After the taking of tea

Remember my visit to the Ambassador’s Office during London Craft Week, well today I’m sharing one of the exhibits, and it’s the most divine tea service. Made all the better I think for the way it was displayed - and what better way, than on a dining table?

The pieces are by Charlotte Hodes and they are hand cut enamel transfers on chinaware. What appeals to me is the pattern, how they’re different but clearly related. The informality of them, but the formality of tea - and the quotes around the edge.

The broken tea cup though admittedly has much less real use, but just look at how the design flows between the oblong plates below.

AT THE CENTRE OF AN UNCERTAIN AND POSSIBLY ILLUSIONARY UNIVERSE THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE TEA.

And can you imagine a world without tea? No, me neither. MOH declared this week that it’s too cold for water and has upped his already considerable and much appreciated tea making duties.

TEA TO THE ENGLISH IS REALLY A PICNIC INDOORS

And I love the quote on the piece above, do you think it is?

The Library at Greenway

It was great to head down to Devon last weekend to see family. Family that we’d not seen since before lockdown - we were due to visit in April 2020, but clearly that didn’t happen. When we’re there we have a few favourite National Trust properties which we visit in turn. On this visit we headed over to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday home in Brixham. It’s a great house, and the gardens are pretty spectacular too.

Today I’m sharing pictures from the library, and unusually there’s relatively few books in my photos.

During the Second World War Greenway was requisitioned by the US Coast Guard and one of the men stationed there left ‘a unique memento’ in the Library. It’s not the first time I’ve seen the frieze, but it’s something that doesn’t disappoint on any visit.

The freeze is on all four walls and there’s 13 murals in what was the ‘mess room’ with a bar set up in the alcove. The murals are painted using just four colours - blue, khaki, black and white and shows incidents that occurred during their eleven months’ journey to Greenway.

When the house was decommissioned and returned to Agatha Christie, she was pleased to see that little damage had been done but was “somewhat surprises to find the graffiti left in the library.”

The commander wrote offering to have ‘the fresco’ painted out and, as her autobiography records, she quickly wrote back that “it would be an historic memorial” that she was delighted to have.

It’s really quite special, so if you’re in the area it’s definitely worth a visit. But make sure to book your parking in advance.

Crafting experiments with photos

I’ve long held thoughts that photos could be used for crafting, but in a much more exciting way than just sticking a photo onto a card - though there’s scope for that too of course. I’ve a pile of photos which through various offers I’ve had printed and have been sitting there waiting for me to get my experimental hat on.

With a few days off and my mind whirring, I pulled out the photos and started to try things out. First up embossing, with mixed results.

The photo in the foreground above was much more successful than the one behind it - from this I learnt that the embossing pattern was key, and often less is more. Pleased to discover that embossing was an option that worked, with careful consideration, I was keen to try something else.

Cutting up photos. But in a more controlled way than that makes it sound. Out came my die cut machine and this was way more successful. To start with I tried a quite intricate design, and am now the proud owner of many glossy cut out cars - it was addictive.

I love how the photos add texture to the design - you wouldn’t know that the majority of these photos were of plants and garden views. I realised as I went on that there was also scope to cut more than one die cut from each photo.

And so with some washi tape more die cuts were taped into place and off I went again, this time butterflies. Again a pleasing success.

The Christmas baubles also worked - the orange/black version is from a Christmassy photo and I think that works better than the bauble with lupins, as much as I love lupins.

Always one of my challenges when making cards is wording, and so I have a few die cuts to help there too. Again pleasing success.

I particularly like the bottom cheers - the grid lines really work, and unless I told you it was one of those index photos you might never know.

So after a few hours experimental crafting, I’m calling it a success - and a box of shapes ready to use already. I’m inspired now to carry on and try out more - I could be a while!