Giveaway Winners and Christmas Angels

So, it's the last day of November (can't believe it's come round so quickly!) and as promised, here are the Snowflake Giveaway winners' names drawn out of the new hat (not yet worn!).


Thankyou to all who entered and to all those who are new followers - it was a lovely way to make new friends. The winners are a nice mix of old and new bloggy friends. If you could all drop me a line with your postal address, I'll get your snowflakes and other bits and bobs sent off as soon as possible. Email: cathy.daniel@virgin.net.
Hope you like!



So, now that excitement is over, what other Christmassy things have been happening round here? Well, I've been making lots of angels and lots and lots of little angelic slippers with hearts on them, as you can see here.


These angels seem to sell well each Christmas. They are all unique, handmade and individually glazed and look great all sitting in a row on the mantlepiece.



Personally I think they are a bit, well, quirky - but maybe that's their appeal.

They each have their own, slightly odd, facial expression - a mixture of surprise and total bewilderment - which is pretty much how I look in the run up to Christmas!

Bye for Now

x Cathy x

Christmas Giveaway - Come and Get It !

Now,
as promised,
here is the giveaway!

THREE ceramic snowflakes to be won (one each!) by just leaving me a comment here. No hoops to jump through - just be a follower of my humble blog!

Obviously, if you want to spread the word and it fits in with a post you're doing, that'd be great, but no worries either way.

Winner will be picked out of my new winter hat in three weeks' time on last day of November, in good time for posting to you for Christmas.

For more details and pictures of these, see previous post below.

Good Luck one and all!

Bye for now

Cathy

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Well, OK, maybe not just yet! But I have been up to my elbows in Snowflakes just lately. There they are above ready to be fired and here they are below after their second firing.

As you can see, no two snowflakes are the same, just like real ones. I did wonder if that were really true though, so I did some research on your behalf (that's ok, it was no trouble) and the answer I liked the best is :

How can you ever be sure no two snowflakes are alike since you cannot possibly check them all to find out!


They've yet to get their little hanging wires attached, but above are this year's and below are last year's. This year I came over all sensible and just stuck to three colours - red, green and gold - which is more traditionally Christmassy, whereas last year I just went a bit mad with them.


The actual scientific answer is of course that some small 'snow crystals' (kind of embryos of your fully grown snowflake) can look the same, but no two 'complex snowflakes', out of all those made over the entire history of the planet have ever looked completely alike. I find that fact staggering!


Anyway, my own 'complex snowflakes' are now featured in the Christmas Catalogue for Norwich's famous independent Department Store, Jarrolds, along with my angels and other decorative bits and pieces.



They are selling at £7.00 each, which is a whole pound less than last Christmas, so they are an absolute giveaway!

And a Giveaway is precisely what they will be, here in Blogsville, in a few weeks' time, when I get back from a little jaunt I'm now off on!

p.s. Sorry for mentioning Christmas in October, let alone SNOW!
Perish the thought - literally!

Bye for now

Cathy x

Textiles and Ceramics

If you're a regular viewer, you'll know that a lot of my pottery is influenced by all kinds of textiles and needlework, particularly patchwork quilting, but this particular piece is based on the gentle art of applique.

I cut out individual patches from the clay slab, applied motifs to each one and impressed some stitching around the edges. Then into the kiln they all went.

And out of the kiln they all came. Here they are put together roughly on a black background, but eventually they will be mounted properly onto white board ready to be hung on a wall.

And speaking of wall-hangings, I was absolutely thrilled last week to win this wonderful creation from Sue's blog, @Home. My second win in as many weeks! How lucky is that? What a wonderful world blogdom is!


This is one of Sue's lovely textile paintings, quilted with machine embroidery. This kind of cleverness always makes me wish I could sew! This came in the post along with the little home-made card below which (from what I can tell !) is also a textile painting, sewn onto card and highlighted with gold. It is quite exquisite. Thank you Sue!

Quite what I have done to deserve all these treasures recently, I do not know! But it does remind me that I shall have to get a Giveaway of my own sorted out fairly soon, so watch this space.

Bye for now.

Cathy x

Suffering in the name of Art

You need to know how I suffer for my craft! So prepare to be whinged at ...

Once these letters were out of the kiln, it was like some kind of demented scrabble game ... it took me ages to sort the jumbled up heap into the words I had intended, as I couldn't remember what I had intended when I first made them!

I got there in the end, but my brain ached.


Then I had to fit the letters to individual pieces of driftwood, which had to be cleaned up and dried thoroughly. During the drying process (on my aga) driftwood smells! And not in a good way!


