i2i  contacted me at the end of June to ask if I could paint up plant pots suitable to have Bonsai trees in them. They were needed as a gift to a company they were making a pitch to, to help grow the business whilst developing the team. Bonsai trees relate to the work which would be done should i2i be successful in their bid for the business. With a short lead time I was still able to source suitable pots, drill drainage holes in them and paint them up with i2i's logo, website address, the business logo of the company they were pitching to and their strapline. I assumed the Directors who would recieve these gifts to have lovely desks in their offices, I suggested they needed painted 'trays' to sit on so when watered it would not be all over the desks. Ten bowls and plates were ordered to accommodate the bonsai trees.

So the pottery arrived, and I painted for 2 days solid due to the short delivery time - next time there will be more notice. Once I had painted, glazed and fired them they were collected and taken to Samlesbury Bonsai nursery to be planted up

These final planted up pots were received well by the 10 Directors and I hope it adds to their thoughts of giving the business to i2i. I thought the finished pieces looked fabulous planted up and it is a great example of 3 local business' working together to support each other.

This is another arm to our many options of ceramic art at Fired 4 U  and one which is probably the least publicised for no reason other than its on ‘the list’ somewhere ‘to do’.

My Dad was helping to organise a Thank you dinner for all the helpers and trades people who had contributed to the refurbishment of their village hall in various ways at home in Northumberland. He thought one of our big signature plates (40cm) would be great to have hanging on the wall but he wanted photos on it from the event. The way we produce the photo plates, we can only go to the maximum diameter plate of 26cm, so to save him the 3 hour drive to collect the plates I posted them over to him with the pencils to use.

 After the event the plates were posted back to me, the packing box was beginning to tell a story of travel!

I then painted over the signatures, painted on the name of the occasion and dates, then added colour to the rim. Then the plates were glazed and fired. Following this I added the photographs provided to the plates and glazed over the photographs. Adding hanging hooks on the backs of the plates to finish them off.

The finished plates have made their way back to my Dad on road transport this time via a family gathering, but if you are reading this and live outside the area we would post them back to you.

Follow this link if you would like to order a Special Occasion Photograph Plate and they are also available at our on line shop

I'm always thinking of how we can reach new customers, so on this occassion wanting to promote our Hand painted wedding gifts , I booked a table to exhibit at Samlesbury Hall  Wedding fair at Samlesbury near Preston 6th March. This was all after many discussions with my team, husband and business mentor - looking at all the pro's and con's of us going to a wedding fair.

 In advance, I designed and had some new leaflets printed - Special occasion gifts including weddings and on the reverse our Hen party options. Sprint print did a fabulous job at setting and printing the leaflets on a quick turn round


Then I did a few practice runs on how to best display my hand painted gifts on the table and how to decorate the table - after all everyone else at the fair does this all the time and so I didn't want to appear unprepared!

Then at last 6th March arrived and I was prepared, here is my table display in front of the huge old fire in the main hall.

The day went really well and the Guest signature plate was the hot favourite, quite a lot of Dad's thought this was a really great idea.

I can also paint up the following items for personalised gifts, similar to those in the picture above;

Vases for Mum's, Pint mugs for Dad's, the Best Man and the ushers

Ceramic Champagne Bottles for Engagements or house warmings

Name plaques for the flower girls and picture frames for the Bridesmaids or copper jewellery.

We even have cake toppers or they would make a lovely place setting Between the Bride and Groom

Pictures and more details of these can be seen on our website at Hand painted gifts Or any other item you see on our shelves which you would like and personalised messages can be added to all of them.

I really enjoyed the day, meeting many new prospective customers and trust we can provide them with unique gifts for their very special day in the near future.
 

We ran our 1^st Painting by Nipples night in October 2010 to increase awareness about Breast Cancer, raise funds for Rosemere Cancer foundation in Preston and educate our lady customers in new knowledge of breast health and the importance of wearing the correct bra for you. We raised £505 that night.

One of our customers had friends who could not attend our October event at our studio so we ran a Breast painting night at her home in Garstang.

I took the pottery, painted samples and all that is needed to do the pottery painting; then set up a ‘mini studio’ in her kitchen. Explaining to the ladies the different ways which breast painting can be done and not surprisingly new ones were discovered on the night!

Pam had opened her bedrooms as painting rooms for the breast prints to be made in private. Then the ladies returned to the kitchen table grinning ready to convert the prints into pictures. (Please note that Breast print painting is not compulsory and Ladies are welcome to do normal painting)

Tracey-Jane, the other half of the “Painting by Nipples” team from Bras4mums  came with me to provide a free bra fitting check up service and advising on the best bra style for each individual. 70% of the female population wear the wrong size/style bra for their individual shape. I was in that category until I met T-J 2 years ago and found I was wearing the wrong band and cup size altogether! Quite a few new bras were ordered on the night

Whilst wearing the incorrect bra does not cause breast cancer it can cause blockages in the lymph nodes which is where breast cancer often appears.

18 out of the 19 ladies at Pam’s house were in the wrong sized bra! Now they are all re educated and feeling so much more comfortable.

Pam laid on a Chilli & Tortilla supper with cup cakes, asking for donations to be made to the charity whilst her guests consumed the delicious treats. She also ran a raffle, sold Rosemere Valentine pin badges, and hand made breast shaped chocolates by local Chocolatier Sharlotte Bamber of Choco-lotty .

