Geometric and encaustic tiles at Grand Designs Live

I’ve said before that Grand Designs Live, and in fact any show is a treat for the senses, and can provide complete overload as well as the inspiration you might be after. Or both. And sometimes, like anything, it takes a while for the brain to process it all. There’s so much to see, that it means very tired legs at the end of it after trying to see everything, and MOH will tell you I try my best to see just about everything.

At times though there’s things that just make you stop and smile. And yearn for a Victorian style property that has a short path in the front garden that could be tiled, or better has the hallway that you could lavish tiles such as these on.

But first, let me tell you about encaustic tiles - a term i’d not heard of before. They’re simply ceramic tiles where the pattern is made of different coloured clay, rather than being part of the glaze. Usually they have two colours, but can have up to six colours, and the image below shows some good examples of these, and they’re stunning aren’t they?

You’ll probably have seen them before though, even walked on them I’m sure, as they’re often embedded into designs with geometric designs.

And of course, there’s plenty of designs. This one definitely has the feel of a patchwork quilt pattern - I wonder what came first, the tile pattern or the quilt?

And if you’re thinking that all of these are very traditional, then think again. This smaller pattern has a much more modern feel and in a modern setting, say a bathroom with a crittall-type shower enclosure and black fittings would look stunning, and bring the traditional and contemporary styles together.

They also give the tiles I’ve shared from Porto a run for their money too, don’t they?

Oil and vinegar

Or as my new bottles say Olio and Acete, a recent purchase as a momento from our break in Italy along with a new butter dish. And not surprisingly I’m embracing the yellow, so where better to photograph them than on the dresser in a particularly yellow spot.   

We often bring something home from holiday to remind us of our trip, and quite often it’s something that catches our eye, rather than something that’s planned. But it’s always something we’ll use, or have a use for. 

On this trip it was very nearly a decorative plate that I fell for on our visits to the local town of Todi. In the maze of a town, or our circuitous route around it anyway, even I was surprised I managed to find the shop again on our second visit. But of course I managed to.  

After some longing and oohing over the ceramics, we asked the price and tried not to look too shocked. It was pricier than we expected, and I wasn’t sure if it would fit where I had in mind at home, let alone in our hand luggage. So with a last look we walked away, but even MOH was getting smitten and said to buy it if you want it.  

But I resisted, as I really wasn’t sure on the size. Although a new plan was forming, so back we headed to the shop again.  Only this time it was our final purchases that I had in mind.  

We’d seen many sets as we perused the shops in town, but none this colour and none squished like this so they nestled together. Clever, huh?

And then came the breakthrough.  We needed a new butter dish.  Yes, needed. (The glaze on ours has gone and butter seeps through the pottery and leaves a greasy mess on our kitchen worktop - so I mean needed).

But, I didn’t want to be without one. I’m a butter fan, and don’t like it fridge cold and so our butter is out and at room temperature year-round.  So when the butter dish hd been decided on too, and I’d agreed to get rid of the old one, MOH couldn’t quite believe his ears. He’d proffered replacement butter dishes over the years, but all had been rejected. Until now. 

And it was worth the wait. It’s quickly replaced the seeping dish in my affections, but sssh! don’t tell MOH, I think I’m only going to crock** half of the dish, as I realised the top half would make a great cover for cheese...

** and yes, to crock - that’s a verb, to break crockery to use as drainage “crocks” in plant pots. A great way to use old crockery as it’s satisfying to smash (as long as you look out for flying pieces) and when you next empty your pot, you never quite know what memory you will quite literally unearth! 

Homewares, Italian-style

When we were away recently in Italy we stayed on the outskirts of Todi, a relatively small hill top town in Umbria, with a population of almost 17,000. That might sound a lot, but in comparison even Greenwich has a population of quarter of a million (and that was in the 2011 census), so you can see why it felt small to us. But even so, my knack of stumbling across a fantastic homewares shop still managed to find its way, which really is quite something…

And so was the silver sequinned pumpkin. I’m not much of one for celebrating Halloween - I’m the type of person that pulls the curtains and doesn’t open the door, if the doorbell is rung by trick and treaters - but I could have made allowances for the sparkly pumpkin. The smaller plush fabric-ed pumpkins were also cute, but after seeing the sequinned one, there really wasn’t any comparison.

But the pumpkins were a bit of a distraction, once I saw these pots. By now MOH was looking concerned, as there was no way these would fit in our suitcase and I’m sure he was already planning his excuses for not having these in hand luggage either, and I have some sympathies.

My reason for giving these such a close look over was more than that. I was keen to know what they were made of - small wooden discs painted white - and how we could replicate them at home, and if we could use the small mountain of corks that seem to multiply at home.

I mean, I have no idea where they all come from…

But the real star of our visit was these exquisite bowls.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

They’re rustic wooden bowls with a smooth floral patterned interior. I don’t need any more bowls (but please don’t tell MOH) and I was very tempted, of course it helped that they were yellow, but I resisted. I didn’t even get as far as looking at the price, however I did take a picture of the label and the base and hope to be able to track down something similar online.

I’m pretty sure that the floral pattern, which I’m hesitating to call vintage, featured in my childhood wardrobe at some point!

The Italians are shy of using yellow as these zingy scalloped bowls show. They’ve a bit of a kitsch feel about them, but they’re fun too. And we’re getting in on the yellow scene here in the UK now too, although we’re most likely to see a pop of mustard in our homewares, and in our wardrobes, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I think after all the browsing, and especially the pausing to inspect closer MOH was relieved to leave the shop empty-handed, but that’s partly because we’d already bought a ceramic momento, but more on that next week.