Fish, Dragons and Flourishes - The William De Morgan Museum

I have long been a fan of William De Morgan, who apart from being the man with the largest forehead I have ever seen - made some of the most beautifully decorated pots and tiles.
He is considered one of the most important ceramic artists of the Arts & Crafts movement, which is my favourite style.

After seeing some of his work in the V&A a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that there is a dedicated museum in Wandsworth!

It turned out to be one of those hidden gems you get in London - quiet, nice coffee shop, and beautiful art. There was hardly a soul there even on a busy Saturday (everyone must have been out shopping...).

His work is breathtakingly beautiful, and although there is just one large room, I spent a long time there taking in all the details. I think I particularly like the creatures he draws, as well as the pure decorative indulgence. His wife was an artist, and her work is there as well.

Enough words, here are some pictures:

Photography is not allowed, but the nice lady at the desk let me take this picture of the space

This isn't actually in the museum, but I love this pot, image taken from a book

Also from a book - some of these tiles were on display

I always see books I want - Secret London and Quiet London are now on my wish list...

Tea & Cake London also sounds like a must have to me!

Links:
The De Morgan Foundation
De Morgan image search
More info...

Lovebirds - Finished Necklace, also some Whale Earrings

So I have sorted out the 'kinks' in the lovebirds necklace, and now it's in my shop. It was a matter of balance :-)

I have never made an asymmetrical necklace before - I'm usually a fan of symmetry (which is probably why I keep making earrings). But - because of the odd shape of the shard - it made more sense to balance it out visually with various elements.

I tried it on, and it does not twist, and even though it's not small - after a little while you just forget it's there - so it's comfortable as well, and I'm pleased about that!

I also made these today - some more whale earrings in oxidised copper and pottery shard...

Willow Birds Necklace - Work in Progress

This is what I have been working on today - a necklace made out of a pottery shard that has the two love birds from the Willow pattern.

It's the only one I have ever found, so it's special, and I wanted to give the birds a place of honour.

Sterling silver, freshwater pearls, pottery shards from the Willow pattern

Earrings I Made Last Week - Brown Stripes

I love the colours in these earrings - shades of white, black, orangey brown, reddish brown and pink. Decorated with beaded hoops, oxidised sterling silver with hand made ear wires. Completely one of a kind :-)

Brown striped pottery shards, sterling silver

Ashmolean Museum Oxford

My computer died on Friday - it's now fixed but working with a limited capacity... So blogging is a bit tricky but I'll do my best.

Inspired by the ceramics section at the V&A,  I went in search of more British pottery at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on Saturday (any excuse to go to Oxford again!).

Unfortunately that part of the Museum was closed off for 'installation' - very disappointing! But it's still a great place to visit, so we looked at other stuff instead.

If you would like to see all the photos I took - have a look at the Flickr set - but there was very little light so they aren't great...
Here are some of my faves:

Ivory carved Japanese Rain Dragon

Toad or frog Tsuba - Japanese Sword Mounting

Chicken

Gold Acorns

Roman Gold-Glass. I love this technique of gold leaf fused between sheets of glass

You can see how this was made in this video I found on YouTube:

What could she be saying?

This pot was covered in owls

Great Unicorn!

Unicorn and Large Rabbit having friendly conversation

It's hard to tell but these look liked winged horses

My Garden - Autumn 2011

The garden wasn't a success this year - July was too hot, it rained the whole of August, and by September I had given up...
But it's such a beautiful morning today that I had to go down and see how things were looking... Here is what I found:

My garden in Autumn 2011 - click for a larger image

I wish I had a macro lens, but I did my best to zoom in on the details.

1.Artichoke in flower 2. A lone tomato 3. Pods
4. A rosehip 5. Grapes 6.'mind your own business'
7. Purple flower 8. Pepper 9. Beauty Berries

Earrings with Crackle Shards

I'm always happy when I find shards that have a crackle finish, I just love them!
Here I have used quite large pieces with hoop links - beaded and plain.