The evening of fun has raised £180 so far (money is still being donated by kind people who could not attend) for Rosemere Cancer Foundation. This charity funds the Radiotherapy unit at Preston Royal Hospital, pays for nursing team to have specialist cancer training, specialist equipment for cancer detection and treatment to save people of Lancashire and South Lakes travelling out of the area for treatment. With on going projects in Blackpool, Preston, Chorley and Blackburn hospitals it’s a worthy charity to support.

T-J and I are wondering if other ladies would like to host such a night? Please let us know what you think.

You can call Jane on 01772 203060 or email jane@fired4u.co.uk

Saturday 11^th December saw the rescue Fired 4 U team -my husband and my mum, (as the studio was booked to the hilt, Mel and Frankie were holding the fort there) and I set off at 7.30am to Preston to attend the Christmas market with the pottery!

My car was loaded up after the ice was scrapped off -3 it was!;
with folding chairs and stools

2 crates of painted pottery to sell

Christmas tree decorations to be decorated with Foam Clay – 4000g in various colours THE Picnic to feed an army for a week ( there was only 3 of use but had every flask full of hot water, 2 boxes of sandwiches and then all sorts of snacks to keep us going)

The Gadget show supply of various hand warmers we had all rounded up – charcoal skiing ones, the re cycle ones you boil in a pan after use, the once only use ones etc

Banners and all the bits to put them up in various ways depending on the surface they ended up on

And all the bits that ‘might be useful’

We were dressed in thermals of all sorts (you don’t need all the details) layers upon layer of tops and leggings, ski trousers, fingerless gloves and gloves and of course the scarves! At this point I was wishing Katy the Kiln was more mobile as she would have been a great heat source to take with us!

So off we went to Friar gate squeezing through the barriers with the cars, signed in and were directed to our tent/gazebo. The Market was organised by Lancashire Chamber of commerce and Preston BID (Preston City Business Improvement District). The street was alive with all sorts of suppliers – mostly food and drink all from Lancashire plus 2 jewellery stalls, Jamie at Home (one of our customers was doing this), Christmas Wreaths and Fired 4 U as usual being the most unusual! The market started at the flag market, came down to Wetherspoons and up friar gate to the Adelphi roundabout. OF course it was great to Santa with his real reindeer – they were gorgeous and I got to stroke them later in the day.

Once we had decided between us how to lay out the interior of the tent we set too, this kept us warm but the temperature was soaring into the PLUS Degrees!

Handing out leaflets and special offers to draw all these new people into the studio was fun. We met so many lovely people to talk to who were genuinely interested in what we do and wanting to come and have ago as they had not heard about us. We also had some of our wonderful customers appearing to say hello or to check it was us and some had come to support us and have ago doing the tree decorations.

They all proudly took them home with them to hang on the tree promising to come and visit the studio in the New Year! I do hope they do!

The next market like this is going to be on St Georges Day so do watch out for it and come shopping for some fab food, cakes and drinks and of course Pottery! Now I need to work on what we can take to do that day as its Easter!

Last week we had a team building session for the team at Blackburn Alarms . The gents had not been told what or where they were going. Daniel, whose father set up the business wanted to give his team a new experience and make some personal mugs for the team to use at the office.

Wish I had had a camera ready when they got out of the vans and Daniel walked them into my studio, their faces were a picture! Following a demo they got stuck in and really embraced the arty fun. Teasing each other over choice of colours and patterns and offering assistance at the same time.

Short time later silence fell on the group as they concentrated on the matter in hand, comments started flying;
 “and don’t think you can use my mug mine, its mine”

 “Are you sure it’s a caterpillar it looks like a sheep!”

“Just cos we call you T Rex you don’t have to put one on the mug” this was embellished with an explanation to me that ‘he’ wasn’t a dinosaur it was just he got called that as his arms were short.

The finished mugs are all unique and you can see their owner’s personalities shining out in the designs.

I asked them what they thought about the morning considering they hadn’t known where they were coming to……

“Had a great day will be back this weekend with the wife!”

“Brand New!” this gent had never painted pots before

“Super Duper Fantastic!”

“I like painting things, J = My Smile

It was a delight to impart new knowledge to Daniel’s team and watch grown men have such fabulous fun. 

If you would like a fun team building session for your team or colleagues just contact me on 01772 203060.

Last night I decided to bake some wheat and dairy free black treacle flap jacks as I have to cut these items out of my diet for the time being. I enjoy baking and have done for years but little did I know I had a time bomb in my kitchen.

One of the ingredients to this recipe is black treacle, I found a tin in the cupboard dated 2002 (yes I know amazing how time flies) and thought its only sugar it’ll be fine.

I started to prise the lid off when “bang” I heard a loud noise like a gun going off at the same time something heavy smacked me in the face across my right eye.

I found myself on the floor griping my face with wet hands. My eye was throbbing and the pain was sickening. I eventually opened my eye and I could see – the relief was enormous. I looked around expecting to see a gun man in my kitchen – no one there.

The lid had flown off the tin of treacle, hit my face and disappeared. My hands were wet with blood. I staggered to the toilet to look in the mirror; the gash between my eyes looked scary, exaggerated by the blood everywhere. Cleaned my self up shaking and held a towel on my nose to stop the blood flow.

Then the shock set in, staggering to the settee I blacked out, came round thankfully on the settee – 45 mins later I lifted my head and saw stars with that sick and dizzy feeling. Eventually managed to find the phone and called my husband.

