The Audacity!

The pain of telling anyone I have things to sell.

I’m not sure this really counts as even vaguely Ikebana but…

I have spent the best part of an hour prevaricating over whether I will write anything today; I simply feel as though I might rather do something else. This could be because I’ve had a full day and I do actually have many other things to do (my squash plants are slowly making their own way out of the plastic palace and must be planted imminently), but it could also be due to the fact that I have spent hours photographing and uploading pots for sale onto my website. It’s not that there are so many of them, but rather that my output is infrequent and, as a consequence, I forget how to do it each time.

The thought of writing and asking people to look at the things I’ve made, or even consider purchasing them, remains excruciating to me. I am ill-suited to any form of self-employment that requires me to sell anything, or indeed pretty much any other form of employment, in truth - and I have tried many!

I’ve been listening to Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, which I hoped would help me with my enduring lack of confidence regarding anything I make. Though it is an excellent book, it has so far only served to reassure me that it’s entirely normal to feel this way. I now accept that I’m in good company in this regard, but that doesn’t somehow make it any easier.

But here we are. I’m writing, my webshop is live, and here is the link. Please try to overlook any photographic inconsistencies or glaring typos - no AI involved there! Gosh, I hadn’t even thought about asking AI to do it for me. I wonder if it could?!

In The Past

This morning I was tagged in an Instagram post by somebody who reposted some of the images I made of my parents back in 2020. It was a lovely reminder of the pictures which I haven’t looked at recently, and she actually cited me as inspiration for the work she is now making which is truly flattering and made me smile.

Dad, Mum & Their Bed

As a child I spent many hours watching my parents get dressed and ready for the day ahead, and probably many more tucked up in their bed between them and alongside my sisters. These were tender and important moments that they were kind enough to let me capture retrospectively and I still love them.

In The Garden

Having spent last week carefully shading my many plant babies from the sun and trying to keep them cool and moist, this week has been spent wondering whether I dare open the door of the plastic palace at all. It was 10 degrees when I went out first thing this morning!

I did plant out some things last weekend. The sunflowers and cosmos are surprisingly resilient to the wind and rain, thank goodness, and even the sweet peas have begun flowering, which is always enormously rewarding. The tomato plants are flowering too, and I’m cautiously optimistic that I may yet be making tomato sauce to bottle in a few weeks.

Fruits to come…

Much of yesterday afternoon was spent with the chap who came to re-map the garden for Cressida (our mower robot). It proved to be unnecessarily complicated and had me once again wishing I could simply do these things myself. I’m sure this man is quite lovely and very able in many ways, but frankly it took some time for ‘us’ to get to grips with organising the mowing schedule despite his expertise, and there were other things I could have been doing much more productively. As it is, I saw Cressida first thing this morning and not since, so I need to go and investigate what’s going on...

Yup, I knew I was right to be suspicious!

In The Studio

Yet another week with less time than I’d hoped in the studio, but in fact, until my kiln is fixed, there is perhaps not too much pressure to make tons of stuff since I can’t fire it. I have a kiln technician coming next week so hopefully will be back in action shortly.

I have, however, spent today with my designer friend Becky Harrison, who has helped me plan a bit of reconfiguration and come up with some good suggestions for increasing worktop and storage space. I have already arranged for someone to come and measure up so that the flooring situation can be improved (the existing concrete is impossible to keep clean), and I may even be able to put down some underfloor heating beneath it, which would make winter much more bearable.

And I actually tidied up a bit this week 🙈

Needless to say, it will be weeks before anything happens, but it feels really good to acknowledge that having somewhere nice to work is important, and I can’t wait to make this little space feel more welcoming and efficient.

En Vacances

Having finally pinned Mike down as to when he will be able to take some leave this summer, I was disappointed to have it confirmed as the middle two weeks of August. This is pretty much my least favourite time to go away since it will be too hot in many places, too busy in almost all, and prices will be outrageously inflated everywhere.

Still, I’m trying to put my mind to somewhere lovely to visit in the UK (or maybe Ireland) where we can take Gertie with us.

I’m a tough client, since wherever we stay has to be at least as nice as home is, or I’d rather remain here - and home is really rather lovely. In reality, we will probably be moving out of Mike’s place in Surrey and into an apartment in Munich, so I’m allowing myself to dream of somewhere hot and sunny in the winter months instead.

I think we can all agree it’s time to plant these out!

Right, I’m off to dig holes for these squash plants and to take some photos to pop in here. As ever, I wish you a weekend filled with things that please you and put a smile on your face.

With love,

Vx

P.S. Finding this letter a tad dull, I scrolled through all my open browser windows to see if there was anything interesting I might share with you — but they’re all either plants, seeds, or pottery related, so I genuinely am that dull. I mean, there were the eleventy billion potential wedding outfits sent by my daughter, but I don’t think you’re after that here!