Playing with 1930s motifs created some new pottery… concentrated more fully on decoration for a change:
In the next post I’ll put some pics of inspirations photos – for some reason putting them on this page destroys the slideshow. Grr.
At one stage in my life I decided I was going to be a photographer.. in the end I didn’t pursue that thought very far but I’ve always been really fascinated by ancient photographic processes. For an overview of this kind of thing and the wonderful and ethereal images that can be produced there’s still an online resource connected to the fantastic British Library exhibition from around 2009-10.
The other day I finally fulfilled my ambition to do a class in cyanotype printing – an early form of photogram producing delicious deep blue and white images using very simple and easy to use chemicals. I didn’t take many shots during the class but admit that I got more carried away with the mess on the emulsioning table as it slopped about and developed in various stages. I’ve included a shot of the work as it was coming out of the darkroom – a selection from our whole class…
A belated post of a load of fun winter market stock by As The Crow Flies industries… Speaking of industrious – I just went to the Watershed to see the incredible early Russian film ‘Turksib‘ with a live score by Bronnt Industries Kapital. Absolutely mesmerising and beautiful. Everything is rendered so clear and pure in black and white; it gives far more space to simply observe and engage with what’s going on.
whahey!! easter crafty baking joy in Cliftonwood as the Ladies get together for their fourth outing to make simnel cakes and easter nests; undignify themselves blowing eggs (horrible business, especially duck eggs) and getting painty; fondle the chicks that are hatching at an alarming rate in Netty, Jen and Bec’s back room; eat boiled eggs and soldiers with extremely nifty Ukrainian shrink-wrap boiled egg designs on… and other appropriate sorts of activities.
I finally got my marzipan applied and browned this evening, having left far too late last night with a very hot cake and no bike lights to do anything about it before bed yesterday. And this was the exciting result (note the slightly crushed and smudged painted eggs produced especially for the occasion and hung using Holly’s extremely cunning matchstick-and-string Steiner equipment (thus proving the worth of a steiner education for daily living…)
a mo a mass a mat a marmalady moon…. our first try at productivity on a grand scale yielded some rather fine marmalades in January. We rock.
** for things of a more foodie nature – please go to my cookzine which is currently residing at http://frangipanepie.wordpress.com/
… all flowering and bright! Just got some delicious new buttons and brooches out of the kiln this week and have been at Colston Hall selling them from bicycle-stall today at their Spring market…
well… what a weekend, an emergence from hibernation, a getting together of many beautiful people, a whooping up, a gathering of far flung folks before they spin off into the wider world, unlikely to ever be all in the same room together again… what a thought. It seems Bristol is emptying; a diaspora of its own diasporees… Alice and Matthaeus were back for a few days of triumphant post-wedding multiplicitousness, expecting twins to pop out in but a few months. How lovely, how ‘normal’ to have them here, ready to meet for teas, dinners, drinks, saunas, chats. Still, Munich is now their home – in fact, I must get back on the bandwagon and try to procure some tickets to see them before too long. Kate and Ollie, our illustrious Canadians, not forgetting Fin, soon to resume being Canadian, are presently leavinge for pastures old and new in the east of Canada…
What a party they had last Friday. The Polish Club, resplendent with its 1970s Polish football club posters above the bar, long-suffering bar staff and capacious dance floor held the first leg of the farewell tour…which later took us to the horror of Luna Clifton, a positively frightening club beneath the 10 o’clock shop, full of well-watered ladies in the twilight of their middle years sporting a uniform of ill-advised t-shirt dresses, peroxide or jet black coiffures and craggy facepaint… and finally to Ben Neighbour’s flat to waken the dead until 5am, entertaining ourselves with a plethora of fine hats…amongst other frivolities. I was proud to be the last person to wish Ollie goodnight, given my rare all-night party record.
I found it difficult to wear many of the hats at Ben Neighbour’s house due to my being dressed as a snowflake (dress code: what does Canada make you think of?), with a large pastry cutter lashed to my head, amongst other things… this is what I found left of the melted snowflake girl on the morrow…
Well, the sun shone brightly on the day of the market – possibly for the first time with any true gusto this spring, which could account for the slow trickle of art and craft lovers milling through…. However, there were lots of lovely make and do-ers there to meet and peruse. Here’s how my bike-powered stall was looking in early March… Soon might be trying to tout my wares at the Bristol Vintage Velo ride fete and perhaps even Colston Hall’s ‘Made in Bristol’ market later this month. Must admit I’d almost rather be taking part in the vintage dress-up country bike tour rather than trying to sell things!
woop woop… finally my logo stamp designs are back from stempeltempel in time for the Paintworks Spring Art Market tomorrow! What is to stop me from covering every single thing I own in As the Crow Flies logos…
Today’s triumph against detoxing… simply must share it as I searched for many a wasted moment to find this on the tinterweb yesterday, to no avail so had to wing it myself.
100g ground almonds
100g fine polenta
up to 100g SR flour, sifted
1 teaspoon B.P
100ml sunflower oil
150g sticky dates, chopped
juice and zest of 2 large oranges
dribble of almond essence
* * * * * *
Combine dry ingredients and mix in the oil; if it’s really loose shake in a bit more almond and polenta. Mix well and stir in the zest and almond essence. Squeeze the 2 oranges into a blender, add the chopped dates and blend to form a thick pasty liquid. Stir this through the mixture – this provides the moisture for the polenta to cook.
Tip the lot into a square baking tin which you have greased well, lined with greaseproof and greased again with sunflower oil. Bake in oven pre-heated to 180 degrees for about 30 mins or until skewer comes out clean.
Delicieux. Must now go and read the back of the soya cream carton and see if its sugar free as that’s the only thing that could enhance the experience after 2 weeks without cake!
As the Crows Fly 
