I really like sheep, they are pretty cool, and wool is a great material to work with. They do have an image of following the crowd though but this image makes the point that you can be a glorious individual while still being part of a group. Being true to yourself is so important, but it does not mean you have to stand alone.

Such great themes from these things for the rainbow!

Photoshoot: Mysterious Mauve

This bracelet is in some of my favourite colours and I love the subtler slide of the colours, one in to the next.  It isn't finished though.  It's clasp is on it's way but it might take a while, given everything going on right now.

The candle at the top left is one I brought from a stall at the local Healing Light Festival.  They have all sorts of sellers there, including craftspeople.  This candle smells amazing and I have kept a lot of the wax that is left. Part of me doesn't want to finish burning it.  Unfortunately, I have no idea now of the stall name that made these.

Just in front of the candle is a little Lego figure of Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter stories.  I am more than a little bit of a nerd and I have a few Lego minifigures in my print case on the wall.  Luna is one of my favourites, she is just such a good character and she was wearing the right colours....

Beneath that is a bit of my mouse mat.  It has a galaxy print all over it and I love galaxy print.  We have galaxy print curtains in two of our downstairs rooms and my mouse mat pretty much matches the lounge curtains.  Our house is a terrace and we have huge windows.  There were not many curtains that were cheap and ready made and not white that were long enough.  Amazon came to the rescue though and I love my curtains and my husband came round.

The bowl is a vintage ebay buy and I really love the undulating shape of the pink glass.  In the bowl we have some vanilla marshmallows by the Happy Mallows company.  I brought a bunch to try because gourmet marshmallows are so much nicer than mass produced and I had a real craving for them during lockdown.  These marshmallows did not disappoint!

The mug was from Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in Cornwall, sadly now shut.  They did a lot of good work there.  It was a little expensive for us most of the time but we saw a lunchtime offer one April.  We had a lovely meal and it was a beautiful warm day so we also had a great walk along Watergate Bay.  I am really glad I have this little piece of memorabilia of somewhere that may be gone, but won't be forgotten.

The notebook was another amazon purchase but the pen was part off my adoption package from the Cairngorm Reindeer.  Many animal attractions and charities are struggling with costs, so if you have been thinking of adopting an animal, now is a really good time to do it.  I won't tell you the name of my reindeer, because he is mine, but he is so cute!

The scarf on the left is my favourite winter scarf.  One really wet day, we decided to have a day out in St Ives, out of season, when it's so much quieter.  I brought this scarf in Hudson Art which is one of my favourite shops.  They sell all sorts in there. They used to sell beautiful African prints by Tony Hudson.  I am not sure why they stopped.

The necklace at the back is a design by Jill Thomas of GJ Beads called Maryke and I used bright pink miracle beads to give it a real pop of eye catching colour.  I made it nice and long so I could tie a knot in it.

Photoshoot: Monochrome Magic

I really love this bracelet.  It has such a classy feel.  The white zig zag that dominates is really striking.  So I wanted a classy sort of photoshoot too!

On the right is a lovely black shawl a friend knitted for me.  The wool is a black sparkly chenille and its so warm.  This particular friend was my favourite person to bead and chat with a mug of peppermint tea.  She moved just before lockdown however and I won't get to that much any more.  She will be opening an amazing shop in Dulverton soon called No. 17, The High Street.  Obviously with the current situation, she cannot open yet, but I have seen the photos and I know she is going to have a ball!

On top is an infinity scarf I brought in Canada from a really lovely shop some friends took us to, somewhere between Ottawa and Montreal.  It also sold really beautiful bedspreads.  It's a really lovely light scarf and one of my favourites.

Below the shawl and scarf is a beaded lariat to a deign by Heather Kingsley-Heath called That Lariat.  I love it so much I have made three!  I really like lariats and this one is so classy.  I choose to edge them in little Swarovski crystals which really gives so much shine but not in a really obvious way.  This is a necklace that twinkles as it moves.

The glass is a really old Ikea purchase from when I first left home.  It's a lovely flute with frosted stars on it.  It's not alcohol in my glass though, but Kombucha.  I love Kombucha.  I first tried it a few years ago in Canada and since then it has been becoming much more common in the UK.  This one is a Raspberry and Elderflower by Equinox.  My favourite is the Pink Grapefruit and Guava but it's always the first to go when I get a selection box.

The hands are an incense holder and were an ebay purchase.  I like the feel of peace and mediation they have.  They are I believe buddhist in design  and the item description includes the word Guanyin.  According to Wikipedia, Guanyin is the most common translation of the bodhisativa associated with compassion and mercy.

The little horse is by an etsy seller called Demiurgus Dreams who sells the loveliest creatures.  Some like the horse are painted but there are also plain white animals too which you could paint if you wanted.  I have a set of tiny white foxes which I won't paint and they look lovely in my print case.

The last item you can just see on the right is a candelabra that holds three candles.  This was a more recent Ikea purchase and has the look of pipework.  I have two of these, either side of my fireplace.  You can see it better in the second picture.

The second picture has a couple of different items in it.  The picture is a print I brought for my husband and it's silver ink on black paper.  It was part of a series produced by an etsy seller called Print to the People as part of a 10th anniversary series.  This one is by an artist called Bev Coraldean.  My Dad was a printer and there is something about prints that I love.

In front is a snow globe with a spaceman inside!  This was from Tesco and I love it.

Photoshoot: That Blue Bracelet

I have started doing little mini photoshoots for the things I make, partly to inspire people to play with patterns and enjoy them, but also because it gives me an opportunity to enjoy some of the things we own and promote and appreciate others work and efforts.

Top left is a picture by calligrapher Suzi Smith who runs the etsy paper shop, Tornedgepaper.  I am lucky enough to call Suzi a friend and she is very talented.  at some point I am hoping she gets her moon photography shop up and running again as I regret I didn't get around to purchasing a set of her moon prints on aluminium...  She actually wrote a blog post about this canvas when she created it and I can't believe I have had it so long!

In front of the canvas there are three small items.  On the left you can just see a typical evil eye, often seen in Mediterranean areas.  This one did not come from the Mediterranean though but the island of Madeira.  It was actually attached to an owl originally but they have parted ways and the evil eye sits in our kitchen window.  They are traditionally used for protection and were often painted on the prows of boats.

Next to it is a small raku bottle with bison on it from the Crafty Bead.  The choice in their etsy shop is staggering...  I know bison don't typically fit with the ocean theme but the colour does and I sometimes think that grasslands are a little bit like oceans and bison are just really cool!

Lastly is a tiny little jade turtle given to me by a good friend that lives in Cleveland, Ohio.  The colour was perfect for it to be included and turtles are such an iconic ocean going species that I really relate to.  I have a number of wooden cases that were originally used to store printing type and they are great for displaying small things.  The turtle lives in one of the little cubbies.

In the right corner is a mug made by the potter Marius Roux which was brought as a wedding present.  We have been married some time now but Marius still has his pottery at Mullion.  We have several mugs and plates and I love the natural variations in colour you get from the firing process.  I would have to include closeups for you to see!

Next to the mug is a big chunk of Blue Obsidian.  This is a man made stone although it is possible to get natural blue obsidian.  I cannot remember where I purchased it as I have had it a long time.  I love the way it catches the light with it's irregular surfaces.  It is very watery, for a stone!  Obsidian is volcanic glass, which explains why this looks like a rough piece of blue glass.

I added a few chunky blue glass beads and some glass that looks like sea glass but isn't actually.  I think it was tumbled to create that effect.  I think the sea glass may have come from GJ Beads some time ago.  The blue glass beads were a gift from a friend with a large bead collection who was destashing.