Seventh embellished patchwork star (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Since we came home from Cornwall, our trip to the Eden Project has taken root in my mind and both the conservation project and the china clay pop into my head unbidden. With lots of embroidering (4 more flowers to show soon) and sewing of patches still to be done for the altar frontal I have been very sedentary this week, a condition made easier by the companionship of iPlayer whose programmes have dovetailed nicely into my meandering thoughts. Professor Kathy Willis’s programmes ‘Plants from Roots to Riches’ (Radio 4, late 2014) were brilliant, utterly addictive and 5 hours of informative entertainment I shall definitely want to go back and hear all over again. Kathy has been head of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew since late 2014. She looks a slip of a thirty something woman in pictures but in delivery and manner has the ageless engaging directness of David Attenborough, the nation’s favourite nature broadcaster – well she does to me, at least – definitely someone to watch out for.
Detail of embroidered patchwork star (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
I have also been chewing over the china clay aspect of The Eden Project too. A comment on the last but one post by a welcome and regular contributor, Penny Cross, reminded me that “The White Road” by Edmund de Waal traces the history of porcelain and would probably answer most of the things anyone could want to know about china clay and porcelain production. I passed the book by when it came out but now Penny’s nudge has given me a great desire to get my hands on a copy.
Eighth embellished patchwork star (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Penny incidentally tells a lovely story of her and friend, as teenagers, booking their own inexpensive Cornish holiday from an advert which had appeared in “The Lady” (shades of ‘Enchanted April’). Thrilled at their initiative and independence and congratulating themselves on the comparative cheapness of their slap bang beside the sea location, they took their first dip in the sea, only to emerge entirely covered in white clay! Wonderful – rebrand the place a health spa and people would be falling over each other for the luxury of a pure, white, kaolin full body mask!
Detail of embroidered patchwork star (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Getting hands on new books is, however, something I’m trying to avoid doing at the moment when we are attempting to cull what we have. But then I remembered another book on the secret of porcelain making which I really enjoyed and which had the great advantage of actually sitting on the shelves currently. Janet Gleeson’s “The Arcanum” is a terrific read tracing the alchemical origins of the Meissen factory and relating the almost unbelievable life stories of the factory’s major chemists/designers. More of this book in a couple of days time because I just couldn’t resist reading it again – even though I really should be concentrating on reducing that Manhattan skyscape of newspaper cuttings I want to get through before we leave…
Emma Bridgewater books: ‘Toast & Marmelade’ & ‘Pattern’
Emma Bridgewater may not be a porcelain maker but the two recent books by our favourite pottery entrepreneur are great fun – either to read through or to dip into. Buy them as presents – for others or just for yourself and enjoy the mix of recipes, family life and the history of the pottery so many of us love and which has been an integral part of our adult life. Great text and pictures.
11 Comments
The patchwork stars are so beautiful and I’m enjoying them as they emerge from your talented needle.
What a lovely kind thing to say. Thank you, Ann.
Hello. I too, love the stars.
Thank you for the Kathy Willis tip. In return I offer a documentary about Katherine Drew (mother of the sea) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04g7rd5 only a half hour one off, but very interesting. Also, have you listened to the 3 dramas about James Lees Milne and An Eye For Pattern (based on Dorothy Hodgkin’s letters)? Not sure how may stars you have left to do, but that would keep you going (although I’m sure you have your own radio 4 to do list!)
Well thanks for telling me Becky, I thought people might have had enough stars by now.
Thanks too for the recommended listening. I only caught 1 of the James Lees Milne dramas (the one with Lord Berners and his pastel coloured doves) before they became unavailable. Eye for Pattern is also unavailable at the moment too – but I’m sure they’ll return sometime and I intend to catch them then. I shall certainly listen to the one on Katherine Drew. IPlayer is brilliant for the solitary sewer and I can’t think what we did without it, can you?
Those poor doves.
You know, I’m sure that Lord Berners was the model for Lord Merlin (complete with doves dyed pink and dried in the airing cupboard) in Nancy Mitford”s ‘Love in a Cold Climate’? I think Berners dyed his pigeons turquoise and gold as well!
Yes I think so too!
I shan’t make any book suggestions if you’re trying to cut down, but I could, I could…!
Oh, go on …
I hope you show us all the completed stars side by side, before they are distributed to their eventual owners, it would be interesting to see them all together. It’s no fun culling books, but a necessary part of moving house. I am glad you hung on to the Emma Bridgewater books, like you I greatly enjoyed them both, possibly the first more than the second. x
I’m glad you said that now – I’m taking the stars to London tomorrow whence they’ll be whizzed to Vietnam. It’s a good idea to have them all together, so I’ll see what I can do to get them all in one picture.
Very few (err none) of my craft books are being culled.