Welsh Pottery - a handmade tradition

My recent visit to Wales was focused on hunting down cool handmade pottery, new and old.  We were down at our favourite cottages 'The Welsh House' and my friend told me the story of the oldest pottery in Wales called Ewenny.

new Ewenny bowl

cup by Bethan Morgan

I usually have a shopping list whenever I visit anywhere, of things to look out for which are significant to the area, for me Wales is synonymous with rustic wooden items and clay pottery.  I was particularly looking for unusual and individual cups and bowls, more tableware than studio art.

Our host at The Welsh House cottages was Dorian who knew of a local potter, so we jumped in the car and wound our way through the narrow, high banked lanes to see Mick Morgan at the Talog Pottery (Carmarthenshire).

Ewenny Pottery

Mick very kindly showed us his workshop and process (his art can be found is several galleries which are listed on his website), but it was the work of his daughter Bethan Morgan that caught my attention, in fact it was her 'seconds' shelf in particular as I was really looking for the more 'wabisabi' imperfect and everyday objects that I could use for moments of slow living, where a cuppa is made even more enjoyable by the holding of a gorgeous vessel. 

Mick told me that Bethan works in Narbeth at the alternative health centre and while I never actually got to track her down in person this did lead me to discover the nicest little town in the area. Narbeth has some really great cafes and antique shops but also a pottery where I met Bryony Rich at her shop The Narbeth Pottery and it began to dawn on me that the Welsh take their pottery seriously, they appreciate the skill and it's a tradition that is engrained in their history.

bowl from Narbeth Pottery

There is a great antique centre in Narbeth called Malthouse where some of the dealers have rustic pieces.

In these antique centres I did see some old pieces of Ewenny, which I can now recognise from it's glaze so I popped to their studio on the way home from Carmarthenshire, they are near Bridgend.  

Ewenny prides itself on being the oldest pottery still in existence in Wales, on the same site as it's always been. The reason for this pottery and many others in the area, began with the natural resource of clay combined with the other resources of stone to build kilns and wood to fire them.  It's thought that the first pots to be made at Ewenny were in 1427 but it was a travelling salesman Horace Elliot who brought them to a wider audience during the arts and crafts movement.

I have, since my first discovery of the pre-Raphaelites and William Morris, loved the ethos of that first Arts and Crafts movement and totally get what Horace meant when he said 

“My craving for the simple joys of peasant life dragged me down there when ever my dear wife could carry on without me, all this time I was living as a peasant potter in the cottages either of one of the potters or small plot holders and became well known to all the countryside for many miles around so that I became practically welsh as an English born man can make himself.”

who couldn't love a place that has a cat as it's emblem

I also googled up what other potters were in the area of our cottages and one result led me on a wild goose chase to find Nick Membery who makes plain and practical tableware, I drove up and down a mountain trying to locate his studio, which, as it turns out isn't open to the public, so not sign posted.  However, I did see that his work was stocked at the local castle, so down the hill and then up the hill I went again heading towards a castle ruin which was in silhouette against the brooding sky.

Carreg Cennen castle in Trapp was well worth discovering and their little shop had just a couple of pieces of Nicks stoneware, but luckily for me, the bowls that I was after were in stock, so it wasn't a wasted journey after all, but more a surprising adventure. 

I didn't visit the castle and cave itself, but will be sure to do so on a return trip as my other half would really love it. The castle dates back to the 13th century but it was so cold that day, and despite being 'dressed like I was going up Mount Everest' according to a man I met, I couldn't face the chill, instead opting for Welsh Rarebit and coffee in the tea room.

tin, old saltglaze bowl and stool from antique shops, cup by Bethan Morgan

The perfectly imperfect cup by Bethan Morgan, I just adore it so much.

I'm hoping to track down Bethan and ask her if she makes tea pots, her cups have become my very favourite things.
This weekend I'm off to Cambridgeshire to meet up with Emma - also known as Silver Pebble, to learn many new skills and freshen up on some old ones.   I hope to get some cozy photos of creatives round the fireplace and an overview of painting, jewellery casting and crochet to tell you about. 

All my love - Janice Issitt

January 2017 Be Home Free

Hi there to all the new people who are joining with #behomefree over on instagram.  My roundup for January 2017 has a cool feel, despite getting no snow where I live, and possibly feeling fairly cheated by this, I have chosen some pale and interesting photos and some with blue touches.

limited edition print from Curious Egg

My own version of this colour palette includes this beautiful limited edition print from Curious Egg.

Encouraging the collecting of art is my main motivation, and so to find artists who can suggest ways to display their work, and shop from curators who travel the world discovering new talent, makes me happy.

Curious Egg has been a new discovery for me, and their art section is really very good. So it's probably no surprise, that the owner Lorraine Aaron is an artist herself, as she has an eye for the different and inspired.  Their ethos to bring art and interiors together fills a yawning gap in the market and their travels have uncovered some amazing talent.

I urge you to look at their website, it's so interesting and full of good content, I could spend quite a considerable time there.

Over then to #behomefree, and please show lots of hearts to these accounts who consistently post good content. It would be great if we could just all support each other, together we are stronger.

I'm hoping we can link up with more and more parts of the world just using a hashtag, and get the message across that home is where the heart is and support can come in many forms.

@fabricofmylife @carina.michelli @wild_meadow @abookishbaker

@catesthill @hannie65 @erikaappelstrom @lapinblu

@so_siehts_jinke @so_siehts_jinke @the_curious_north @oandystudio

My overall favourite this month comes from a glorious account called Nihao Planet, which is a lifestyle store of simple and sophisticated items and they snapped this photo in a shop in China called @whiteisgoodshop. I found it so unusual and sculptural.