Then each piece had to be sanded down to get rid of any rough bits that the sea had not already dealt with. I choked on a lot of fine sawdusty stuff, before remembering to wear one of those thingys you put over your mouth and nose!


And on top of that I ended up with several jagged fingernails, a few splinters, and several grazes on my hands.

But, in the end, I managed to make some nice sea-sidey signs like those above, and some more general ones like these two below.


And for those spending Christmas in their place by the sea

Jingle All The Way !

But, Oh How I Suffered!

Would I do it all again?
You betya!
(It was great fun, really!)

Cathy x

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.


I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the seagulls crying.

I must to down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

(John Masefield)

You can keep your Season of Mists and Mellow la-di-da ......

I'm still in sea-side mood !!

Do I have any 'laughing fellow-rovers' out there??

Don't you agree that the sea is for all seasons,
not just Summer?

Cathy x

How to make a Pinwheel

Well, you CAN make a pinwheel easily from a square of paper, with a few snips and folds and a pin in the middle, voila!

Or you can do it with clay, like this. The Pinwheel pattern is my favourite Quilt Block and I make more of these than any other design. The one above is glazed and waiting to be fired.


And this is the finished product. It's such a clear, simple pattern, but effective.


I'm pleased with the red dotty border because I like the way the soft, irregularity of the outer edges ....


contrasts with the straight inner border made up of a double row of winding leaves,


and also with the rigidity of the central pattern.


Sorry - I've gone all 'arty' on you, but all in all, this one is a definite success in terms of colour, form, pattern, the lot.

I shall make more!

Bye for now

Cathy X

Beachcombing on Lindisfarne

We escaped for a long weekend in Northumberland, just Mr Potterjotter and me, and whilst we were there we did a bit of beachcombing. But this wasn't what we were looking for!

Nor this! I've already got several spare tyres!

Anyone need a beaten up old traffic cone?
You never know when that might come in handy!

Did anyone lose a baseball cap? No?
Maybe a washing-up glove then?

Am sure by now you're getting my drift (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Searching along the tide-line was a real wake-up call! What is all this stuff doing in the sea?? And this seems to be typical of so many of our beaches these days. I don't remember it being this bad when I was a kid, but maybe I just didn't notice it then.


Anyway, sorry if I've depressed you, but on a brighter note ..... we did find what we were looking for and this is how I got my treasure off the beach and into the car-boot.


No, that's not Father Christmas come early, nor is it the Lindisfarne Dustbin Man.
It's Mr PJ carrying a sack full of wonderful DRIFTWOOD. And here is just some of it drying out on our patio before it gets a final drying on the Aga.

This one below is my favourite piece cos it's all curlywurly!

And this is what I've done so far with two of the pieces I brought back.


They will be going to my galleries on the coast soon, where similar ones have sold out over this summer.


and obviously, they're available from me via my website too.

I just wish I could say 'made from Norfolk driftwood' on them, but for some reason there just isn't much driftwood on the beaches round here.
Nevermind - just have to keep having long weekends away to collect more!

Bye for now,

Cathy x

Having a Ball

A while ago I was approached to donate a piece of art work in order to help INTO-Giving, based at the University of East Anglia, to raise funds for the building of an Orphans and Vulnerable Childrens Centre in Lusaka, Zambia.

Many artists from all over this region and beyond have agreed to donate their work as part of a grand auction to raise money. You can see more on this website: www.artballnorwich.co.uk


At a very swish Ball being held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich on 9th September 200 guests will enjoy a Champagne reception, four course dinner, auction, raffle and dancing.

All the donated art can be seen now in the online catalogue on INTO-Giving's website, (above), and will also be on display at the Forum in Norwich from 1st to 3rd September. Bids can be taken at anytime before 9th September via the website.

They say that seven is a lucky number and below is a picture of Lot Number 7 in the auction - so I hope it IS lucky and that someone bids a ridiculous amount of money for it, for a good cause!

I have called it 'Patchwork and Paisley'.

Little and Large

So, I'm in a desperate hurry as usual and the above picture is TERRIBLE, I know. The bunting came out beautifully, but you cannot really see it in that picture!!

These close-ups are better. Obviously I have yet to string it all together with some pretty ribbon, which I have still to get.

But it all fitted into the kiln really well around the larger pieces like this one below.

Its a Quilt Block design which I make quite a lot of, called 'Whirling Pinwheel', only this time I have tried to limit the number of colours I use - but there still seem to be a lot in there when I now look at it!

I have just taken on a new gallery in Norwich called The Grapevine - some of you may know it. They now have several of my larger pieces on display, so I expect I shall have to crack on and make a lot more of these now.

Good job I love what I do and that it all has a home to go to in the end!

Bye for now - Cathy.