I had concussion, a bad cut and a minor black eye and whip lash. The lid off the tin was found behind the kitchen door- it had flown off me into the air and travelled over the door – about 8ft in total- very scary.

We searched the internet – it’s a ‘well known problem’ that an opened tin of black treacle has an unknown reaction in the tin and if not opened for a while it explodes. Since about 2006 there has been a health warning on the tins. Many people sustain serious cuts and the treacle often explodes all over the kitchen – mine stayed in the tin thankfully looking normal. Now I have been in the catering trade for 25 yrs prior to opening my pottery studio and never came across this so not that “well known”

I felt it my duty to warn my family, friends and customers of this hidden danger.

Typing this 16 hours after the incident still feeling wobbly with a banging head, so please approach your tins/bottles of treacle black or other wise with caution and don’t have your head over it when you open it.

I will forgive you if you giggle at this as I can see the funny side but please take not and watch the next time you open a tin of this tasty stuff.

Last week was an amazing week so I thought I’d share it with you.

On Monday we had a group in from Mosaic community care who provide support for challenged young children to young adults ranging from autism to physical disabilities. They booked art and craft sessions daily for 2 weeks with us. This was the beginning of their second week. They were using foam clay to coat wooden figures designing the clothes as they coated them.

 So Mel and Ciara were looking after them and other customers whilst I had the pleasure of going to Astley village community centre to entertain 15 disabled children age 10-15yrs with a wide range of disabilities. They loved painting the mugs I provided them with and couldn’t wait to put their names on. I returned mid lunch time to the studio, unloaded the car and caught up with the activities there. We had a gentle stream of customers all day and the Mosaic group painted animal money boxes after lunch then added decorations to their wooden people before going home.

At this point I finished the day by doing a clay imprint for an Auntie who was having this done as a christening gift for her baby nephew.

I dashed off to makro for refreshment supplies and then went to a women in business network event at haigton manor.

Tuesday we were closed so after a short lie in I went off to the Coppice school in Bamber Bridge and helped entertain a group of children on a summer school with pottery painting. They made beautiful animal money boxes.  I unloaded the pottery back at Fired 4 U, home for lunch and back to Fired 4 U to welcome a group of 38 from Burnley, made up of mums, dads and children. Great afternoon. As I seemed to have battled with a strange queasy stomach all day– a bug is going around! I skipped a network event at Leyland having decided I needed to look after myself.

Wednesday saw us with the Mosaic group again this time decorating fabric sand filled lizards with only a couple of other tables booked – imagine my surprise when we had all tables full by 10.20am! And it stayed like that on and off all day. At that point we had crafts, clay , copper enamelling and pottery painting all on the go at the same time. A great feeling watching all the customers engrossed in their pieces.  In the afternoon we also had a birthday party doing the African package. In the evening  at our Adults night I had a regular customer who is deaf coming to paint a Christmas gift.  We had great fun – my signing is not great but we get on fine.

Thursday was our second summer school session with deco patch technique on papier mache horses followed by painting a horse or gecko trinket box. Mel looked after this whilst I worked with Mosaic and between us we looked after other customers – a nice steady day on that front with tables nicely spaced on timings. Mosaic did lovely hanging windows and then bubble painted plates – hilarious fun. Had the luxury of sitting after work having my hair done at the same time! Bliss.

Friday with Mosaic we did mix and match crafts – dream catchers, pencil boxes and wood animals followed by painting pottery dishes. They all asked to do bubble painting again – can recommend this! I dipped out before Mosiac started at 11am leaving Mel in charge and delivered the pottery back to the Coppice school – grins all round! With a busy afternoon in the studio with lots of lovely customers.

Saturday I took the day off properly and stopped! Did you hear the groans as my body stopped on the settee?

 Then Sunday up and out for 7.30am putting up direction signs for the charity 10k at Walton Park for the Medicine and Chernobyl Ribble valley group . Then I handed out marshalling points to the 32 marshals and explained roles and handed out numbers to the runners. Then dashed to work and opened up for 11.30am. I designed and made some clay coasters for a blog I had been asked to do for a craft blog. You'll here about it when it goes live later this month. Just a couple of painters and a few collections on this day (the Astley village community centre group collected their pottery. So delighted at the results as they hadn’t done this before), but it was nice to have  a quiet day at work to catch up, stock up the shelves and check over the week ahead for staffing and booking details and I made sure we had all the pottery and crafts we needed at the ready for another week at Fired 4 U.

One Monday early in July Mel and I set off and found our way to Altham St James C of E Primary School.

Prior to this exciting day I had sketched out a Wind in the Willows design onto 60 tiles to make a picture which is going to be mounted in the School entrance. Each tile was numbered so they could be put back together in the right order.

We started off with 37 Juniors divided into work groups to add detail to the more intricate areas surrounding the main Characters, Toad and his hall, Mole and his underground house, Ratty in his boat and river bank house and Badger looking from his burrow. The big Willow tree formed another group and the cheeky/naughty Weasels another. The children instantly drew added details onto the designs, talked about colours to use and how the tiles in their group would fir back together to make a continuous picture.

Here are the Juniors concentrating on the design session

After morning break we got down to the painting after a demo on how to use the special pottery paints. Great care was taken by these children painting the background and adding detail.

Badgers house in progress.    Weasels under construction!

