Spring Sunshine Pots

A while ago I went into a shop in Edinburgh to buy a handbag and came out with a new 'pattern maker' for my pots.  It's a large wooden indian textiles printing block - to add to my growing collection!  One impression of the block makes the four by four pattern you see here.

clay slab with pattern impressed into it

I was initially drawn to it because of its patchwork of squares, which fits neatly into my designs.  But it also has an African feel to it, which I liked.

glazed and fired in oranges and yellows

But once I had glazed it in glorious oranges and yellows, I realised that I had created some much needed sunshine!  Eight little yellows suns, to be precise.

The finished piece - www.catherinedanielceramics.com

It's a simple design, but I am pleased with the effect.  

corner detail with flower border

Am not sure that Spring has really sprung yet up here in the wilds of the North.  There are a few lambs about and the odd Daffodil has come into flower, but it feels like it'll be a few weeks yet.

Chicken and Trinket Dish made with same pattern

In fact, yesterday was pretty much the colour of the slate tile in the above picture - ALL DAY!  Sometimes you have to make your own sunshine!

(Oh, and yes, going back to the first sentence, I did get the handbag too!  Of course!).

Edinburgh is full of shops where you go in for one thing and come out with half a dozen others.  Things you just never knew you 'needed' til you saw them.  Please say I'm not the only one....

x Cathy

Birthday gifts - say it with pottery!

A while ago a got a commission from a daughter to make a personalised bowl for her mother who apparently had always liked my ceramics (which makes me blush!).  But anyway, she gave me some information about her mum and her interests, etc and I got to work.  There are lots of examples of this type of piece at www.catherinedanielceramics.com

Wet clay slab with basic design laid out.

Detail applied, clay dried out and read to fire.

After first firing, glazes applied and ready to fire again.

Out of the second firing - all ok - phew!

For a lady who loves books and knitting and ....

gardening and ......

last, but I suspect not least, her lovely grandchildren!

Seventy years young this week!

Happy Birthday Barbara!  The best people have January birthdays, 

says me who just turned ??? well, not yet 70, but getting there fast!

Do you find that the older you get, the quicker the time flies by?  A year somehow doesn't last as long as it used to!  What's that all about!

x Cathy

A Blank Canvas

First of all, a very Happy New Year to everyone and here's hoping that 2015 will be all that you want it to be!

Starting a brand new year can be quite an exciting thing, if you think about it.  A completely blank canvas, yet to be coloured in.  You might dare to use colours you never dreamt of before, or you might play it safe and go with what you know.

The choice is yours!  

Bisque-fired pottery awaiting glazing and re-firing

It's a bit like being faced with a batch of freshly bisque-fired pottery.  These are the blank canvases to be coloured in whatever way I choose.

Ceramic Quilt Bowl awaiting glazing - www.catherinedanielceramics.com

I sometimes find the plain cream colour of the bisque rather attractive in its own right. Maybe I will choose not to colour it at all and just put a transparent glaze onto it?  That would certainly be a bit of a diversion from my usual love of colour, but sometimes I do veer towards the plain, calm and quiet, instead of pots that shout "look at me!".

Scottish Borders in January 2015 - very black and white!

Maybe it's the influence of my new surroundings up here north of the border, which are pretty muted at the moment, but none the less beautiful for all that!

How will you colour your blank canvas of a new year - anything fresh and exciting planned?

Cathy x

Ho! Ho! Ho! and all that

Just a quick post to sign off for the Christmas holidays.  We still have no Broadband in our new place so I may as well kick back for a while and forget about it!

Tiny ceramic Christmas decorations - on sale next year!

I made these little itty bitty things before I packed up the pottery to move it to Scotland.  I'll definitely make some for sale next Christmas, but this year has been too hectic, what with the move an' all.

Ceramic patchwork hearts - with 'thank you' impressed into them

Thanks to all of you for support and good wishes and for visiting my blog and facebook over the past year.  I've met a lot of 'kindred spirits' both here and in person, which has been just lovely.

