Welcome January visitors, I hope your New Year has got off to a good start? We are still coming down to earth after a very eventful December which saw the marriage of our eldest son to his beautiful bride, we are still waiting to see the official photographs.
It has been very cold and bright here but now the skies have turned grey and gloomy. I have been making an effort to cheer up winter by walking, working, reading and knitting. How about you?
I got a brand new box of paints for my birthday last year and have only just got around to trying them out. I have to say that I am most impressed with the feel and intensity of these watercolours.
One of my indulgences is to visit our local charity shops on the look out for ceramics. Many people around these parts have worked in what we call "The Pot Bank" that is Stoke-on-Trent. When the kilns were in operation people wanted to escape the smoke and pollution and so moved to our town, just the other side of the border. Not surprisingly our charity shops often throw up some real gems. The mid century hand decorated bowl is a recent acquisition, made by Poole Pottery and designed by Alfred Read, as far as I can tell, although I stand to be corrected. It is called PKT and on the base there is a mark Poole 186 followed by an X (I think that might be the decorators mark) and the letters PKT, above that there is another X. It has such a pleasing shape and I know I will enjoy filling it with flowers from my garden in the months to come. Meanwhile I am making do with some shop bought blooms; daffodils always look so bright and cheerful, now I need some hyacinths for their fragrance.
The book "Long Live Great Bardfield" (pictured above), is one I bought from a lovely bookshop in London called Persephone Books. I love their distinctive grey covers and their brightly patterned endpapers and book marks. This one is about the life of Tirzah Garwood who became the wife of Eric Ravilious. Tirzah was a very accomplish artist and wood engraver who also decorated papers with the most amazing marbled patterns. She deserves to be better known as an artist in her own right, her memoirs are both fascinating and amusing.
The old Rowan knitting magazine was another charity shop find, it includes some timeless classics and so I have been knitting myself a cardigan. Maybe in another year or so I may finish as my knitting skills are very basic and leave much room for improvement!
When the weather has allowed we have been walking, following footpaths along canals and old railway lines. It is on walks like these I really miss my little dog Ted, he always enjoyed walking with us, finding sticks and chasing ducks to no avail.
I have been making more blank notebooks using some of my patterns as simple covers. This star pattern was one I produced to decorate the end pages of "Can it be True?". When I was working on this book I was inspired by mid century modern designs, perhaps that is what attracted me to the little Poole bowl and the Tirzah book? I hope the coming year will provide lots of interesting content, we will see. In the meantime thanks once again for visiting and leaving your comments and words of encouragement, I truly appreciate it.
PS, since writing this post I have been reliably informed that my Poole bowl was decorated by Gwen Haskins who worked at the pottery for many years.
