#fife pottery

[thesilicontribesman]

Prehistoric Pottery Selection, St Andrews Museum, Fife, Scotland

[sisters-in-scotland2024]

Day 2 on the Fife Coastal Path - Crail to Kingsbarns. A great Scottish breakfast to start the day, a visit to Crail pottery, a walk along golf courses and through Cambo gardens.

[wemyssware-blog]

Griselda has painted this commission based on our Winter Rabbit design🐇❄️💙

[on-misty-mountains]

East Lomond Hillfort

This week we drove out to Fife to visit the hillfort East Lomond for a hillfort tour. This Iron-Age-style fort is likely associated with the Venicones, a Southern Pictish tribe. One of the first things that was found here during excavations was a pictish stone, a stone slab with the carving of a steer, a castrated bullock, which may point to the use of agriculture in the surrounding area. Fife still has copious amounts of farmland nowadays. When we arrived, a heavy cloud was sitting on the hills and the top of the hillfort was shrouded. A strong wind was pushing clouds past us, occasionally revealing the shape of the fort. Eventually we entered the cloud and made our way to the top.

Unsurprisingly, there was no view to be had from, but if you look closely around the column (which shows you the surrounding mountains you could potentially see), you can see a circular raised edge. This is likely the outline of a broch, a big stone tower, that once stood on top of East Lomond.

Everything is covered in grass. There are only vague outlines suggesting walls, bumps and lines suggesting former buildings. However, excavations uncovered plenty of things, for example prehistoric and Roman pottery, a Bronze ring-headed pin, an iron horse-bit, shale and glass armlets, an ingot mould, a crucible and a rotary quern. The abundance of everyday items suggests a site which was occupied permanently. Even a Bronze Age tomb was found. On the picture below you see the ramparts. There probably would have been a big wall on top back in the day.

When we got out of the wind, the clouds blew apart for a brief period and revealed the village of Falkland on the plains below:

It’s a very picturesque village and one of its attractions is Falkland Palace, which you can see to the right:

On the other side we had a view towards Lothian. The faint outline of Arthur’s Sea and the Crags, two landmarks of Edinburgh, was illuminated by the low Winter sun. Arthur’s Seat itself is a hillfort. Its occupants must have been able to see East Lomond as well. 

As we descended, we came upon a long wall with a ditch, following the shape of the hillfort downwards. This was probably the lower part of the ramparts.

This is what the other side of the hillfort looks like. The gentle slope on the left is probably the way people would have gone up to the top.

On the way back we stopped by the lime kiln. In the 19th Century limestone was broken up and burnt in this kiln, in order to be mixed into the acidic soil to improve crop fertility. It was backbreaking labour, as the men toiled from 4 am (!) till 5 pm, breaking up roughly 2 tons of stone, inhaling smoke and dust in the process. The arches were ‘draw holes’, facing different directions, so that the burnt lime could be drawn out facing away from wind and rain.

By this point the heavy cloud had vanished and the setting sun lit up the hillfort:

As we descended towards the car park, we could see West Lomond, a much bigger and steeper hill, the other of the two ‘Paps of Fife’, the most notable ‘bumps’ in the otherwise relatively flat landscape of Fife. The day ended quite differently from how it started.

Click here if you want to watch the hillfort tour on Youtube.

[mybeingthere]

Jo Walker is a ceramicist based in Fife who trained as a Jeweller and Silversmith but went on to discover her passion for pottery.

Her work is made from clay, usually thrown on the wheel and finished with layers of clay slip using a technique called SGRAFFITTO.

SGRAFFITTO is the Italian word meaning to scratch. For pottery it is a decorative technique which requires applying layers of coloured slip on top of the thrown pottery ( usually leather hard/partially dry ). Tools are then used to scratch into the surface to create contrasting patterns, textures and images to reveal the other colour of clay underneath. Tools such as a wire stylus or rubber tipped shapers work well to create the desired effect.

Her patterns and imagery are inspired by nature, the simplicity of Scandinavian design and ’50s textiles. In particular plants and birds influence the form and function of her ceramic works.

https://www.fcac.co.uk/.../treat-store-artist-profile-jo.../

https://www.jowalkerceramics.co.uk/

[poemsfromearthsea]

The Roots of the Sky

Past the place where the roots of the sunset drip like spilled wine into the sea -- past the golden blur of the sun on the treetops -- past the dark line that wavers where sand vanishes into sky -- there was a city. In the forges of this city they worked great bellows that breathed fire into the coals where the sun came to rest every night. In the airy rafters of its high buildings, weavers spun clouds and sent them sailing from the rooftops into the sky. The dyers in the little shops along the streets mixed blues, azure and cerulean and midnight, and laid colors at the bottom of the sky to bleed along its lengths. 