Hanging hearts in 'autumn/wintery' colours.  www.catherinedanielceramics.com

Santa arrived early and delivered my new kiln last week, so we'll be up and running in the new year with lots of new ideas for pots.  I didn't put a working Broadband connection on my Christmas list, but I'm not sure that even Santa can sort that one.

So, here's wishing you all a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing Christmas and everything you wish for yourselves for 2015!  See you then!

x Cathy

Pots for Scots

Sorry about the absence from this spot and for the awful title of this post but the reason for both these things is that we moved north of the border a few weeks ago, and the seamless transition I had hoped for has been thwarted by lack of a Broadband connection in our new house!

The view from our new abode last week on a sunny day.

It all happened so quickly! We are here temporarily whilst we look for a permanent home in the area and once Santa brings my new kiln, I shall start making pots for the Scots!

Same view a week later with some white stuff on the tops!

Everyone here has been really warm and welcoming - I mentioned the lack of internet connection to our neighbour yesterday and here I am sitting at their kitchen table using their internet !

Hanging houses available from www.catherinedanielceramics.com

I must have had houses on the brain - these are the last thing I made before we moved. 

Will try and catch up with your blogs as and when I can and hopefully we'll be connected soon and normal service will resume!

x Cathy

Bear Tracks in Autumn

Inspired by the beautiful Autumn leaves swirling madly outside my studio window, and one of my favourite quilt blocks, Bear Tracks, I knocked together this little number which came out of the kiln last week.  So pleased with it, I thought I'd share it here.

'Bear Tracks' quilt block bowl from Catherine Daniel Ceramics

The leaves around the border have come out really well, using the shape of the leaf to shape the edge of the piece.

Usual trimmings added at the end - ceramic button threaded onto bowl

I've finally got round to attaching some decent looking labels to my pieces too.

All sewn up in matching thread.

Thinking back,  it was no surprise that this pattern ended up as the basis for one of the homewares ranges

'Bear Tracks' tea-towel from www.cathydaniel.co.uk

Don't worry - you won't get that old and shabby well-loved teddy bear with your order!

Speaking of which, I love this picture below which we used on the homewares website on the 'Bear Tracks' pages.

Teddy Bear and Train Tracks conjours up 'Bear Tracks'

I can think of safer places to walk, though,

like kicking through Autumn leaves on a blustery November day.  

Autumn Leaves ...... and Winter Arrives! 

Have you got your winter woollies out yet?

x Cathy

The Power of the Unusual

I'm always attracted by the unusual, the quirky and the downright odd, (and I'm not just talking about the Hubby here!).  I mean seeing the normal and ordinary in abnormal and extraordinary places.

Here are a few examples I've come across lately.....

Quilt blocks on quilts is usual.  Quilt blocks on barns is, well, unusual!  And for me, that's where the interest lies.  

'Robbing Peter to pay Paul' is the block here, I think.

Quilt blocks on quilts is ordinary.  Quilt blocks made of flowers is extraordinary, and there's a whole blog about it here.

A pinwheel block made of flowers.  photo courtesy of Amish County . org

Postcards made of card (the clue is in the name 'Post  Card') are now boring if made of card!  So much more exciting and exquisitely beautiful if they are made of textile, like this one from my friend Judy in Boise, Idaho. Do visit her blog - she excels at so many creative things: 

http://fundamentallyfiber.blogspot.co.uk/

Thank you so much, Judy!  It is so beautiful - and unusual!!

From the look on our postman's face, I don't think he'd seen one before!

And, of course, last but not least, I hope I've proved that a quilt block is not only for quilts, but for homewares and handmade ceramic bowls.

Quilt-block tea towels, aprons, mugs, coasters and handmade ceramics from www.cathydaniel.co.uk

And it's getting to that time of year again when we're all hunting for something unusual, something interesting, something a bit quirky even, for that perfect Christmas gift.   Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  No, me neither!

