In my last post I promised you a bit more about Hampshire Open Studios - so here you go.

Four artists shared the space - Rob Turner China was hosting, so my first post focussed on his wonderful and joyful china.

But lets take a closer look at what else was going on.

Basically we used three linked spaces - and the garden deck in between.

Rob and Andy have a wonderful garden studio - I wrote about it here when I had a dog sitting session and took the opportunity to borrow the studio.

The garden studio featured large in my last post, the first one about Hants Open Studios. One end is the decorating station and the other end is more display etc.




But the kiln is in the former garage linked to the house - the kiln room. Now this is really semi industrial space - that Kiln is a beast - but its amazing what you can do with a bit of flair and imagination and we were able to turn that kiln room into a lovely long gallery.




And the top of the kiln was turned into a big display area - more of my lamps and some hand made cards, plus you can just about make out my artists book in the bottom of the picture.


And pictures hanging behind the kiln.

 I shared the top of the kiln with some smaller works by Jane Willingale of Loudware. Some of her cards made from Lino prints.


And on the wall of the garage hung simply on a sheet of coloured card some of her perspex necklaces.

At the other end of the garage, as you come in from the garden and the studio, is a working sink. Rob had rigged up an ingenious side panel to hid the sink and all the nasty sink stuff. Here are more of Janes necklaces gracing the side panel and below is Jane during set up.



We used all the space - hanging some of my smaller lampshades from the beam in the middle of the room.  (See what I mean about that kiln? Its a beast!)



Below, another shot of the kiln room from the Vestibule (I will come onto that next!)




And so, onto the final display area - The Vestibule.

This is the official gallery space and since it is probably not much more than 6 ft square we reckon it might be the smallest gallery in England! (Give me a shout if you know of a smaller gallery. )

First up, stunning Poole Pottery transformed by Rob and Andy. This made it's original outing at the Transformation show in Milton Keynes in 2016.  This was on the wall immediately on the right as you came in from the kiln room.




Yes, those lampshades are by yours truly but look at what is going on on the walls. The most amazing 3D pieces.  It is difficult to quite describe them. There are stitch techniques in there. And fabric but I guess they are best categorised as sculpture.


I loved this 'doll' - it found a loving new home!


 I am going to let the pieces speak for themselves here.



Some of Jane's jewellery dotted about.





Wall space in the vestibule filled with stitched mono prints by yours truly and more jewellery.




If nothing else, this was a lesson on how to turn fairly unpromising space into the most amazing display area. It was hard work. I was there for 2 days and infact Rob and Andy had started much earlier redecorating etc.

It was a very successful event. I made the best sales ever, Jane sold a lot of jewellery and Malisa sold work too.

We are planning a November sale. Which means I have to get my act into gear. I am running low on stock!

Jane is a lovely and very well established artist. You can read about her varied art career here.  I was honoured to be be hanging my work alongside hers.

And here is an example of her very distinctive style, though I should say that she is no longer doing pottery (I think her kiln room is now a bathroom!) but still does prints and makes fabulous jewellery.


As well as Rob and Andy's wonderful bone china, we also had the most amazing wall hangings by Malisa Sledmere. You can read about her recent outing at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth here.

So, for your delectation, here are a few pictures from the wonderful, wonderful Hampshire Open Studios.

There is too much for just one post, so I think I am going to spread this report out over two.

Let's start with some of the wonderful bone china designs by our lovely hosts.


The shelves in the studio are packed with delicious goodies. Honestly, I could easily have filled the boot of my car with more.  Just look at some of these colours.










The mugs hang in ordered rows, and they are very tempting. Rob had to fire the kiln up a couple of times during Open Studios as the mugs rather flew out!


And glorious handmade cards.










If you are tempted by any of this, then you can buy the china from their web site here.  They are also regular visitors to the Winchester Art and Design Market.  You will find them near Russell and Bromley.



We were blessed with wonderful summer weather so we were able to offer tea and cake on the verandah and it also gave some of us a fabulous sun bathing opportunity!




It is a glorious garden - and if you are in the Gosport area they welcome visitors who would like to browse the china. Best give them a ring first in case they are out walking the dog!

I will leave you here. But there is more so pop back for the next instalment soon.

August and September went by in a bit of a blur.

And now we are nearly into October - in fact by the time this post gets published it will be October.

How did that happen?

If you saw my last post you will have seen that my mother was poorly. It was her last illness and sadly we lost her at the beginning of September.

August seemed to disappear in a blur of motorway journeys up and down to Kent, where she lived, and then September just seemed to be one long week (I have no ideas what happened to the weekends.) One highlight in August was Hampshire Open Studios. I will report on that in my next post.

But here we are - summer is slipping into its autumn clothes.

There have been no garden visits this year (and indeed my own little patch has been a bit neglected after the joy of the tulips in the spring). But as late summer slips away it is having a last hurrah.



Most joyful (because they cost nothing) are the nasturtiums - a very cheap packet of seeds picked up somewhere random. They looked very unpromising early on but now are seem to be gaily romping all over the garden with gay abandon. And they bring a cheer to the heart. Pops of vibrant orange - some tinged with red, others almost yellow.







And the other little things to make me smile is the fuchsia (I thought it had not made it through winter) and a little creeping geranium bought last year at Coton Manor.




And I have managed to plant up a couple of containers of pansies - these cheerful little plants will see me through to the spring.



I will be back soon with a report on the Hampshire Open Studios - a wonderful event I shared with my lovely friends Rob and Andy.

The best way to keep a blog is to plan regular posts so that you, dear reader, are kept engaged with all the goings on. That's the theory anyway, and certainly its what all the blogging experts say.