We often explore why we make. But what about how we make? I’m not talking about technique but about the process. How does that something, that did not previously exist, start its life in you? How does it evolve, develop, become solid and tangible? Have you ever looked at your making process in detail? And […] Read more...
Make your own champagne in 5 easy steps!
Now, I wasn’t planning on making champagne this weekend – I didn’t even know the possibility was available to me. Yet, I kid you not, I now have a huge vat of champagne brewing in my kitchen, thanks to a serendipitous chat with a good friend at the school.gates on Friday afternoon. “Come to the […] Read more...
A little loving ritual for mama’s (& papa’s!)
Every year, on the eve of my sweeet babes’ birthdays (after the cake has been made and the birthday table laid out) I plod upstairs with a sheet of paper and an envelope. I sit up in bed and I start to write… I think of the birthday boy or girl…what I remember of them […] Read more...
Something a bit different for Easter
Excuse the silence blog friends…the school holidays arrived, and with them chicken pox. One of our little ones has now gone through it and we are waiting for the other to come down with it. So many thoughts have been brewing in my head that I have wanted to externalise into blog posts, but they […] Read more...
Some very sound advice…
Get Slow Leave your watch on the bedside table. Check email only twice a day. Take the scenic route. Light candles before you start to cook dinner. Make up rituals. Say a silent word of thanks and make eye contact with everyone at the table before you start eating. Let the phone ring several […] Read more...
A week of firsts
Its been a busy ‘ole week here in Glittering Shards land. We have had dear friends visiting all week and this weekend too. I have finished another mosaic piece for an exhibition – will post pics in the week – and have started on a beautiful, delicate commission for a 40th wedding anniversary. Workshops continue […] Read more...
Free toys – love and fun included!
This is Sally. She was made with a lot of love by my little boy, Toby (with some help from Mummy). Component parts: an empty salt tub, a lid, yoghurt pot, old insulating foil, insulating tape (she is very warm!) some pipe cleaners and good old British milk bottle tops from our doorstep milk bottle […] Read more...
The limits of words
We are specks of dust on a revolving rock. This rock which is our home in the universe shuddered last Friday and the lives of millions will never be the same. Writing my ‘normal’ blog post did not feel appropriate tonight because my words feel trivial and inadequate in light of the pictures and news […] Read more...
Have I introduced you to….
…Chloe, our new cat? She was given to us by one of my lovely mosaic students because their family could not keep her. And what a character she is. Utterly royal in her composure, I think she has finally accepted that she is in an house that values equality…and is making friends with our […] Read more...
Home organising and rhythm setting
There is something about my personality and life experience which means I need a sense of rhythm to my life. Since becoming a parent, that need has become acute. I have tried to push it aside and live by ‘going with the flow’, but it hasn’t worked for me, especially with the demands of a […] Read more...