Thursday 24 August 2023

Monday 7 August 2017

Updating and relinking

Slowly, slowly re-linking all the images in my posts; moving them from the previous hosting site (which had been so good before! So sad...). Also updating dead links and videos. Please bare with me! Here's a pretty picture of some lavender I grew =)

A slightly out of focus photo of cut pink lavender flowers in a jar against a white wall

Thursday 2 February 2017

Moments

Got a review today that made me think...

"Needed this to attend a funeral. Suits the moment. Thank you"

Let's go back a bit. When I was brainstorming for a shop name, I wanted something that sounded happy and carefree. I settled on 'One Sunny Afternoon' because, who doesn't like warm sunny afternoons right? I did wonder if it was too long but anyhow, there we are.

Writing the shop story for my profile, I said that it means a lot to me because of how it pulled me out of an unhappy place after leaving my old job, and that every piece I make is special to me, that I want it to go on and become special to someone else and be part of their story. At the time in my mind I was thinking of happy moments.

And there have been. I've helped make things for weddings and birthdays and special anniversaries. But life comes with the sad moments too.

This will be the second time I've been told that something I made was worn to a funeral. It makes me sad but also happy at the same time. No. Happy is the wrong word. Honoured? Heartened. Heartened to know that something I made did something for someone else at an important moment. At lease I hope it did. I hope it helped them.

So it should be me saying "Thank you." Thank you for sharing that with me.

Monday 3 October 2016

To die slowly

“He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience,
dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,
dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,
die slowly.

He who does not travel, who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself,
she who does not find grace in herself,
dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,
dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,
die slowly.

Let's try and avoid death in small doses,
reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.

Only a burning patience will lead
to the attainment of a splendid happiness.”

"A Morte Devagar" is the work of Brazilian writer Martha Medeiros, often misquoted to Pablo Neruda

English translation via GoodReads

Thursday 14 July 2016

Ceramic Masters of Icheon

This beautifully shot film of the working process of five Korean ceramics masters is just mesmerizing. The skill! The artistry! Ah. ❤ I could just watch it on loop...


Video by the American Museum of Ceramic Art
via My Modern Met