So here's an exciting announcement - one of the best things I received last year for review was some wood logs from Lekto Woodfuels, I'm still burning the composite logs they sent and I've never known anything to be so efficient.  They hardly leave any ash behind and so, fire after fire, I've hardly had to sweep the fireplace.  They have kindly offered two bags of hardwood logs to the next months winner of Be Home Free !!  so if you have a fireplace, wood burner or such, get posting and tell your friends to as well.  A theme of fireplaces would obviously go down really well!!

Love and hugs to all my readers, yours support is amazing.  I will strive to bring you good and honest content as much as I possibly can.  All the hearts Janice Issitt

Burano the island of colour

Many people know of the island just off Venice called Murano, but they are missing a trick because just a little further out is Burano and boy, this is a photographers paradise.

Murano is where glass is produced, but personally I find it rather dull, we changed boats at Murano as we had gone to the wrong bus stop, there are two ways to get here from the main island of Venice on public transport.  You can get a boat to Murano from outside the main train station, but then you have to walk a little way around Murano to find the stop for Burano.  Or you can go direct but you need to go to the bus stop at the far north of Venice (the route the airport bus comes, its just round the corner from the church called 'Chiesa dei Gesuiti', if you look on the map its the side of Venice that faces Murano.

Once you are there you are a bit of a captive audience, so warning about getting food, you don't have a huge choice and what there is can be over priced.  So either take a bit of a pack lunch or eat at the little coffee places, the one where the boats leave from do deep fried calamari snacks and it looked really good and warming.

Stories go that the reason behind the painted houses were for the fishermen to be able to see their cottage from out at sea.  Now probably more done for the tourists, the colours are incredible and every house has put in the effort to place cute flowers on the windows, colour match their mop and bucket and even their washing.

It really is so much fun just to wander through the side streets using the brilliant walls as backgrounds to photos and hunting down little vignettes of cute.

I found myself thinking about which of my friends would live in which house, especially some of my instagram buddies who are associated with certain colour pallettes. 

Strange thing was, I never did find the paint shop that stocks all these colours, you would think that they must be the busiest shop on the island.

This really is an instagramers paradise.

If you time your journey just right then you can catch the sunset on your return trip to Venice.  

I hope my dazzling array of photos gives you the idea of what to expect on Burano.

Next week we are back in the UK looking at Welsh pottery, quite the opposite!

See you over on instagram, love Janice 

Venice for photographers

Venice is a photographers paradise, the colours, textures, light and details, the main island presenting the most amazing range of subtle hues of terracottas.

The light will, of course, depend on the time of year and the weather, but I'm sure that whatever the conditions you will find your own palette of colour and hues. Even if it rains, take advantage of portraits with umbrellas and water on the pavement.

For me it was undoubtedly, all about blush pink.  I seemed to see it everywhere, the once orange tones of terracotta now decaying and fading into a paler shade, which produces this peachy tinted pink.

I haven't even touched on the history of Venice, so rich and elaborate for such a small place, you need to find your own interests here. Churches, architecture, printing, carnival, art, and food are here in abundance. For me though, it was all about exploring on foot and soaking up the exteriors.  This place typifies the concept of beauty in decay, and so for photographers who revel in the details and seek the imperfections, this is right up your street, or should I say, canal.

While most people will look for the classic shot of the Grand Canal, a sweep of buildings painted by Canaletto, gondolas punting mid stream, a photographer will also be absorbed by the minute details of creaky doors, ramshackle balconies, crumbling plaster and chipped paint. Here is is quite overwhelming.

For portraits there are brick walls and shutters as your backdrop, these can be as unique as the classic photo on a bridge.  In old Venice you will find all the subtle colours with the odd pops of rusty orange and yellow.  If bright bright is your thing then next week I will be showing the island of Burano, a complete contrast.

You could make a study here of so many different aspects, most notably reflections. My eyes seem to be drawn to shutters as I have a complete obsession with them. 

The earthy tones, so typical of Italy, are the perfect muse to the water, bringing the ying and yang into balance. On the side streets you will see so much of the brickwork exposed where the plaster is dropping off. You get the feeling that if you don't see it now then this place will soon just crumble into the water, there is little evidence of renovations.

The buildings are so huge that at times you will feel like you are in the land of the giants, particularly the facades of the churches, and as the streets are very narrow it is hard to get the right angle and distance from the subject without stepping back into a canal. 

With sunset coming before 5pm in January, you can witness some amazing skies so it's worth checking and planning so that you can be near a good location to capture this, I found a good vantage point to be the big wooden bridge which takes you over the Grand Canal on the way to the Guggenheim (ponte dell Acadamia).  So we planned to be at the Guggenheim for the afternoon so that we could catch the setting sun before we returned to our apartment.  

Once the sun has disappeared it is then the time to hop on a water bus and capture the Grand Canal at night, the reflections in the water silhouetting the boats is just pure magic. If you visit during winter you will want to stand on the open deck and this is pretty cold once the sun has gone, so scarfs round the face and gloves are a must.

My camera (Canon 5D MKIV) can handle night time shots without a tripod so it's possible to photograph in the dark when you are moving.  This won't be so easy for other cameras so if you are after night time shots, then you may want to take them when you are static and you can rest or support the camera on something so there is no shake during a longer exposure. As it's not very often that you find yourself in a situation where there are night scenes so breathtaking, then it's worth reading up on how to photograph at night for your equipment.

I hope my photos have helped you to soak up some of the atmosphere of Venice without focussing on the main attractions, and given you a small peak at some different elements.

Next week Burano ... it will be bright and most definitely for the colour lovers. 

Love as always, thanks for stopping by, Janice Issitt.