History of why Easter is called Easter, inspiring me to create the Spring festival plaque for the clay workshop at Fired 4 U Back in pagan Anglo-Saxon times, mid-7th century, they held a Spring time festival in honour of Eostre, or in Northumbrian Eastro, worshipping...
Year of the Wood Dragon and our Smoking clay wood Dragon clay hand building workshop In the Chinese culture the spring festival following the lunar (moon) New Year celebrates renewal in this culture. Using animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, on the 10th February 2024...
In the 3rd week of the Great Pottery throw down TV programme, the potter’s wheel challenge was to throw a retro hot water bottle. This brought instant memories back of the one my Dad’s Mum used when I was little and I still have it! Then I was fascinated in how they...
As a nation we’ve been drinking tea for hundreds of years, originally from soaking leaves from around us in hot water to get the flavour in a pot over an open fire, to putting it in a pot to hold in our hands to warm, to eventually putting it in a teapot. Using a tea...
Personalised hand painted wedding horseshoes being good luck charms for the Bride and Groom are a top favourite gift amongst my customers, I love creating these as they are always so different and the personalised messages on the back are always so heart-warming. I’ve...
It is thought that the tradition of First Footing was a left over from the Vikings during their invasions of our island. They had a really strong influence over Shetland and they call New Year, Yules, from the Scandinavian word. Hence why this tradition is more...
I’ve always been creative, my whole family is from Grandparents downwards, Grandads loved to scale model making, playing piano and garden design. My Grandmas played the piano, dress making, knitting and crochet. Mum does all things textiles, sketching and painting and...
A hand painted personalised ceramic horseshoe makes such a special wedding gift for the Bride and Groom, with their names, special date and a message from you on it. It is also a traditional good luck charm for their home, you can read all about the tradition in...
When I paint an order or even a sample, I love putting a bit of detail on the base or the underside of the piece. When you go gift shopping and pick up anything from a shelf whether its pottery or not, I bet you find yourself turning it over and looking on the other...
I wrote this last year in Lockdown 1, thats crazy isnt it that we have moved on and find ourselves in the future labeling lockdowns by numbers. As I update this post we are slowly coming out of Lockdown 3 in April 2021, still under many restrictions but life is...