After lunch we had the Infants in 3 groups; Reception, Year1 and Year 2. By this time I had put the picture back together so they could see what it looked like so far so the little ones understood what it was we were making.

 They were given the tiles with grass or river on so this lead to the discussion of who lived in the river which they could paint and what or who would you find on the grass. So traditionally pottery inspired creatures appeared; finger print pigs and sheep and caterpillars, sponged butterflies and ducks. A lion made a grand appearance quickly followed by a crocodile in the river…. Whilst we had the Wind in the Willows theme after the main characters and their surrounding areas were done we wanted the children to use their imagination and be creative. Who’s to say you can’t have a lion or a crocodile – we were about 100 years ago when the story was written!

The children were brilliant all day and really enjoyed themselves and the staff at the school were so supportive and were itching to have ago themselves.

On returning to the studio we let the tiles dry out and then added details such as river edge and outlines on items painted by the younger painters, just so they weren’t lost or missed in the backgrounds, that’s when we found the penguin apparently on holiday visiting the story! That’s part of my job to open up children’s and adults creative side and nurture it, looking at the finished result which was hard to part with on Tuesday when I delivered it back to school I think we succeeded.





Mr Peter Williams, the Head teacher, was delighted on the painting day and on Tuesday seeing the tiles separately and a few photos of the whole thing was thrilled at the result and cant wait to have the tiles put up on display.

So the Children from Belarus arrived last Monday and I have only now found time to tell you all about it.  We (My husband and I) were so excited on Monday we had to find ourselves jobs to fill in the time to keep us occupied.

At 1.45pm I dropped him off at the meeting point for those going to collect the children from the airport and I went off to do the food shopping. Shopped via the list and managed to drive off from the supermarket without getting cream for the strawberries! Went to the corner shop and had to be shouted back as I left it on the counter.

Hastily unpacked it all checking the mobile for a text – finally it arrived “arrived safely all well on the way to the welcome tavern” I jumped on the kitchen floor and shocked our cats. An hour until they arrive…. finally I went to the welcome Tavern and was on the way in when I heard a noise and there was the bus, dashed back to the car for the camera and went to meet the children. I tried very hard not to cry but they were running up and hugging me and shouting my name, they had remembered from last year so touching. Then to meet the new children of which there are 4 on their first visit.

Meanwhile Alina the interpreter and our dear friend was still on the bus with the Chairman going through info she needed to pass onto the children. So I was helping the children with cases with the other members until I heard a squeal – my name being shouted out at the top of her voice, we ran to each other and crashed together on the steps hugging for our life, looking at each others faces and hugging more. Oblivious of those around us looking at us and laughing. My husband said we were like 2 kids in the school yard screeching and very comical apparently, but I don’t care. We have Alina and 14 wonderful children here for a month to help there health, have fun and increase their education.

We eventually got Alina to our home at 7pm after she had handed the children over to the host families and translated any necessary info to the children. Of course we chatted all night catching up from where we left off on our last email and seeing photos of our families. A late night but so worth it.

Tuesday I was out with the children all day helping with the visit to Windmill animal farm, Check up at the dentist (some work needed) and fun afternoon in Avenham Park with bats and balls on the play park near the Boulevard. Such joy to see them playing in the sun enjoying our clean air and settling in together for a month of good fun.

I’m looking forward to my other days out with the children and great times with Alina on a weekend.

So I woke up this morning, stirred a bit and shouted " They are coming tomorrow and so is Alina!" , good job my husband was awake. His reply was " Are you sure because for months you have said oh they are coming soon and they havent appeared!" "Yes I am sure, tomorrow is the tomorrow they are arriving" I said. I felt so EXCITED, I scrunched my self up and wiggled about with a grin the width of my face.

So its tomorrow, Monday 21st June 2010 at 3.15pm ish to be precise, our 14 children will arrive from Belarus where they live in the chernobyl radiation affected areas, ( read my previous post for more info). Most will leave home tonight and board a train just after midnight with a parent to make the journey to Minsk airport to fly to us tomorrow afternoon, a journey of 8 hours of more for some just to get to the plane! 'Our' Alina will meet them at the airport.

Alina is a wonderful person, who this time last year was just a name; lady aged 24, called Alina who would be staying with us and being the parent guardian to the children while they stay with our groups families for a month. We were excited that the children were coming and a bit nervous about having an adult staying with us who we had never met, not even a picture.

This year its different, we are still totally excited, pleased, releaved even( see last post on here) that they are coming. Will they have grown? How is their health? Will they be happy to see us? Will the 3 new children to the group be ok and settle in with their host families quickly? These are questions running through our heads. This last year has been a hard year to raise the £12,000 we need to fund this trip for the children but we have managed.

Then there is Alina, she became a life long friend last year and we have been in email contact and some phone calls over the last year. She volunteers with the charity Medicine and Chernobyl as an interpreter to travel with the children, to look after them, to interpret for them during their stay ( they speak russian- such a difficult language to learn). When she went home last year our house felt empty with out her and it's like not seeing your best friend for far too long. We made her bed and cleaned her room this morning then I came to work. So glad to be at work today - takes my mind off the EXCITMENT.

Tomorrow we will be cats on hot bricks and fit to BURST with EXCITMENT, my husband is going with the coach and some volunteers to collect the children and Alina and I will busy myself getting ready for their arrival. I would only flood the airport if I went to collect them - its still recovering from my tears burst last year!

