Rainbow Ceramics Swansea

Ceramics in West Wales

2011-12-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Dropped into Gwili Pottery today - I love their stuff, but to be honest, if I bought all the ceramics I love, I'd have to buy a bigger house! It was inspiring and discouraging in about equal measure. Inspiring because some of their stuff is so desirable, discouraging because it was so quiet and empty there .... like the roads of rural Wales, desert pathways apart from tractors and enormous lorries.

P. is finishing off bits and pieces for Saturday's craft fair in Neath - I don't know which of us will be doing it yet, it depends on the weather. There's an enormous box full of snowmen, dragons and vases downstairs. They look very festive I must say. It's times like this that I miss having our own studio!

Ceramic Christmas Elves

2011-10-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

The Christmas elves have been busy again making some stunning jugs with the festive season in mind.

Either of these little beauties would be a welcome addition to the Christmas decor!

They're Cooked!

2011-10-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

The butterflies, bunnies and dragons are cooked and out of the kiln, ready to be finished off (any little sharp bits on the bottom have to be rubbed off with a special stone), packed, labelled and delivered.

They're all looking very fine I must say.

There they are sitting on top of the kiln cooling off.
Thanks to the Butterfly Lounge in Briton Ferry for hosting such a fun workshop.

Kids Ceramics Workshop

2011-10-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

Paint your own Pottery workshop at the Butterfly Lounge in Briton Ferry this morning (01639 812418)

Butterflies, dragons, bunnies and mugs to paint from 10.am until 1 pm. Come and join us, but phone first to make sure there's room!

Christmas Vases

2011-10-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

It's just about that time of year again and the ceramic elves have been working away on a new range of Christmas themed items.

If you've no room for a Christmas tree in your home, a beautiful ornamental jug, some holly and a few fairy lights will do the job just as well (and won't shed pine needles either). At £35.00. it's a great investment.

This unique art vase would make such a great gift for the person who has everything - it's a one-off, so no danger they'll be getting one of these from anyone else! Has to be seen close up to appreciate the textures.

This elegant piece can be dressed up or dressed down, depending on how you want to use it. The classic shape and neutral tones will fit almost any scheme of home decor.

Here's the fabulous Christmas jug without the holly and lights - will look just as good in summer time with sunflowers or delphiniums.

Little Day Off

2011-10-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

Peter's gone to taday's craft fair without me. It's been a really busy week and I've been left at home to catch up (which I'm doing very, very slowly).

P's made a beautiful new jug, now waiting for some glaze. The butterfly workshop has been postponed until later in the year. I wish I could find the pale sunshine coloured glaze. Life is very busy, but I suppose that's good, would only get bored otherwise ......

Almost Ready for Next Week

2011-09-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Our kiln is now just about full of jugs, giant butterflies, dragons and all sorts of bits and pieces ready for next weeks's Butterfly Lounge workshop and an upcoming season of craft fairs.

Snowmen, masks and snails are already finished and fired ready for Christmas although a few more of this that and the another won't go amiss.

Never a dull moment eh - hope to see you at the Butterfly Lounge next week!

Craft Fair, Neath Saturday September 10th

2011-09-08T05:02:00.000-07:00

Despite the turmoil of the beginning of term, the Scholastic conference and me getting back on the road,
we're still going to be at the Neath Craft Fair (the little hall between St. David's Church and Alderman Davies School) this Saturday.

The butterflies came out a treat - from bisque, to painted to glazed is quite a difference! Don't forget the Butterfly Lounge workshop on September 26th, where I'll be on hand to help you to paint your own beautiful butterfly (or whatever else you fancy really .....)

Meanwhile, we'll be bringing some jugs and dragons to the Craft Fair

Great Christmas presents for dragon lovers, we'll be starting to take Christmas orders this week. With ceramics, you really do need to shop early for Christmas, as each item is hand crafted and has to go through at least five time consuming processes before it's finished.

Once upon a time, the little ceramics fairies (me and my gang) used to work ridiculous hours up to the Christmas wire, but the Three Wise Men popped in and told us not to be so silly, so now we stop taking orders in late November, so that we can enjoy Christmas without worrying about the kiln.....

Hope to see you in Neath on Saturday!

Very Hot 1st September

2011-09-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for the kiln to cool.

We put it on last night at about seven o'clock and normally it would be cool by now. But it was packed full of jugs, butterflies, dragons and teddies and also last night was quite warm and so is today ...... so it's taking forever to get down to a reasonable temperature.

If you open the kiln when it's too hot, the thermal shock will very likely crack your lovely glazes.

I wish I had time to paint a massive salad bowl, but no chance of that as I'm back on the road tomorrow and term starts on Monday. Buying school clothes for a non-standard sized child is a nightmare!

I wonder if the kids will paint "presents for the teacher" again this year after the school play. That's always a fun little end of term session.

Can't wait to open the kiln and see how the butterflies turned out!

Gearing Up for Autumn

2011-08-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Peter's new display stand for craft fairs, with a few hedgehogs and other bits and pieces ready for the kiln is good to go (first appearance, Neath Craft Fair (a few thoughts on Craft Fairs in general via the link) on 10th September - which is just one Saturday away, gulp - where is this year going to?)

