June doings

Thanks to everyone for the rose recommendations. I’m very grateful. And don’t they look nice in porcelain – the roses are from my green-fingered sister, the pot is is one of mine, the glaze is a black one, ‘starling’.
 
 
I’ll be looking at roses in the gardens of West Dean – I’m showing there next weekend. They definately have the Rosa Mundi, the rose of all the world.
 
 
I usually only manage to get away on set-up day, so I’ll visit the gardens on Thursday. I’ll miss the Wood Show, on at the weekend, so 20/21 June only, at the Weald and Downland Museum just over the hill.
 
They’ll have heavy horses there, which I’d like to see. I used to volunteer with The Working Horse Trust, who have Ardennes, Suffolks, as well as Shire crosses. The Ardennes are used a lot in woodland work, as they are short but strong. They can work in places a tractor can’t go, and do a lot less damage. The picture is Unity, who is 28 and still going strong.
 
There’s a lot going on in London too. I’m hoping to go to the Festival of Stuff, what a great name, run by the Institute of Making, based near the British Museum. Their courses – basketmaking with tape measures, alternative lithography, and more – sold out within minutes, so I’ll have to just go to the Open Day. Last years’ looked good!
 
There lots of nooks and crannies aroung the BM. The Percival David collection’s now at the British Museum, at the back, the Gordon Square end, so pretty close. It’s much more wonderful than it looks on the BM website. They have a third of all the Ru ware in the world – a small bowl went for $27 million dollars in 2012. Made in the 10-12 Century, they are amazingly simple, elegant, plain. Yum yum.
 
Also nearby, and open 1-5 on Saturday, is the Petrie Museum. You have to go in to the UCL lobby, which feels strange, but it’s worth it. A tiny museum, it focuses on domestic objects – like a terracotta rat trap. They used to give you a torch to explore the darker corners. You can, by appointment, handle the collection. I went to look at Knossos pot shards, dug up by Flinders at Tel Amarna. It was amazing to see the trapped air bubbles, the throwing rings, the hidden insides.
 
I’ve been getting more business cards made. People take one, even with all the online images available. No-one has postcard-sized images any more though. This batch has come out really well – I had extra-heavy card stock and gloss lamination over the image. It’s impossible to see the difference in a digital image of the card – rather like the Ru ware, its qualities are completely of the flesh. Which one would you pick though?
 
Say hello if you visit me at any of my shows and pick one up!

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