So I'm off to busy myself now 26 hours until they land in Manchester, I want them here but I don't want their visit to speed by.

So to our little Belarusian angels; safe journey, good health and we will welcome you with open arms, hugs and love with radiation free air, water and food tomorrow. To Alina, good luck getting 14 young children through the check in, the security checks and on to the plane tomorrow all by your self. X X

This Blog is not about my pottery studio or what we do but about me and what I do in my spare time. I volunteer with a local Charity group called Medicine & Chernobyl UK South Ribble group, I am also the fund raising coordinator. We collectively aim to raise £12-14,000 per year to bring a group of children from Belarus who live in the radiation affected areas from the nuclear power plant explosion at Chernobyl 24 years ago.

In brief the children live with radiation in the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat this all has an affect on their health from causing very weak immune systems to childhood cancer to cancer in early late 20’s.  I will at some point may be write about their lives or the new found problems with the long term radiation in their lives and what we do to try and help.

We bring over a group of 14 children to stay with the families in our group for a month – it has been proved that living in clean air – yes here in Preston! with clean food and water it cleanses their bodies and boosts their immune system greatly. After living here for one month, instead of getting pneumonia in the winter they will just get a cold like we tend to do. Also it gives them a better chance to fight against cancer when it strikes. There are hundreds of similar groups throughout the UK and Europe that do this work bringing thousands of children into a safe environment for a month each year.

So over the last year our group have been madly fund raising which has been harder than normal with the credit crunch still about, but we have managed it and the children are due to arrive on Monday 21^st of June.

This time last week disaster struck, we were told 4 of our children would not be coming because the UK Border control had changed the immigration rules and had not told any one (they don’t have to because they have such power it seems) that as of 22^nd May this year all Host family members (who the children stay with) have to have a CRB less than 3 years old. Some of our families were just over this and the charity’s rule was to renew every 5 yrs as CRB’s have no expiry date! On hearing this news we cried uncontrollably; you get attached to these children when they live with you or you see them during the week on outings etc knowing that their being here is helping their health and will make a difference to their lives; knowing that their life at home is often without parents (future Blog post I think), or in an orphanage or without running water, heating, or flushing loo, the thought that 4 of our group were not coming through no real fault of ours was too much to comprehend.  The 4 affected have been coming along time and I have been involved for 5 years so I know them all well. I shouted “ its not fair, they need to come to stay to be healthy, who do the Border control think they are?” in my rage. I wanted to run to London and bang on the door of No. 10 and shout sort it out, you have no idea what you are doing to these children! In reality the UK Border control have a duty to the safety of the children but at the time their reasons weren't foremost in our mind. The years the children have been coming for gives continuous support to their immune system – what would a years break do to all that hard work on their well being and health? I kept crying with anger whilst driving to work, at work, just everywhere really,the devastation was so great I had never experienced this other than family death that’s the only way I can describe it really. Your heart being wrenched out and feeling rage at the lack of control you have of the situation.

For 4 days other Chernobyl organisations and ours lobbied MP’s and parliament, they got to meet with some Ministers in London and finally they listened and a Minister with power (I don’t know who, but I and our group will be grateful as long as I live to them) over turned the UK Border control agencies rule for this summer. Oh the joy, oh the tears, the floods of tears and boxes of tissues I and others went thro. I was at work when I heard and stood crying at my counter in my studio with customers already in and some arriving. It took a while for me to calm down and explain, when I did they needed tissues too! I wasn’t ashamed of my tears I love these children dearly and I am proud of the work our charity does to try and give them a better chance in life by giving them better health.

So on Monday, FIVE DAYS TIME we will be welcoming our children back, 12 from last year and before that and 2 new ones going to 2 new families in our group. My husband and I host the interpreter/parent guardian to the children during their travel and visit, we have been told this will be Alina who came last year, (We daren’t take anything for granted until we see her at the airport but are still making plans of where we will go with her on her days off) an amazing young lady and one who became our life long friend without a doubt during her stay last year. She lives in a lower radiation area to the children – however it’s not a level which we would ever want to live in so she gets the benefit of better health too which is fabulous. So as we count down how many days, sleeps, nights, meals until they all hopefully arrive complete and safe and sound– anything to make it be Monday now, I know there will be more tears on Monday – buckets of the them just pure delight to see the children and our Alina. I apologise if it gets a bit soggy under feet in the Walton le Dale area, but I hope you will understand why.

I’ll let you know how it all goes and if you wish to find out more about what this charity does please visit www.mcrv.co.uk

Today found me waking up knowing I was going on BBC Radio Lancashire in the afternoon on the live show with Sean McGinty to talk about my Fired 4 U Blog and pottery painting of course. I felt excited and nervous all at the same time. Once at work I was straight into a Birthday party and then planning what we needed for the Hen party tonight so that took my mind off my radio appearance a bit.

Sean found us listed in the creative bloggers section of http://blogpreston.co.uk  and invited me onto his Saturday afternoon summer show. “Would I please take something for him to paint so he could have a go” he asked.

So off I went this afternoon armed with a large pint size mug, paints and brushes and spare plates and brushes, as of course there’s no sink in the studio to use for washing your painting tools as you go along. I left Mel looking after the studio so I could go out.

Once settled into the recording part of the studio Sean introduced me and Fired 4 U talking about Blog Preston which led us to talk about the Fired 4 U Blog. I am aiming to put articles up on here of varied subjects; telling you what we are up to and showing you how to do different painting techniques.