We'll also be at the Butterfly Lounge on 26th September with an assortment of mugs and butterflies to paint

Above, two unglazed samples ready for the kiln, I'll post the glazed versions as soon as they're fired - you'll be amazed by the difference 1008 degrees of heat can make!

We're also working on our birthday party programme. Current thinking is a bisque item to paint and commemorative birthday plate for the birthday child, cost £10 per head, minimum numbers 10 children (negotiable within reason). We'll come to your home or to a venue of your choice to run the party and will return all painted items glazed, wrapped and clearly labelled within the week.

Phone us on 01792 461487 or 07827015455 for more info (or leave me a message here and we'll get back to you).

Phew - now back to the rest of life for a minute (never a dull moment - it gets tiring sometimes, but it's rarely dull!)

Working on it

2011-08-29T02:55:00.000-07:00

The Green Man looks on as P's vase cools .......

Craft Fairs, Butterflies and Turmoil

2011-08-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely time at the Neath Craft Fair. As you can see, there were ample refreshments on offer from MamasHomeBaking (the lime and ginger sponge, fourth along between the strawberry and raspberry sponges) was my favourite, absolutely delicious.

Peter spent the afternoon between customers painting bisque for future firings. I took photos and chatted with the other stall holders. I was all set to post the Craft Fair report and then my two older girls had a car crash (no major damage, except to the car). Even so, that kind of slowed me up rather.

However, back into the swing of things now and painting sample butterflies for a workshop at The Butterfly Lounge on 26th September - butterflies large and small, suitable for home or garden decoration, or mugs to be decorated as you wish (but butterfly stencils available ...).

P. is also busy glazing vases for the next Craft Fair (September 10th) in Neath.

More info and photos coming soon!

From my column in today's South Wales Evening Post

2011-08-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

We're working on it, honestly. Timely moment for the SWEP to give a helping hand!

Generally speaking, high summer is not the time for ceramics. Ceramic studios located away from the main tourist haunts often close down completely for July and August. We’ve been doing craft fairs and school summer fetes recently though and our ceramic garden snails and Green Man masks have been very well received. Also, it’s such good fun doing ceramics with kids - a licence to splash glaze around, plus the fact that they absolutely have to wait for the end product. Like the old Supremes hit “You Can’t Hurry Love, You Just Have to Wait”, you can’t hurry ceramics. Making, glazing and firing are all processes which take time, but every time you open the kiln, it’s a bit like Christmas …..

You’ll gather from this that we haven’t disposed of the kiln which is still making its presence felt in our front room. In fact, ceramics is running a close second to book selling as the activity of choice this summer, in our house at least.

At one point, I got so excited about our hand crafted ceramic snails that I wrote half a poem about them. “The garden snail is fairly charmless, But ours are absolutely harmless …” are the only two lines I can remember. Sadly, the rest of the poem disappeared in transit to a craft fair, although the tag line at the end was “P.S. We don’t eat plants”.

So, if summer is busy on the ceramics front, I suppose it would be safe to assume that autumn and winter will be even busier. In bygone days, October, November and December were our mad months, when everyone in the world’s latent craft skills came to the fore and Christmas present planning and creation was the name of the game. Guides, Brownies, Rainbows, schools and W.I.s all thronged into the studio to paint mugs, plates and a variety of other personalised ceramic gifts - the perfect present for the mum, dad or gran who has everything.

Plates with handprints, Christmas tree plates, ceramic snow men and those kitsch but delightful Christmas tree lights were our stock in trade at one time, and by the look of it, may be again. Life, it seems, is cyclical. I thought our ceramic days were over, but not at all. Have glaze, will travel is my new motto, and snails, mugs and snowmen jostle for space in the back of the car with gym kit and boxes of books, whilst the weekly shopping just has to fend for itself!

Feverish Activity

2011-08-08T00:46:00.000-07:00

Working on new leaflet and future plans today, whilst P. has filled the hall up with wood for a display unit.

I've noticed that over on my Suite 101 pages, there's a sudden surge of interest in Christmas knitting patterns (shudder) and recipes, which is making me think that the national mood is autumnal already (no surprise there then, bearing in mind the awful weather.)

I'm thinking perhaps we should bring our snowman lights along with us on Saturday ........

Craft Fair, Neath Saturday 13th August

2011-08-07T04:16:00.000-07:00

Rainbow Crafts will have a table at the Neath Craft Fair (St. David's Church Hall opposite the top end of Victoria Gardens) on Saturday 13th August.

We will have a range of garden ceramics and other items available for sale, plus a chance to Paint Your Own Pottery.

Why not pop in for a chat?

Welcome to Rainbow Ceramics

2011-08-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

You may remember us - we used to be Chapel Street Studio in Mumbles. Our studio was (surprise surprise) on the corner of Chapel Street, opposite Mrs. Mac's glorious wool emporium.

That used to be us, and for a few glorious years, we had the most fun anyone could ever have with glaze, bisque and children's parties ....... and then stuff happened, and we had to stop.

But, time moves on. We never got rid of the kiln, it's now a feature in our front room (also serves as a coffee table ..... well, maybe not .....)

There it is, hosting a ceramic snail feste - you don't get one of those very often!.

Anyway, now we're back, offering a mobile service for parties, workshops, events and commissions. Watch out for us at local craft fairs or follow our adventures here.

Come back soon ......