Picked up some bigger pices of slate on my last visit to an old quarry.Been playing around with some ideas for bowls carved from the slat in my sketch book for the last few week’s and iIt seemed a shame to brake up these larger pieces for candle holders so made a start on a couple of new slate bowls, will be adding more to the next few I make as I like how these turned out and got them ready for the market in blackrock tomorrow.
Well as I was taking part in this craft festival I figured I’d push myself and enter the competition and come up with a Tea Cosy. It’s not like I’m ever going to get asked to come up with a slate cosy and I do like challenge especially when it’s a bit off the wall and not something I’d think of in a million years. Sometimes you just got to jump in with both feet and see what comes out of it.
So after day’s mulling over the absurdity and lots of pages filled in a sketch pad ( I now have at least a dozen ideas for slate tea cosy’s) I settled on what I thought I could make from what I had around the workshop.
And the result.Here’s my entry for the national tea cosy competition, you can vote for your favourite fantastic creations on-line at www.nationalteacosy.wordpress.com , hey you might even like mine enough to vote for. So get sharing and clicking. It’s all in a good cause. All proceeds from the sale of mine go straight to the charity
Some of the new candle holders I’ve been working on. The grain in the rock and the colours makes them all unique, even though i select
the slate with a limited idea of the extent of the veins of colour I only discover how many layers of colour are there after I’ve worked into the slate.
Some new mirrors and candle holders made last week from Wicklow slate. Added a little detail with some copper spirals. I like the contrast of slate the copper and the glass of the mirror.
So the past few week’s I’ve been on the lookout for slate a quarry as I’m looking for a bit more variety in the type of slate that I use. Now I know there’s one in Valentia in Kerry and another in Tipperary but as of yet i haven’t had the time to go and have a look at them. So after a few hours searching through the internet I was drawing a blank and figured I’d have to put it on the long finger and wait till I had some free time to go visit them. Then out of the blue during a random conversation with a framing customer he start’s to tell me about his slate patio he got put in a few years ago, so a day or so later he call’s me to give me the location of the quarry and by luck or by coincidence turns out it’s about an hours drive from where I live and only about 10mins from my sister’s house. So off I headed yesterday to pay her a visit and while I’m down that way go have a look and stumble across this.
Well needless to say I was like a kid in a candy shop and loaded up my little car with probably more slate than I should have. But I make it back to the workshop today in one piece, I’m looking forward to working on this slate, it has a lot more colour going through it than the slate I’ve been using not that there’s anything wrong with it I’m just always on the lookout for something different. My little mind is buzzing .
A car boot full of slate
So this week got me thinking that people might like something to put their coasters in when not using them.Although the first question I usually get asked when calling into someone’s house is would you like a cup of tea? and out come the coaster’s. So out comes the sketch pad and following day off to the workshop, and after a couple of trials I finally settled on this design. Simple but functional and more than one use.
Made from black ash and slate to hold a set of four coaster’s. I’ve already got some designs for carving into the slate which I’ll add at a some point in the future.
Although made for the coasters turns out they can be used for holding letters and napkins too.
Also had a go at carving some figures into the slate instead of cutting out. Turned out like a bas-relief, carved a bit too much into the slate in a couple of places but I’m happy how it ended up, I like that I can see the tool marks from carving into the slate, a little rough around the edges (but then some say that about me). Mounted a small shelf onto it to hold a candle.
And a candle shaped candle holder. Now off to the market tomorrow to see how I get on.
As well as working out the designs for the coasters I even managed to pick up a washable foam backing for them so they don’t mark your furniture. They are in set’s of four, and where possible cut from the same slate to keep the colour the same. Although in set’s of four every coaster is individually carved so some differences will occur. And will be available from my stall in Blackrock Market this weekend.
A new year, a clean slate and a new blog, this one i’ll be updating on a regular basis.
Week one of 2012 and i found myself bored of tv and not having much in the way of insperation for painting so off i headed to my workshop. I’ve been making slate mirrors for month’s before christmas and have ended up with a lot of cut off slate, to small to make mirrors with. And being a bit of a horder never trowing away anything figuering i’ll find a use for it someday. Well this week i came up with carving designs into them, then worked out the slate was roughly the same size as a coaster. So after an evening working up design’s in a sketch pad, am still amazed that when i start out with one idea how it can take off in the sketch pad must have at least 20 ideas for the coasters, i setteled on 5 for now but way more to follow. And some new ideas for the slate.