Never was that city without a song. All along its waterfronts, in the bright-painted houses stacked one on top of the other, from windows where clotheslines flapped in the breeze or plants drooped lazily over the street, under bridges where rafts floated along the river with cargoes of rainwater and dye, and in the festival streets where the whole city thronged three times a week, notes rang out from harp and fife, fiddle and throat. Songs older than the sun. Songs a grandmother sang at bedtime. Songs new-hatched, warbling uncertainly into the world on unfledged wings.

 A favorite song for friends and lovers -- for anyone who cared, really -- was sounded perhaps more than any other.

And if you go out roaming, And if you find the sea, Gather up its waters And bring them home to me.

Ixi leaned over the river to catch the box Helador was handing her. She liked it here, at the very edge of the city where the sky curled long pale tendrils into the earth, waiting to be watered. You could feel space hovering just past that thin membrane of faded blue. She took the last box from Helador and then took their hand and helped them climb over the tall wooden river wall. 

They sang as they unpacked the bottles of dye, and sang as they poured it over the roots of the heavens, one bottle at a time. No words passed between them except those of the song, which met in long-memorized harmonies between them and communicated their constancy -- I’m here, you’re here: we are here, together.

And if you ever travel Alone on human ground, Gather up their stories And carry me their sound.

The air was very bright and green, and spring might finally be winding its way across the cold city. The air was still sharp and cold yesterday, but the way snowmelt is cold, melting into puddles and feeding the grass. 

And so the blue bled into the sky, and verdancy stitched itself slowly into the air, and Ixi and Helador sang songs until they swung back onto their raft, hands patched cerulean and drying in the sun.

“Helador,” said Ixi, handing them a rafting pole. Not a question.

They smiled and began to sing.

And Ixi if you wander Beneath a sky of blue, Remember I am waiting-- Waiting here for you.

“Unfair,” she said, scrambling to sit on the edge of the raft. “I can’t put your name in the song.”

“Afraid of adventuring without me, Ixi?”

“Not at all. I want you to have all the glory while I stay home.”

“Martyr. I know you’d rather leave here than I would.”

They lapsed into silence, and the river slid blue-green-amber under the raft. Ixi’s hair swept backward in the wind, a dull gold banner. The great jewel was high in the colorless sky and Helador passed the rafting pole to her and took her seat at the front of the raft.

Slowly, the heavy evening silence was broken by the warbling sounds of a hundred songs, and they knew they were nearing the city. Helador stood up and danced to the sound of a fiddle that drifted over the water, ducking round Ixi and under her pole, and she grinned and set it down a moment, letting them drift while she placed her palm on Helador’s, the other behind her back, and they danced a clock-path as the dome-keepers hauled the great jewel down on its invisible ropes.

And if you go out roaming, And if you find the sea, Gather up its waters And bring them home to me.

Helador’s mother sang on the wharf as they poled in and moored the raft. A wavering line of heat swam over the city, rising up from the great forge, and the cooling sphere of the sun sank, red-hot, into it.

“I do want to see the sun set from up above,” yawned Helador as they walked away from the docks. Their mother shot them a look, and Ixi smiled at the ground.

The doors of the forge shut with a resounding clang. The air trembled and the familiar vibration shot through the ground. Thoughtless, by instinct, Ixi caught Helador’s hand, and Helador took their mother’s arm, and the three of them stood, anchoring each other, for just a moment before they broke apart. 

Line upon line of little glass spheres, lit from inside by white candles, slid on their rusting tracks and filled the dome with a light that might have been starlight, if you had never seen the stars. 

Helador’s house leaned over the street, a dusky blue shadow lit faintly from within. It was late, and they were tired, and their mother nodded at Ixi to remind her that she could stay the night. And so the shadow of the house swallowed the shadows on the street, and the mechanical hum of the city carried on in the dark. 

Inside the house it was warm and dimly lit by candlelight. Helador’s mother walked from doorway to doorway, lighting the lamps so that they could walk through without disturbing the transformatory spirits that lurked in every threshold. Helador went to the stove and fed the flame under the pot simmering there, and Ixi gathered bowls and spoons, stopping on her way to the cutlery to lean over Helador’s shoulder and stir the soup, a hand over his.

At dinner Helador and Ixi talked quietly about the overworld, trying to sort legend from fact and rumor from reality. Helador’s mother shook her head at their imaginings but put in a word here and there -- the common myths when she was a child that had since died out.