Painting pottery in an enclosed space with Sean was amusing, a challenge and great fun. His desk in front of the mixing decks (not sure if this is the right word for it) is about 9 inches wide – not much space to balance pot, paint and water right in front of electrical kit! However somehow we managed. Whilst Sean had a music track playing I mixed paint and showed him the first step, this allowed him a head start as time was limited.  Once on air I explained what he had to do and he made a ‘start’ whilst pulling a funny face when the paint ran a bit.

During the next track he quickly painted the handle and was finding it really relaxing and of course then he found it very hard to talk. His right side of the brain had kicked in and that makes it very difficult to talk and do something at the same time. See my Blog post on 11 March 2010 it explains all. If you listen to the replay of the program you’ll hear him almost stop talking – that was so funny to watch.  He had to explain to the listeners he was feeling very mellow and not to worry if all chat stopped!

 Of course we were doing this between Sean making sports announcements, having the jingle on and playing traffic news and of course interviewing me. During the next track he had to choose paint colours and what to use to decorate the mug. Now I had asked him in an email his preferences on colour and what his interests were and got back “oh choose any thing, what ever you think is best” – the worst thing I can be told! It is hard trying to second guess what someone would choose when you have no idea and don’t know them! So Sean chose tangerine as he is from Blackpool (the football strip is tangerine and if you don’t follow football they have just qualified to go up into the premier division). So to match Sean’s ambition as a rising star and Blackpool’s rising success he chose to use the star stamp. I demonstrated how to use this by putting a stamped star on to his mug during another music track, then once live on air again (whilst music is playing on the station we can talk to each other in the studio without the world hearing us) he stamped the stars in and did really well as he was still asking me questions at the same time. The last start just moved a bit so it became the unique bit and a shooting star!

It was good fun this afternoon and great promotion for my Studio, I hope we had lots of listeners. Sean is posting his photo of his mug on Facebook see http://www.facebook.com/pages/BBC-Radio-Lancashire/104022502968672?v=desc#!/BBCLancashire?ref=search

You can listen to the show for the next week here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0083dc9/Summer_Saturday_05_06_2010/ We were on air at 3.10pm so if you dont want to listen to all the show forward to 3.10pm and listen in

A few weeks ago I took a Call from BBC radio Lancashire - would I go on air and do clay hand prints with Brett Davison on the tea time show? He was covering the news of Anton Du Beke having a fitting a Louis Tussauds at Blackpool and want to create an impression of himself live on air too! So of course I said yes.

I prepared before going by rolling out the clay in advance to make life a bit easier - It took me 2 go's to roll out a piece of clay big enough as I am so used to doing babies from 7 days upwards - never done an adults and certainly not a lovely man from Yorkshire with big hands! So big infact the clay just fitted on my drying boards with not much to spare.

Brett was a delight to meet and we did great impressions of his hands in the clay. They dried out nicely then I fired them. Brett then came down to the studio so watch me paint them up whilst he interviewed me asking how I got into doing Fired 4 U.  Brett of course got hooked on Fired 4 U and returned to collect his finished hand prints and had his photo taken in the studio holding up his now treasured piece of art.

Here he is!

Listen to BBC Radio Lancashire on Saturday 5th June 3pm and you will hear me talking about this blog and teaching the DJ Sean how to paint pottery live on radio!

Sunday 25^th of April was a big event for Fired 4 U; we were attending the Croston Arts Festival, the first of its kind. It started off as a celebration with a village school and art and escalated to all sorts of art activities and events taking place all over the village.

So on Saturday when the last customer left the studio I loaded up the car with all the pottery and paints and then table and chairs and the important bucket to wash up in and bottles of water to wash up and paint with.

Sunday came and with my husband we set off for Croston and arrived there midday, to set up outside in the Crofter Arboretum – yes outside in the open air in a lovely setting with daffodils everywhere and blossom on the trees and not forgetting the big black clouds above. No rain for about a week or more and today it had to forecast 70% chance of rain, great!

Here is Fired 4 U set up in this lovely surrounding with a make shift paint station on the curb by the out door class room you can see over on the left. Another amazing bit of Croston.

In the same area there was a marquee with various singing groups performing over the afternoon and they were all very good. Over the far side there was an amazing artist carving tree trunks with a chain saw – wow he was good; eagles, religious figures and a cute bunny being about half of what he produced. The Chinese lion dancer made an appearance in and out of the trees, I could just see his head over the crowd and then we got a rush….. all 8 painting finished at once and needed to complete tracking sheets and decide where to collect their pottery from – my studio or designated collection point in the village, at the same time 8 and more wanted to sit down and have a go and then we had a queue waiting. Oh I juggled just like the circus school that was performing somewhere in Croston and doing a have a go session too.

At 4.30pm we stopped as we reached 50 painters which we had been given the funding for as all the activities had been sponsored by grants. Wow, we had been busy, that’s why my legs were aching! Sadly I was too busy to get a photo of the action. But everyone had fun and is now counting the days until they get their fired pottery back.

What of my husband mentioned earlier on? Well he helped set up and then took a wander to see what was on, found a comfy seat in a pub with pint and paper. He called to tell me “call if you need help”. When the rush went mad for the 3rd time, I did call and he came running and did a grand job of washing the painting tools and plates keeping them in circulation.

