Cambio

At the weekend we went down to Guildford to celebrate two birthdays. We went to see the Gerhard Richter exhibition at Tate Modern and then had a very fabulous dinner at Cambio - delicious delicious fish followed by the ooziest chocolate fondant ever!

green skin glaze

We had a super couple of days in Stow-on-the-Wold and then I was straight back to ceramics. I picked up this pebble, which was an experiment with two glazes - I love the wrinkly nature of the dry green - its almost like a separate skin on the outside on the shiny white one underneath. More experimenting to get underway!

Cakes for pudsey

Tomorrow is Children in Need and rather than sitting in a bath of beans I have make come Pudsey inspired cupcakes for the DH bake sale & competition!

Tonight at ceramics....

One of my fellow students, Pete, had brought Ken (above) as a model and decided he could become a resident in the studio, but first we decided to protect his modesty!!  Tonight I had a lovely surprise as my first birch bark imprint test had made it out of the glaze firing - its just got black iron oxide and one half unglazed, the other half with transparent glaze. I'm pretty pleased - next I need to decide what to make with the pattern on the outside!

Handmade Christmas Decoration Exchange

Look what has just arrived in the post - these beautiful little parcels are from Amy at ElevenAM. We are taking part in Emma's Handmade Christmas Decoration Exchange from Craft Tonic. And when I unwrapped them they had these gorgeous heart-Christmas tree decorations in them - they'll be up on my tree as soon as it gets here!

World Cycle Challenge & Mark Beaumont

Its not often you get to see a picture of me - but here I am with Mark Beaumont. N & I are just back from Mark's talk about his new venture - getting lots of people to cycle around the world with World Cycle Challenge. I am so tempted to 'do a Dervla' but I really don't think my new boss will let me have 9months off! But it looks amazing - may be N & I could do a leg or two......Whilst there I met Mike, who's doing the Global Bike Race - 20 men & women plan to race around the world starting next February!! Looks like the two trips will have quite different routes.

All set up with @undomsci Helen

Kings Norton Craft Fair

I was putting some of the last touches together for the Kings Norton Craft Fair at St Nicolas Place last night. Its on from10-2 this Saturday - tomorrow- and if you need some directions this is the post code : B38 8RU.

Blue pots

The kiln was opened again this morning - in readiness for the Kings Norton craft fair this Saturday I had been expanding my stocks. However I also had a couple of new things in there too - and here they are - some small (about 10cm high) blue pots. They're porcelain but are coloured with the fabulous intensity of cobalt carbonate and have a black 'kohl' line at the top there - that was me playing with the underglaze pencil again and I really like it. They're glazed inside, so are definitely waterproof - the high fired porcelain is normally waterproof but this is added security. And they're really smooth on the outside - I wax lyrical! I love them!!

I had completely forgotten about this! In Brussels airport I found Nutella weekly packs, with a mini jar for everyday of a week. However I did resist buying any.

Fireworks @ Kings Heath Cricket Club

Lost in Lace & City Choir's 90th Birthday Concert

After another busy Saturday morning we decided that on the way to City Choir's 90th birthday concert that we'd pop into the new BMAG exhibition - Lost in Lace. Based around the ideas of the holes, spaces, boundaries and structures of lace we saw an abundance of fascinating and beautiful pieces - mostly in white or black, traditional colours of lace. It really got me thinking about other holes and spaces - like those between molecules.....evidently been thinking too much about those naughty neutrinos that travel faster than light.

After all that it was decidedly dinner time so we went for a potter in Brindley place - Carluccio's was full but this gave us the opportunity to try out Piccolino's. We had a hard time choosing as everything on the menu sounded so yummy! The fresh fish menu really caught our attention though and we have scallops and dover sole - simple but excellent.

At the Symphony Hall we settled into our seats and enjoyed Dvorjak's Te Deum and Janacek's Taras Bulba and Glagolytic mass. All was fabulous, particularly the mighty sound of the organ - and as it was their birthday there was even cake afterwards in the bar!

Moo

My new Moo mini cards arrived yesterday - so that was a super nice surprise when I got back from Italy - and they're just in time for St Nic's craft fair next week!

Piacenza

Tonight I find myself in Piacenza, which was planned just not a lot in advance! Having had a tasty dinner in the hotel restaurant (lamb chops followed by plenty of biscotti) I went for a stroll through the darkened streets. There was hardly a soul about and as I clipped along I could hear strains of music coming from what looked like a sports hall glimpsed through high 16th centuary windows. Further along I found the centro storico with its magnificent cobbles the size of paving slabs and towering covered market. I love the ancient hearts if Italian towns and tonight was no different - I was particularly taken with the bookend men astride horses on either side of the central piazza, darkly resplendent in capes of night.

Christmas craft fair!

Just gearing up for the village craft fair! Come along and say hello!

Kiln opening

Along with the crazy plumbing I also had the kiln on yesterday. There were a few molecules in it, a petri dish exploring underglaze pencils, node number 7 from the Earth Network - this one is from Sarah in Leith and has a plectrum impressed into it, some beautiful shaped objects inspired by several autumnal walks and the first of the snowball ware inspired wreaths and one made from butterflies too. And beacuase it was Halloween a wee bat seems to have sneaked in too!