Friday 22 October 2010

Sugar Bowls

A while ago I blogged about adding food to my photos to help illustrate how my functional pots might be used in and around the home. During one of these shoots I used olives in my ‘small white bowls’ to give some colour and interest. I decided to try this again, this time using fruit and sugar. The above photo shows some of the new images I’ve taken which I’ve put together as a composite.

Using sugar in these photos gave me the idea of changing the description of my bowls from ‘small white bowls’ to ‘sugar bowls’. Originally I didn’t like the idea of being so specific in case people thought these bowls were limited to a particular use. But lately I’ve been wondering if it’s more useful (on-line at least) to be less vague: describing something as ‘small’ is a relative term and anyway I also make smaller bowls than these which I call ‘mini’ bowls! So I’ve started listing them as ‘sugar bowls’ in my Folksy shop hoping this means people will have more of an idea of the size of these bowls at a glance. Of course in the description details I also make the point they can be used for any number of things around the kitchen, like dips and olives etc. And at shows and in the real world - where they can be seen and touched - they almost don’t need explaining!

Here’s another photo of the same sized bowl in a different glaze. This is the wood ash glaze made from real wood ash. I’ve also called these ‘sugar bowls’ too in my listings just to be consistent. Here I’ve used limes and plums to illustrate size. These ‘sugar bowls’ measure 10cm by 4cm by the way – and are so useful! Click on the images above and below to link with the listings in my shop.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Happy Birthday Blog!

I realised about twenty minutes ago that it’s been a whole year to the day that I began writing this blog! One whole year! I can’t believe it: the time has gone by so quickly. And although lots of pots have been made during the past year, regrettably only a few paintings have been painted... Hopefully though this new blogging year will redress the balance a bit.

Anyway, I felt I couldn’t really let the day go past without marking it in some way. So I’ve decided to wish my blog a Happy First Birthday by posting this photo. I took the photo ages ago of some letterpress typesetting letters I bought off eBay. They’re from a complete set of Gill Sans font size 14 and arrived in the post (with a very heavy thud on the front doormat) tightly packed in their own dinky little box. They looked so nice altogether I just had to take some photos.


I bought them for a multitude of reasons really. I don’t own a press unfortunately but the letters individually are useful for pressing into clay to make little messages in both words and numbers. And of course they come in handy for making hand-printed messages onto greetings cards or wrapping paper using ink and a steady hand. Anyway the photo seemed to suit the occasion – and I’d been meaning to blog about them for ages; just hadn’t got around to it!

Also, I thought this would be a good time to officially say thanks to everyone who follows my blog and for taking the time to read it! When I started it I never thought anyone would: so it’s been really nice to get all the lovely responses, tips and comments from people.

Anyway, that’s enough waffling: I have to load this now before midnight!