pottery

Cee’s fun foto challenge : Circles and Curves

Sometimes you just can’t resist a challenge, other times you are lured there bit by bit.  Cee does her very best to make it fun and I do like to reciprocate.  I started out with my head full of Greek amphitheatres and quirky gnomes pushing spherical balls in Wroclaw, but look where I ended up!

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You know I’ve been mentally wandering the Greek Islands lately?  Well, it was on one of those islands (and right now, I don’t recall which) that the great plate adventure began.  We had recently moved into a house with a Delft rack, and it seemed a shame not to use it.  Standing outside a Greek pottery shop, I chanced to admire a plate in the window, and right there the collection began.

Not the cheesey “souvenir from Corfu” type, you understand.  Oh no!  Far more tasteful than that.  But it did become a feature of our holidays for a number of years that we aided the local economy with a carefully chosen plate.

I think these dolphins were our first.
I loved this one! It has a matching vase too.
Of course, we had to have the traditional style as well.
Even though they were a little cheesey!
I did like this one , from Rhodes
And this metallic one caught my fancy too.

Back in the UK, I spotted some beautiful Russian plates in a magazine.  A semi-naked kitchen wall seemed to be crying out for a little attention.  Before I knew it, I was collecting again.  Aren’t they a lovely shape?

This post gives me the opportunity to try out the circles format in the WordPress gallery.  If you click on the first of each series of plate you can see them in close up.  Sorry the photography’s not great.  Much scope for practise, methinks!

I guess I just like plates!  I even started to receive them as presents.  This little one normally sits on the top shelf of my china cabinet.  No, I’m not going to show you the entire contents of the cabinet.  A girl has to have some secrets.

Pretty, isn't it?

Pretty, isn’t it?

Thanks Cee, for this opportunity to mess around with circles.  You’ve properly cheered me up.  Head over to Cee’s page for some totally different takes on circles and curves, and some much better photography.

Sunday Post : Collectibles

Having just returned from Wrocław with over 300 photos, you could say that I collect photographs!  However it’s wonderful of Jake to unexpectedly present me with the opportunity to display some of them with his theme for this week, Collectibles.

My uncle Włodek lives in the Polish town of Zgorzelec, snuggled so closely to the border with Germany that it has a counterpart across the River Neisse, in Gorlitz.  The two are one, but divided by language and a boundary.  On Saturday morning when we went to explore this curiosity, it transpired that there was a large market in process, and the following caught my eye.

Don’t you love this pottery?

Or maybe this style?

With a tealight? Delicious!

Motyli – butterflies.  I don’t know what they are in German?

Something more for the garden?

 

Or maybe him? He’s looking pensive.

 

While the horse looks patiently on.

I have to confess, I love pottery and spent happy minutes just browsing.  When it comes to collecting, though, my real vice is postcards.  I filled a suitcase with them, and when it was overflowing, decided enough was enough.  But I still gaze longingly at postcard stands.

So much “stuff” we collect!  One of my nieces came back to England with me and we were looking in the local museum yesterday.  The teddy bear collection was everybody’s favourite.  Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear -what would life be without them?

Many thanks again to Jake for presenting yet another opportunity to share my world.  I’m late this week (for good reason) but maybe you’d like to join in next week?  The details are all on Jakesprinters home page.