Crackle pottery shard earrings with hoop links - sterling silver

Why Didn't I Think of This Before? Identifying pottery at the V&A

Today I visited the ceramics department at the V&A for the very first time. I have no idea why I waited this long - probably because I never found the 6th floor... I usually head straight towards the jewellery, ironwork and medieval galleries.

Amazing, is all I can say. I was especially happy with the British pottery, and managed to date quite a few of my pottery shards, and see which kinds of pots they came from.

For an example - see the brown textured pottery shard on this brooch that I made:

Now look at this:

So my brooch has a shard from 1770-1780 - and it once could have been a coffee pot! That kind of thing amazes me! And that was just one of the many pieces I managed to identify and date.

You can have a look at the entire collection of photos I took at the V&A today in my Flickr set

And, I just discovered that you can search the entire V&A collection online!!!

Exhausted now...

Little Book of Owls

I had completely forgotten about this book - which reappeared while I was trying to organise my jewellery books. It's a small book about owls - with a poem or quote on each page, and an accompanying picture. Cute!

Images are always good for owly inspiration, so here are my faves! Click on them for larger versions.

Awwwww!

Experiments and Mistakes = Earrings

A couple of weeks ago I bought some silver 'pearl' wire (beaded wire) with intentions to experiment.

I was not entirely happy with my first attempt (I was being a bit precious with the wire - it's really expensive here) - although I liked the colour combination, the earring looked rather small and unfinished, and I chipped the pottery shard when I was setting it... so I put it aside:

Yesterday, I was making some copper flower earrings, with a pottery shard in the centre. Oxidised black - I quite like them. Simple but cute.

Then I suddenly thought - what would happen if I combined the flowers with those unfinished bits from last week?

And that's how these earrings came to be:

Silver, pottery shard and coral earrings, oxidised black

And this is what they look like on:

Quite a lot of work, but I'm happy with the result!

Black and White Spongeware Earrings

As I'm working with pottery shards in my jewellery, I think it's my duty to learn a little bit about  them. I get quite excited when I can identify an approximate date or type of decoration used.

The earrings I made today are from spongeware shards - pottery that was decorated by dipping a piece of natural sponge into colour, and dabbing it onto the pot. Some patterns were loose and irregular, but more specific patterns could be made by tying the sponge with a pieces of string to form shapes.

Originating in Scotland, spongeware was cheaper to produce than hand painted pieces, and sometimes children were given the job of decorating the pots.

Here are my shards from the Thames, the earrings I made this morning, and some samples of the kind of pots they might have come from.

Art Discovery of the Week - Leonora Carrington

Yesterday I came across the work of Leonora Carrington for the first time. She was a surrealist, the muse of Max Ernst, a painter and author.

She painted lots of creatures, which I'm sure were inspiration to the creators of the Studio Ghibli animated films.

Here are three of my faves - there is also a nice article about her in another blog here:

The Book Cover - Leonora Carrington

Very 'Ghiblish' creatures

Click for a larger image

click for a larger image

A Panda in a Courgette

When I was making lunch today, I sliced in to a courgette (zucchini) only to discover a panda inside!

Quite cute, I think!

Art Deco Bee Pendant No.2

This is definitely my last post of the day!
The last task on my to-do list today was to finish off this pendant for my friend. I originally made it for a school project last year, and she asked me to make one for her - but just the pendant without the chain. It is cast in sterling silver, and I oxidised the background.

So here it is - a simplified version of my bees: (not much light, picture not great)

Here is the original one I made last year: 

What I Made Today - Studs & Cake Toppers...

I haven't had time to make anything new for a while, but since both pairs of blue and white studs have sold, I decided to replace them. Here are the new ones:

They are both the same size, not quite sure why I photographed them differently. Maybe because there is hardly any light left now... Days are drawing in, and the heatwave is gone at last! Now we can have some proper Autumn, or so they say...

Also I promised someone some Lego cake toppers, even though I'm not really in to Lego any more...

How To Peel Garlic in 10 Seconds... It Works!

My discovery of the day:

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/how-to-peel-garlic-in-10-seconds.html

I tried it immediately, and it works perfectly!

Yay! Had to share, in case you missed it on Yahoo!