six years!

Its hard to believe but today is the sixth anniversary of my blog!

In fact my boys were in kindergarten when I started this diary and they are in Year 6 now, and about to leave primary school to start their new adventure at High School. (Cue tears!)

Each year on this anniversary I am surprised anew to find myself a blogger and still hanging out in this little patch of cyberspace!

In some ways I've changed a lot since 2007, but in most ways, well, I just have to read that first month's posts to see how exactly the same I am. Back then I was printing my designs, growing rose seeds, marvelling over the beauty of a nest, making a jack o'lantern, taking photos of flowers and visiting Sculpture by the Sea.

This month I'm printing new designs, trying to grow lettuce seeds, making soap and paneer, taking photos of flowers for Instagram and visiting Sculpture by the Sea! I am still as inspired as ever to celebrate art and nature and make my own - be it soap, or bread, or roses - as I was six years ago.

I love that this place is such a great record of my creative journey. Truth is I come here to look for instructions and recipes, or remember when I planted something, or to read my own instructions for making!

Its funny I look back now and remember feeling like a newbie and outsider when I first started blogging, not sure if I should be here. I sensed there were established friendship groups that might be hard to break into, everyone else seemed to know each other.

I shouldn't have worried, I found that bloggers are exceptional people who are invariably kind and generous with ideas, information and support. As in any part of life you are drawn to friendships with likeminded people, its just these friendships defy geographical boundaries. That said I am always delighted to find online peeps every bit as wonderful in the flesh as they are behind a keyboard when we meet at last in person.

These last years I find blogging changing. Instagram took some of the immediacy and visual impact away from blogs. They suffered in comparison. Instagram posts were up and interacting literally in minutes while those well thought out blog posts with proper camera photos often took hours to format. In our time poor days sometimes the impulse passed once the instagram pic was posted.

I found it didn't stop me reading my favourite blogs though. In many cases after seeing an image on Instagram I wanted to see larger, clearer photos and more of them, I wanted to read the tutorial, or follow the links. But most of all I wanted the story behind them, the voice of a favourite blogger telling me how it felt, what it meant, what they learnt.

We need to support our favourite blogs. We need to leave a comment every so often to tell the person we're there. That might be my new blog year resolution. And we need to keep shopping handmade and support bloggers' businesses this Christmas and beyond. They are a wonderful independent and honest voice we benefit from having in our lives.

Like many I've wavered in my commitment to blogging recently, found myself with less to say and less motivation to say it. But I think the blogging muscle is one that is strengthened by use and I have been trying to get back to a routine. To think in blog posts again.

I think that my outlook on life benefits hugely from this blog and others, in some ways it functions as a gratitude diary and helps me find and see the beauty in my everyday. I'm all for that.

Thank you readers for being here to share it with me.

product shoot

Green Filigree

Sky Filigree

Ink Filigree

Ocean Filigree

Chalk Filigree

Do you remember I restyled one of my tea towel product shots back here?

I loved it so much I always had it in the back of my mind that I'd do the others, styled according to their colours. The Filigree design has been with me since the first days of my Flower Press shop so it feels good to be refreshing and renewing the product photography.

Speaking of those first days, it is six years ago next week that I started my little venture!!

As with many things that happen round here it wasn't scheduled in, nor written on a to do list, but the fancy struck me the other day, the light was right, I pulled the couch out of the way and put our coffee table in the sunny spot from the window with indirect light and stood on the table to take the photos. So professional!

I'm sure I'm not alone in taking my photos in funny situtations. In fact one of my favourite spots is the kitchen bench, which has just the right light!

Which is your favourite shot? I'm a bit torn but I'm loving the green most I think :-)

ceramics classes

I've been dying to have a try at throwing pots on the wheel for the longest time. Ceramics has been high on my crafting wish list for ages, and finally a few months ago I was inspired enough to track down some local classes. I ended up booking a four week course run at the Uni of NSW.

It's been lots of fun. I'm inspired. My efforts are certainly not earth shattering as you can see, but each week I feel some new skills start to take hold and I am dying to bring home some finished fired and glazed pots.

I have been a bit obsessed with this new infatuation, watching youtube videos of people turning pots and filling my Dishes board on pinterest with inspiration (thank you internet!).

Wednesday is my fourth and final class but I will be back to finish and glaze my work for a couple of weeks after that.

In week one we learnt to centre the clay on the wheel and turn a cylinder shape. Those two at the front are mine.

Week two we learned to finish the bottom of the pots and trim the excess clay once they were leather hard. We also learnt to pull our cylinders out into a bowl shape. I had three attempts and while the first was passable, number two was a blowout, as you can see in the photo it collapsed when I took it off the wheel. I'm keeping it to practice on though. Bowl three was a little better.

Week three we learned to turn a bowl foot and I made a couple more bowls, including a slightly bigger one. We also learnt a bit about glazing. Its exciting if a little overwhelming to learn the myriad ways you can decorate and colour ceramics.

I ran out of time at the end of the lesson and had to do my glazing after class knowing my parking was expired! I was determined though to experiment and rushed to colour three pots. I decided to try different styles so I can see which one I like most out of underglaze, glaze and coloured slip. They are rough as you can see, but will give me an idea of how each method looks after firing.

Pot one is painted with 'organic' (!) hand drawn stripes using an underglaze (which looks red here but I'm pretty sure is blue). The pot was then dipped and coated with a clear glaze.

Pot two is dipped in dark blue glaze, which looks brown here. Both these pots are the week one attempts and have been bisque fired already.

But it is pot three that I am excited about. I've painted my leather hard bowl in a green slip and then carved my flower design using a method known as Sgraffito. I'm definitely going to experiment with this style more. I love the idea of drawing my designs directly onto clay.

I can't wait to see how they turn out, stay tuned!

While I've never met a craft I didn't like, I know I'm going to try to do more of this. The whole process appeals to me, I like the meditation of throwing, I like that you learn the process with your hands as much as your head, and the endless variations when it comes to decoration. And of course, as with textiles, I like making objects to use everyday.

Have you tried clay or is it on your wish list too? Its funny, it seems everyone I've talked to about the course has said they want to try it!  I'm really glad I did.