Garter Pot

Here is a simple, lace textured slab built pot decorated with my own screen printed ceramic decals of my grandmother’s handwriting and finished off with a bright gold lustre. I have made the pot to commemorate my grandparents’ 65^th wedding anniversary, commonly known as a ‘sky blue anniversary’. A bit of a rarity I am certain!

It plays on the bridal tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. In this case the old is the garter lace, the new is the pot, the borrowed is the handwriting and the blue is the glaze itself (and one of my grandmother’s favourite colours).

I chose the garter lace to imprint into the surface of the clay as it is symbolic of weddings and my grandmother used to demonstrate the making of lace at Nottingham Lace Market several years ago. Her handwriting is not meant to be read but to be appreciated for its beautiful flowing forms. I have cut up and rearranged the text on the outside of the pot so it takes on a wholly decorative purpose. 

Let’s hope they like it. Although, I suspect my grandmother will be much more excited by their congratulatory card from the Queen!

Curious Clare's Handmade Wedding - Part Two

So far this year, Hyperemesis Gravidarum and anaemia have brought normal blogging service grinding to a halt. However, I am feeling slightly more human these days and to celebrate here is a post on our wedding as featured in Handmade Wedding magazine (pages 86-91). The article is written really well and sums up the spirit of our wedding beautifully.

In short, our wedding was a colourful, handmade family affair from the wedding dress and cake to the laser cut invitations, paper pompoms and laser cut birdy bunting. We hired a heritage red London double decker bus to transport the guests (and ourselves) to and from the venue to create an informal, relaxed atmosphere before the ceremony started. The theme was birds and buses - buses to fit in with the transport and birds to reflect my passion for them. I designed, laser cut and hand foiled invitations shaped like buses with a robin riding on the top deck. My son was given the role of bus conductor, collecting the individual tickets that I had made for everyone. The colour theme was hot pink and turquoise, a real feast for the eyes on a rainy day in south Manchester!

My family's creativity ran throughout the wedding - my mum made my tea length baby blue wedding dress out of duchesse satin and lace, we based it on an elegant 1950's Vogue pattern, my grandma made the sugar paste flowers to sit on top of my sister's cupcakes, an old family friend made the bridesmaids dresses and I even trained up my husband (and son) in the art of origami so that he could help make 180 paper flowers for the tables. It had the look of an old fashioned but vibrant English summer fete by the time we had finished complete with hog roast and local English ales.

Tips for other brides-to-be looking to add handmade details to their big day.

Handmade elements really personalised the wedding and ensured that we could have exactly what we wanted. I would thoroughly recommend adding your own touches to the day.

Do gather lots of ideas together from wedding magazines and online sources such as Pinterest (elements of our wedding can be seen here)

Do keep a tight control on the budget, handmade is not necessarily a cheap option

Do involve family members with making details for the wedding. My husband was brilliant at making the origami flowers!

Don’t be afraid to ask family and friends to help out otherwise you will become overwhelmed with the prospect of decorating a whole venue yourself!

Don’t forget to have fun! As the wedding day approaches enjoy the making and planning.

Photographs were taken by the talented Kelly Clarke of Imagesplash.

Curious Clare's Handmade Wedding - Part One

Bird bunting can be ordered here

Our wedding reception at a local village hall was the perfect venue for this handmade vertical bird bunting. It added a splash of colour to an otherwise tall and dark ceiling. The bunting decorations hung beautifully with tissue paper pompoms and lanterns. 

The bird motif used in the laser cutting is taken from the robin on my Curious Clare logo (see above!). 

I had great fun making this bunting and it looked so pretty hanging above the trestle tables at our wedding reception.

Curious Clare’s Studio

I have decided to write a post on my studio today as it has been featured by the lovely Katy Cowan on Creative Boom this week. If you’ve read some of my previous blog posts you will know that my studio can be found at Local Creation in Altrincham.

I fit in studio visits around being an Art teacher and Community Co-ordinator (and writing this blog!). The studio has to given me space to focus upon my own work. I have spent time decorating it as I wanted to create a haven that I would want to take myself off to.





Alice Melvin's Cut Out and Make Menagerie can be found here
 

 

I aim to use the studio two days a week. One evening a week, I meet up with friends for an informal art club where we chat and ‘art’ (although this involves much more chatting & chocolate eating than doing!).

 

As was mentioned on Creative Boom my own art work is quite varied as I love trying out new things and like to use materials to suit my ideas. I work with Ceramics, Textiles and digital media such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.

Since acquiring the studio I’ve designed flyer a for Vintage Afternoon Teas , designed a postcard for French Knots Craft Studio and I am about to create their new logo.  I am currently making laser cut Perspex trophies for The Joshua Tree’s Fun Run and I have been approached by a magazine to produce some illustrations for them (fingers crossed).

My Upcycled Jam Jar Tutorial can be found here

I am also working on a new personal project called ‘Paper Conversations’ that is a mix of illustrations and three-dimensional objects. Last but not least, I’m playing around with a series of quirky badges that I hope to start selling soon.

 

Upcycled Jam Jar Tutorial

 
-Several clean jam jars with labels and sticky residue removed

-Spray paint (I used Plasti-kote Fast Dry enamel in Sky Blue & Hot Pink from B&Q)

-Plastic toys – new or discarded!

-Strong adhesive  (Araldite works best)

-Plastic carrier bags – cheap thin ones are the most suitable

-Protective sheeting or newspaper

-Good ventilation!

-Apron to protect clothing

1. Eat lots of delicious jam or chutney.

2. Soak empty jars in hot soapy water to remove labels. Use nivea and a J cloth to remove the sticky residue (tip from my grandma!). If you do not remove the stickiness you will be left with a rough surface when you apply the spray paint.

3. Glue plastic toy to the jam jar lid using a strong adhesive such as araldite.

4. When dry, put a plastic carrier bag over the glass part of the jam jar and screw the lid shut.

5. Put on an apron and cover your work surface with newspaper or protective sheeting.

6. In a well ventilated area, spray the lid with an even layer of spray paint. You may need to apply several coats to larger toys. It is advisable to wait for each layer to dry before applying new coats of spray paint.

7. When the lid is completely dry remove the plastic carrier bag and fill. I filled mine with ribbon and wires that were cluttering up a drawer. 

8. Screw on lid and admire your handiwork! 

I would like to say that I do not take any credit for this idea. I spotted Torie Jayne’s Bunny Jars last autumn on Pinterest and pinned them to my Studio Envy board for future use. I was pleased to find another use for the many Bonne Maman jam jars that I had collected for my wedding table flower arrangements!

Wedding photography by Kelly Clarke of Imagesplash