France

We, hubby and me, were in France in the second week of May, enjoying the good weather and the good life.

We added an extra day at the start to visit Marta whom I met through etsy, she now runs several etsy shops, among which Martice Vintage. The view from her house is stunning, even on a more grey day.

She took us to a vintage/flea market in a village nearby. So thanks to her I found these awesome drinking cups. I love the green glaze on the inside especially.

Our final destination was Cotignac in the Provence, the trip took us through the mountains, often along this stream, the Buech, growing wider as we went further south. It was a great ride.

Cotignac is a stunning village, with a cliff full of history rising up behind it. There was a market on Tuesday and a vintage fair on Wednesday, lots of nice little cafes and restarants so we did not go far.

                         

We shared a villa with friends just outside the village, a little paradise.

Only on the day we left we came across the famous lavander fields. And a sweet black cat near the garage where we had stoppped cause the engine kept overheating because the belt that cools the engine was slipping. The problem solved itself (like at the dentist, problem was gone once we were at the mechanic) and we drove home safely.

Next time you might find us on the motorbike too, it is such a great place for bikers, 

lovely winding roads and such.

Story Bowl: Group layout

Mostly I get commissioned to make story bowls for private people; This time I was asked to make a bowl representing a group layout. The bowl was a present to the group to remind them how they started all those weeks ago and how far they have come since. That they are now a team, rather than a group. The story bowl represents their starting point.

Gardening

With the new house came more land than we had before and even an indoor greenhouse. Time to show you some progress on this earth day.

The indoor greenhouse was a bit overgrown with a huge geranium, it had to go as we don't want flowers in there, just fruit and veggies. The neighbour took the geranium, so glad it found a new home. 

Tomatoes, strawberries and broccoli are growing there now instead. And there's still room for more. A kiwi, kiwi-berry, fig and grape survived the winter in there too, they will soon move outside once we decided were we want to plant them.

Outside we planted hazelnuts, raspberries, rhubarb, legumes and pumpkins. The last are home grown seedlings from seeds from the last pumpkin we bought and ate this winter.

Growing herbs from seeds as well, to be planted in bigger pots soon to give them room. 

The ribes will have to go at some point, for now it can stay, it buzzing with bumble bees :)

Some plums trees will need to find a place somewhere too, but probable only this autumn. We'll let the garden grow slowly on us to feel what's right.

Happy Mother Earth day!

Easter Hare

Yesterday, good Friday  I saw a big bird of prey circling over the field behind our house.  Also saw a small orange spot and figured it was Sien lying low. Robin and me called but she did not come, maybe she was scared of the bird, very wise. So I set out to go and get her.

We let her roam free again and she just came back in the house when dinner was ready.

She stayed in the hall and seemed to play with something. This usually means a mouse. Turned out this time she had her eye on the same as the bird of prey had, a tiny hare. 

I quickly took it from her and put it in a box.

Called around to find a place were they can look after little hares. Found one and drove there. 

The man waiting for me said: "ah your bringing the Easter hare" (in Dutch we say hare not bunny to the easter egg deliverer). We talked a bit, I asked how old it was, about a week and how many littles ones hares get; about 2 or 3. Jokingly said well I might be around again if the bird of prey is not getting them before Sien does. (Thinking back to last spring when she raided a nest of wrens, which we took to a sanctuary too.)

As I arrived home, Robin said she had caught another one! He heard noises outside and went to look. Sien was trying to get at her escaped hare, which had managed to escape and was hiding. Robin locked Sien inside and saw the little hare hop off. A bit bigger than the first one but still to young to survive alone. So we got the flash light out and found it. Called the sanctuary that we were bringing another one.

Took some better pictures of this one before I set off.

The man from the sanctuary told me they had had more in the last few days and they all survived and will be released back into the wild once big enough. So hope these 2 will live long happy lives and see many more Easters too.

Happy Easter!

Story Bowl: Scuba Divers

This bowl was a commission for a wedding present, the couple share the passion of scuba diving and that's also how they met. I pondered long on the theme, how to capture this in a story bowl. The material would be porcelain, no doubt there, but how to position the divers, what else to feature, .... I decided to start with a sea creature an imagined sea horse:

 Than the bowl and the divers followed soon and a starfish too, a red one I knew straight away.

I made some fishes and all was fired. I glazed the fishes, seahorse, starfish and divers and fired all again.
Than the fishes and seahorse needed to be strung across the bowl.

A fair trade box makes this gift complete.

Wishing the couple many many more happy years of scuba diving.

Story Bowl: Cat and swallows

A while ago I was asked to make a bowl for an anniversary. She loves cats, he has got a fascination for swallows. I suggested a large bowl in porcelain with swallows flying and a cat watching. We decided to keep the cat pure white  but give him a trail of turquoise foot prints as she likes turquoise too. And thus this colour was incorporated in the bowl in a subtle way. Now that pair received their gift, I'm happy to share the pictures of the (making) of the bowl with you (with permission from the commissioner and the new owner).

Sneak peak of the result.

I started by making of the swallows, 6 in total, so I'd have some spare.

Than the cat and the bowl. Bowl is sanded for silky smoothness after the high firing. 

The porcelain is nearly translucent in some places.

Translucent porcelain

The swallows got a black matt glaze and were fired a second time. 

Of the 6 swallows, only 4 survived the bisque / low firing. 

The stringing of the swallows on tread through the holes in the rim of the bowl. 

Initially I had thought of stringing only 3 swallows, somehow odd numbers usually look better, 

but in this case 4 worked just as well.

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The finished bowl:

Some details:

 The bowl in it's fair trade gift box.

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This is a quote from the couple whom received this bowl (in Dutch):

"Dit is een uitzonderlijk mooi en een prachtig stukje en toont zowel 

inspiratie, creativiteit en bovenal talent in dit vakmanschap."