After the show: Quarr Abbey

(Festive berries in the abbey grounds)

It’s been a few days now since the end of our 6-day show at Quarr Abbey. We were very busy for the whole week and had an excellent time. We counted just under 700 visitors in total through the door which we’re pretty chuffed about! And all of us who exhibited had a very successful week. This was also the first time I’ve been able to show my paintings alongside my pots instead of just one or the other – so it was really good to hear what people thought. And luckily the responses to both were very positive! So all in all it was a successful event.

In fact we were so busy most days that we didn’t get much time to enjoy the abbey grounds for ourselves! The abbey is a lovely place to visit. As well as the new gallery/exhibition space (which has a changing show every week) there’s a tea room, gardens, a bookshop and also some country walks on the land owned by the monks which include the ruins of the old monastery. I did manage to get away from the gallery to take a few pictures though and above is a composite of some of them. The top row shows an exterior and interior of the main church while the image below is an interior shot of the Pilgrims Chapel (which was lovely and peaceful inside). And finally of course I had to include a picture of the gorgeous piggies that live on the abbey grounds!

The composite image above shows an exterior of the building which houses both the bookshop (on the right of the arch) and the new gallery/exhibition space (on the left) which was where our show was held. The image on the top right is a view of my ‘stand’ including pots and paintings (you might recognise the pear picture!) The image directly below this is taken looking back into the room towards the main entrance across some of the other stands in our show. The little red Christmas star decoration is mine by the way: these were one of my best sellers and I have only a couple of these left now!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures. Here are some links to the abbey website and also to my fellow exhibitors. Thanks guys for a lovely week and to everyone who came to see us!

Quarr Abbey

Gill Chapman

Henny Penny Designs

Lis Toft

Sue Wright Handknits

Forthcoming Show: Christmas Crafts at Quarr

It's a bit busy round here! I had a great day at Handm@de Winchester last Saturday: we had 2000 visitors and lots of lovely stalls and craft makers. But no sooner am I back home than I'm re-packing everything for my next show which starts this week.

A group of five craft makers (including me) are exhibiting in the new gallery/exhibition space at Quarr Abbey near Ryde on the Isle of Wight. We've called the event Christmas Crafts at Quarr and it starts on Thursday 18th of November and runs until Tuesday 23rd of November. We'll be open every day from 10.30am until 4.30pm - so it's going to be a busy week! I'll be exhibiting both my ceramics and my paintings at this show because the new gallery has plenty of hanging space along the walls. I'm looking forward to showing my paintings for a change since normally at table top shows I don't get the chance. I think I've got a lot of work to do setting up though as I've got to hang all the paintings first and then arrange a display of ceramics!

Anyway, if you have a chance to come to the island and visit then do pop in to see us. There will be a selection of different crafts including ceramics, textiles and paintings. Click on the image above for more details. In the meantime I'm also waiting on a delivery of Folksy Samplers which I'm hoping will arrive either today or tomorrow! We're keen to hand them out at our show this week and also another show I have later on in December. I already received my Folksy post bag in the post a couple of days ago: just need the newspapers!

That's all today: got to get back to packing and stock lists.

Forthcoming Shows: Handm@de Winchester

I will be exhibiting at Handm@de Winchester this Saturday (13th November) and have almost finished making preparations! I'll be trying out a new display and some new work too which includes some lovely Christmas Decorations for this season. So if you're in the area do pop in! They'll be lots of lovely handmade crafts on offer as you can see from the images above (the little white and pink ceramic hearts on the multi-pic are mine by the way!) The show will be held in Winchester Guildhall and opens at 11am until 5pm. Click on the pics to link with the Handm@de blog.

Osmosis Launches New Range

Today I thought I’d blog about the new range of Mug and Mug Cosy sets launched by Osmosis this week. You may (or may not) already know that Osmosis is a joint venture between me (potter…) and my sister Sue who is a textile designer. We have a shop on Folksy called Osmosis where we list unique homeware designs using both disciplines – and this week we’ve been adding a new range of mugs and mug cosy sets.

Our new range is designed to be even more exclusive than the last because everything about them is handmade. My new mugs are hand-thrown as usual but this time I wanted to use my white gloss glaze inside and out to create a very simple but versatile design. The aim was to allow Sue to choose any colour she wanted for making the mug cosies (since all colours go with white) rather than have to complement the colour scheme with the glazing. It also means the mugs are very striking and show off the new colours beautifully.

Sue has used pure natural wools in her mug cosies so they feel even softer. Each one is hand knitted in moss stitch and features Sue’s own design label. Finally, we decided we wanted to make this range even more ‘handmade’ so each mug cosy also features one of my handmade stoneware buttons in matching simple glazes.

We’re really pleased with the results and hope people like them as much as we do! We’ve already added three of the colours onto our Osmosis shop on Folksy and will be adding more soon: so please do have a look if you get the chance! In the meantime though, here's a final composite shot of our mug sets being made showing the mugs coming out of the kiln (in black and white) and some colour matching ideas using wool and buttons during one of our creative 'brain storming' sessions!