Christmas past.

Phewf, that's Christmas done - hope you had a splendid one. I'm home from seeing all the families now and I've been busy making a nest in my little house before I finally get back to the studio tomorrow. I found a whole box of vintage Christmas crackers - probably should have sold them a fortnight ago eh? So I decided to pull them by myself. I can tell you that the paltry bangs you experience with a modern cracker are nothing to the grand BANGs I got with those chums. And the charms inside were nice and the jokes were awful.

Last Toot before Christmas!

Hello you lovely worms, it is Wednesday night and I am pricing up my Toot - just in time for tomorrow. I will also list those items on Etsy that folk have asked me to. Here it is:

A small, framed print which I think holds a certain charm.

A little furry mouse!

A funny bobbly brooch - I reckon it's something masonic.

I like the construction of it.

Some nicely random glass beads.

A beaded thing, I don't know what it's for but I love the shape.

Some wonderfully rustic beads - apparently Norwegian.

And some beads made from stone - which stone? I don't know.

Little studio pottery pot.

And two nice coffee cans.

A nice rush basket with an old flight label on it.

A big ridiculous 1950s dress, in very fine colours. I bought it from a nice person who bundled it into a potato sack for me - now that's how ball gowns should be packaged.

Turns out I'm not very good at modelling: Jack tried to help me relax into it.

Bit of Victorian lace trim - nice simple laddery stuff.

A foot stool. Black gloss paint - gets me every time.

And a very dainty cotton top.

I'm slowing to a halt for Christmas - not mustering the need to do anything very urgently, which is nice. A slow Christmas and then there are some changes happening for Toot in the new year - I'll save my energy for then.

Toot.

Ok, here it is, and there's quite a lot of it I'm pleased to say.

A baskety-bag.

A nice bit of sturdy embroidered cloth - the pattern is regular but there are patches of oddness - like the black patch at top left.

A funny, pewter, corner shaped pot. Pewter is good.

An enormous bracelet type thing that I have to find out a little more about. It had a pot stuffed in the centre and was sold to me as a tealight holder but I think it might be something more interesting.

Two dolly heads. Doll on the left has obviously been in a box a while - bored.

It's very hard to do anything with dolly heads that doesn't end up looking like an angsty art project - even just labelling them.

Wicker bag.

A slightly nuts bit of weaving.

A handsome skipping rope.

A couple of bits of Indian mirror work

Very sweet.

A bag . . . from the 90s. (I'm sorry)

A casting mould in very fine colours. It comes in two parts and each side would be pressed into sand (and jiggled slightly to allow for the shrinkage on the metal) and parts get cast from the sandy indent.

Or it could make a nice industrial alternative to an African mask on your wall.

This little ones for something Rolls-Roycey. Swish.

A view of the inside.

Look at this barmy bit o' cloth. Fifties, and in a weird ethnic style. What's your favourite bit?

That's my favourite bit too!

This is Maude. Last week she was admitted to hospital with stomach pains. In a protracted and life-threatening operation the surgeon managed to pull over a metre of woollen rope from her insides. And now she's feeling much better.

A wonky basket.

And finally a very fine hoopla board.

This evening I have to try and catch up on lost episodes of The Killing, and tomorrow I'm off to market! See you there?

I'm a mug (<- and that is a pun)

Pottery has finished for Christmas and suddenly I've realised how many mugs I've made . . . a lot of mugs, eleven in total. Also, a lot of really rubbish mugs.

My French tablecloth (Putting all the textiles out, to make the place feel warmer)

My mug - the handle is very comfortable

Slightly blurred bubble mug.

Suave teacup shape. Fancy.

Possibly the worst mug ever.

Schweiker's mug.

Jack's mug.

When it comes to learning a new skill I find there are a few stages: I find I'm quite good at first (beginners luck, Jack's was the first I made), then it turns out I'm actually a bit rubbish and I can't get the hang of it, then I get all peevish and do really rubbish things on purpose (Ha!). Only after these stages can I knuckle down and actually get on with trying to learn things without feeling all self-conscious or resentful.

Dorothy Hartley. Made in England.

I really love to read about old English craft - I guess I'm a sucker for that nostalgie de la boue. I also love to find the traces of that handmade past as I saunter around car boots - to find a bag of handcut dolly pegs or a fine old tool amongst the drifts of crap.
Just recently my Mum lent me one of her favourite books - Made in England by Dorothy Hartley. It's a beautifully illustrated and written book about old English crafts. Proper crafts: I think the word 'craft' might have been slightly altered by the legions of old folk knitting covers for things that really don't need covers.
Dorothy Hartley is a social historian of epic proportions (she has the same drive as that Gladys Thompson, who I seem to be linking all the time recently). At one point in the book she is in some woods working with people making ladders and she describes the workers going home and night falling and, later on, a fox crossing their work place . . . it seems she just stayed there all night.
I've chosen my favourite illustrations from the book and I will also share my favourite quote -
"By specialising work you can increase output and give the worker more free time, but is he able to do anything new and vital in that free time if you have stunted his initiative, his creative faculty"
When I read that bit I felt much happier, and thought about maybe booking myself another evening class, to hell with specialisation - let's all just do what we want! Made in England isn't in print anymore, a real shame, but her best known book Food in England is readily available - it's next on my list to read. If you ever come across a secondhand copy of Made in England keep it and cherish it.