Cathy x

It's a Small World after all

'It's a small world after all, ...'  Those of you with small children will know this Disney song, and apologies for the fact that it will now be going round in your head incessantly for the next week/month, but these words came home to me this summer in a big way.

I have been visiting Chris Jurd's Patchwork Fundamentals blog for a while now.  Chris is a quilt teacher based in the Blue Mountains near Sydney and shows her own work and the fabulous work of her pupils.

She mentioned that she was doing a trip, taking in the UK, and long-story-short, she came to see me and my pots!

So, in honour of her visit, I made her this large quilt bowl depicting one of her own patterns on its inner surface.

Whilst she was in my studio looking at my work, I casually asked her if she liked this one and whether there was room in her suitcase for it to fly back to Australia.  You should have seen her face!

Top: mapping out the design onto the wet clay.  Bottom: all the usual trimmings

I had to make sure I got the lines and points as perfect as I could on this one!
We had a lovely time together and I was even brave enough to show Chris my first (and only) quilt ... and she even found some positive things to say about it, as all good teachers do!  

We parted,  and then a few weeks after Chris had landed back home, this arrived in the post for me - in the same pattern as the bowl!

Just beautiful!  You can't tell the size here but it's about 2ft diameter.

I'm not afraid to show close-ups of Chris's lines and points as they're absolutely perfect!

Her quilting is better than mine, but as she says ... her pottery isn't!  Lol!

I even love the back of this piece, and especially love the quilt-label she made!

'Though the mountains divide

And the oceans are wide

It's a small world after all'

Blogging, to me, makes the world a smaller and friendlier place.

Thank you so much Chris!  I will treasure it.

x Cathy

Playing with patches of colour

Playing with patches of colour is a great way to spend time, quite a long time sometimes!  It doesn't matter whether its bits of gorgeous fabric or squares of glazed ceramic.  I mix and match, and mutter 'Yesss!' at one colour combo and then 'Eeek, No!' at another.  

Tiny ceramic tiles.  Available to order from www.catherinedanielceramics.com

And one thing generally leads to another, so that the little ceramic tiles then become patches on a ceramic quilt bowl.

Ceramic patchwork bowl from www.catherinedanielceramics.com

A while ago now,  I started playing about with these beautiful vintage fabrics below.

Vintage 30's and 40's fabrics

And during that little play I mused upon how lovely they would look as the basis for a range of traditional quilt block patterns.

The 'Right Hand of Friendship' block used in our Homewares collection

And then, as usual, one thing led to another and the new homewares collection was born.

Available from www.cathydaniel.co.uk

And when they ask, you say, "It may look like I'm just playing about but there's serious stuff going on here!"

Playing around with stuff is where it all starts - but then you all know that because I bet you all do it too?

x Cathy

Schoolhouse Block

An adaptation of the 'Little Red Schoolhouse' block - not done this one before and I actually found it quite tricky.

Little Blue Schoolhouse ?

Had to make a template and everything!  No 'winging it' on this one!

Making the template gave me the idea of making a little hanging house

Wanted to make the houses all kind of merge into each other, and quite like the higgledy-piggledy look of the finished pattern.

Now available from:  www.catherinedanielceramics.com

Added a kind of brick-wall effect as a border, along with the usual little ceramic button.

Brickwall detail around border

 And, of course, a little bit of sewing up was needed, as always.  I put my potter's mark above the doorway of each house - it's an overlapping C and D - not very inventive really!

Enjoyed using this block and will definitely make more in different colour combos.  May even put 'Home Sweet Home' or similar, in the border?  Might make a nice house-warming gift, maybe?

This must be a result of having houses on the brain at the moment.  We've sold ours and have yet to find another and I have looked at so many online, they are all merging together - a bit like this pattern!!

We haven't moved for 15 years - any tips welcome!

x Cathy