Hopefully we can make this event an annual one and I and Me, Fired 4 U will be delighted to do it again.

On Monday 19th April I had lots of fun in the afternoon with the Mums and toddlers group at Clayton Brook run by Home start. I am a member of the South Ribble Arts Forum and they are holding a big event for families on May Day Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May. To encourage people to go to the event they are doing arty crafty sessions with different local groups to encourage them to visit the event its self.

My brief - " to make some May Day bunting with the group, children age few weeks to 5 years"  Theres a challenge in itself with such a wide age range. "There could be 15-30 children attending and you have about an hour and twenty mins to work with them before they change activities!" So there was another challenge. So after racking my brain and waiting for inspiration to strike I came up with plain white bunting and hand prints done with fabric paint, then paint the group name and logo along the bottom of the bunting putting a letter in each point. I bought the bunting as I didnt have time to make it ( only asked to do this as the Easter School holidays started) and found some lovely bunting on www.cottonbunting.co.uk and then got some fabric paints.

So here is the table I set up and had started the prints age 2 weeks to 5 years I did.

The little ones came and sat with mums and then after choosing which colour they wanted I printed their hand print onto the bunting. Here's some of the artists.

The bunting when finished be on display in the Worden art gallery on Monday 3rd May at the May day event which starts late morning. After this the bunting will be given to the Clayton Brook Homestart family group to keep and use.

I also run a pre school group at Fired 4 U on the first thursday of the month called Mini Potters please see http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page9.htm

I would love to receive your comments about this activity, Thanks Jane

Tara of http://stickyfingers1.blogspot.com  is running a blog Gallery and this week the subject to write about is JOY.
This is my joy, my customers pottery having been glazed now waiting to be fired and read on why this brings me joy!

Last week was full of Joy for me, it all came from my customers being amazed at their achievements or enjoying the new experience.

On Good Friday a family came in for the first time, mum, dad, daughter and ‘baby’ of 19 months, they came back last Friday to collect the finished pottery. Mum couldn’t believe how lovely her daughter’s plate was and was blown away by the Easter bunny painted by her youngest and thanked me profusely. I only gave direction and glazed it but the joy on her face was thanks enough.

We had a group of children in each day supported by Mosaic community care, the children are mostly  autistic to varying degrees, or have sight or hearing difficulties. I can’t name them but  ‘A’ arrived not wishing to stay on Wednesday as he doesn’t like unfamiliar surroundings. Finding common ground with him somehow by discussing the Chitty chitty bang bang movie he settled in fine. At the end of the day before his mum collected him he just said I have had a great day, really enjoyed it and I will come back if my mum will bring me! Oh wow the joy I felt, I had really made a difference for ‘A’ and he came back on Friday and settled in straight away. A little girl called ‘H’ showing no facial expression really and being very quiet all day was with us for 4 days. Day 3 she turned round on her way out and said ‘Jane thank you I have had a lovely day, thank you for letting me make my elephant’ then I got a smile and a hug oh what joy I felt.

Wednesday evening I had a table of ladies in who are friends from college days. They hadn’t been able to get together at Fired 4 U since November. One said when they were clearing up, I love our chat and banter catching up on things but its not just that it’s the relaxing here at Fired 4 U. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. We must come back soon. Great joy! As it its relaxing and fun and when I hear this said it just makes my day and fills me with joy.

Back in January just after the snow had gone I went down stairs for Breakfast to find a black envelope on the door mat with silver writing all over it! Mmm I thought maybe a party invite? On opening it I was shocked to find it was an invitation to a Silver Wedding! Isn't that what your parents go to? or does this mean I'm a little bit older than I think I am?
After this age shock wake up call early in the morning, I thought ooh what to give as a present being the anniversary of my husband's cousin and his wife, I thought to paint a gift would be appropriate being as I am Fired 4 U after all. Now as we sadly don't get home to the north east very often, whilst I thought about a signature plate, a plate signed by your friends and family with their kind thoughts and a personalised design in the centre, I thought not practical as it could be another year before they get it back to them! Various other ideas flew through my head but I have to say I kept coming back to the signature plate idea. My husband, Bob, pointed out to me that as he was supporting the sponsored cycle ride ( being the back up car, not on a bike) for the charity we help with ( www.mcrv.co.uk/events.htm   feel free to pause here and make a donation if you wish) and he would be in Tynemouth on the 10th April ,he could drop the plate off (not literally I hope) to Dave and Caroline a bit further up the coast in South Shields. Yes that famous town where Joe the winner of X factor last year comes from.

I designed the centre piece from scratch putting the 'Bride' Caroline, in 80's style wedding dress and Dave the 'Groom' with only 3 hairs on his head being married 25 years and all that (although I have to point out he still has a full covering bless him). Caroline has been in the library service all her working life so I painted a pile of old leather bound books at her side making them look a bit like a wedding cake. Dave trained as a car mechanic and is a quality controller at Nissan so I painted a spanner beside him with 'love' painted down the handle. Then needing to preserve the painted design from food and drink I covered it up with clear plastic. So that was a couple of hours work just to do the painting after I had drawn the design.

So off we went to the Silver wedding celebration on 20th March and it was fascinating watching peoples reactions to the plate. Most had never come across this before and some had heard of it but not seen but it got the thumbs up as a great present. In order for the plate to be used safely after it is finished all the signatures have to be painted over! The signed piece was brought back home and here it is in stage 2: designed painted and signatures painted after another 2 hours work. The plate was signed both sides to allow for big messages and lots of guests.

