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