  The front with design in the centre and good wishes now painted around it.

  The back of the plate of thoughts signed up with great messages of good wishes all painted up too.













Now I have to put the plate in Katy the Kiln to fire it and set the paints onto the pottery as to achieve a great finish on the writing I paint with a different type of under glaze paint to the ones we have in the studio for general use and this paint has to be fired to the pottery without glaze first.  After this is done I will glaze it by hand and then fire it again to fire the glaze on. Then I will put a photo up here of the finished plate of thoughts for my cousins in law! Dave and Caroline were thrilled when we took the plate up for them to the party and couldn't believe the work involved to make the gift. But I have seen many thrilled and delighted faces when customers have come to collect these items, thrilled at being able to read the messages clearly and having a useful momento from any special occasion. These plates are great for special birthdays, family gatherings, wedding gifts, anniversary gifts, leaving or retirement gift as message books just get hidden in a cupboard. I have even done one for a first birthday!

So please leave your thoughts on this plate when you have finished reading and I will let you know when the photo of the finished piece is up her

I find the way in which we function and view the role art in our lives very interesting. You will have heard people talk about the right and left side of the brain and how this determines how you function. The right side of the brain controls your left side of your body and vice versa but it is also the more creative thinking side of the brain too. This doesn't mean you are more arty than others if your right side is more dominant it just means you have a more creative approach to life and your interpret colours and patterns in a different way to those who use the right side of their brain more.

Take this test and see which side of your brain is dominant and see if the traits it shows are true are not, you have to answer the questions honestly and quickly to get a true result.

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

My results was that I use my right side 55 %  of the time and my left 45% of the time, I have learnt to move from one side to the other depending on what I am doing - its not easy but with understanding and practice you can get great benefits from this way of thinking.

Let me know what your test results are and see what you think

regards

Jane

Hello! My name is Sarah and I blog over at The Fifth Street Palace as well as The Fifth Street Academy. Jane has graciously let me take over her blog today with a fun t-shirt stenciling tutorial.

So with out further ado here we go!

Materials:

• t-shirt
• printer
• freezer paper (you can purchase it from amazon or some craft shops)
• exacto knife
• cutting surface
• fabric paint
• sponge brush
• card stock
• iron

Step 1:

Choose an image that will not be too difficult to cut and print it onto the dull side of the freezer paper.

Step 2:

Cut out the black parts using the exacto knife.  Be sure you have a cutting surface underneath so you don't cut your table.

Your stencil should now look like this.

Step 3:

Plave the stencil shiny side down on your t-shirt and iron.

Step 4:

Squirt a dab of paint onto a sponge brush.

Step 5:

Quite liberally fill in the stencil with paint.

(Yes I did get a little on the edge.  I ended up stenciling 2 butterflies to cover up my mistake).

Step 6:

Gently peel away the freezer paper.  Now bask in the beauty of your creation :)

Feel free to stop by The Fifth Street Palace and leave me a comment!

Hi I have been exploring Twitter and found a tweet asking for people to sign up to swop a blog for a day and be a guest on your blog. So I was paired up with Sarah Scott www.sarahlscott.blogspot.com, she lives in canada with her family and has a passion for crafts and keeping fit. Look out for her tutorial on T Shirt painting!

I was born in Corbridge and grew up in Northumberland in a family home surrounded by arty crafty influences. Both parents were very creative and even went to pottery evening classes when I was very young! Art always featured somewhere in our days whether it be play early on  on the 'clarty table' ( my brother and I could make as much mess as we wanted as long as it was on our little table which Dad made us known as the clarty table) or sketching what we saw on holiday and always only because we wanted to. At school I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do and when choosing my 'O' levels, art and textiles were pushed out to make way for French as it was important to have a language in your choices back then. Little did I know what I would end up doing many years later!

So eventually I went to Huddersfield Polytechnic as after working in the local hotel in my village I decided a carer in hotel management was going to be my thing. Left poly had various jobs all over the place and loved them all. Joined Swallow hotels in 1990, North East based company and I am sure because of this 9 (yes I am biased) it was such a friendly caring company to work for. All changed when the company was taken over 10 years ago and work life changed beyond recognition. Change is good you know and exciting but this change wasnt, I was moved over to run a hotel in Preston which I enjoyed and did this for 4 years. During this time we changed hands yet again and life became unbareable so I started to look for something different to do. Applied for all sorts of jobs and often got the 'you need the right bit of paper' to qualify for the job reply.

Whilst on holiday in Turkey in October 2005 I was reading the Country Living magazine and flicking through the adverts in the back. All kinds of things to buy if you had a mansion and lots of money to match, however I read out one for Pottery painting parties and immediately my husband Robert shouts up 'you could do that you know'. Not wholey convinced I had a surf about when we got home and found a Ceramic teacher over in Pontefract who was running a course the following weekend. So off I went for 2 days and basically came back announcing we were going to have a Paint your own pottery studio and I couldnt wait to hand in my notice! Of course Robert's feet were firmly on the ground and brakes were applied. Discussions took place into the wee small hours, figures were worked and re worked. And then to cut a very long story short and many challenges later Fired 4 U was opened officially on 8th July 2006 although we had been open for 3 days before we did the official opening. I just couldnt wait to get going