Ixi lay at the foot of Helador’s bed and counted the lights on their ceiling. An old game. She knew how many there were but she counted them again, as though the number might have changed. As through Helador had added more when her back was turned. “Let’s not die without seeing the stars,” she said.

“Aiming for immortality, Ixi?”

“That was uncharacteristically pessimistic of you.”

“My mother’s influence.”

“Hmm. I bet there’s a way.” She yawned. “Maybe we could ride the sun.”

“It’s on fire,” Helador noted.

“Good point. Maybe we could climb the sky.”

"There aren’t footholds.”

Ixi sighed. “Maybe we should go to sleep.”

“Goodnight, Ixi, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“If the sky isn’t blue,” she replied.

“If the stars stay the same.”

"If the sun isn’t true.”

The old lullaby finished, Ixi pulled a blanket round herself and fell asleep. And when her breathing filled the tiny room, Helador followed her.

In the morning, the glass stars trundled down their threading and the great jewel rose instead of the sun in the sky, now dyed a blank blue. Ixi and Helador woke and smiled at one another. And Helador’s father’s voice swam in through the bedroom door.

Welcome to the Festival, You’ll find here what you may; Things from nigh and things from yon And things from far away.

Ixi grinned. “I’d forgotten today was a festival day!”

Helador took her hands and they half-tumbled, half-leapt out of bed, still in their work clothes from the day before. “You still have clothes here,” Helador yawned, and Ixi found the corner of their closet where she had stashed extra clothing for these occasions. A blue sundress, auspicious in color and symbolism. They crossed their hands briefly over each other’s hearts, a sign for happiness, and stepped over the threshold for breakfast.

There was cinnamon cooking somewhere in the kitchen, and the shouts of the festival already drifted through the window. “Can we leave?” asked Helador. Their father raised an eyebrow at them. “Please?” They hurried to cross their hands over their father’s heart and grab cinnamon rolls for themself and Ixi.

Helador’s father rolled his eyes and nodded, shooing them out the door, and they ran with a shout into the light and color of the festival. Music blossomed like a rainforest, flooding the air. Vendors hawked their wares from every corner, and Helador and Ixi tossed bronze coins, flashing, back and forth to one another until they found something they wanted to buy. A necklace, a bright scarf, a jar of raspberry candy. Laughing down to the pier. Ixi flung herself toward the edge of the water, catching a piling and swinging out over the amber river. The world was full of light. 

And the days stretched on, stained blue. Helador collected scraps of wood, determined to build a glider so that they could coast upward on the hot air rising from the setting sun. Ixi took on an apprenticeship with a blacksmith and quit and wasn’t sure what to do with herself. They met by morning and evening, swimming in the river and running home barefoot, leaving dark footprints behind on the hot street. 

They sang the summer away. In the fall, Helador set aside their glider and shouldered a pack, bound for the academy. Ixi, who had given up on school a year ago, practiced weaving and pottery, trying to find something to sell. When dark settled into the creaking sky, layers and layers of darkness falling like gauzy shawls over the summer’s fading blue, two shadows swung past the lampposts, dancing a lopsided dance along the street and down toward the dock where they met. 

Helador brought their books and told Ixi anything she deemed worth knowing from the day’s lessons; Ixi brough tales from the workshop, the warehouse, and the streets. Feral cats and breaking equipment and over-entitled customers. 

And before the great jewel sank fully out of sight -- before the clang of the forge echoed like some forgotten god’s dying breath over the trembling rooftops -- they sang one last song quietly out over the water, their voices tangling together, low and high and gravelly and sweet.

And if you go out roaming, In darkness or in light, Catch a star or catch a cloud And bring it in my sight;

And since you are my dearest friend, And since the sky is blue, I’ll gather up the ocean And I’ll bring it home to you.

“I don’t want to go home tonight,” said Ixi one evening.

“I never want to. Where would we go instead?”

“The overworld,” she yawned.

Helador laughed a quiet, scoffing laugh that puffed out into the air and died over the river. “The overworld,” they repeated.

“It can’t be impossible.”

“Yes it can.”

“It shouldn’t be.” 

Helador shifted slightly in the dusk. And slowly they stood up, and gathered their blankets, and headed home in silence through the thickening dark.

Helador broke that winter. Caught in the grips of a fever, they had wandered to the harbor to watch the sunset when a horse run rampant caught them beneath its hooves, breaking their  bones and leaving the pale cobblestones stained with their blood. The doctors said: they will not walk again. More quietly, the doctors said: I fear they will not live long at all.

Ixi sat at their bedside and wept only when they were not looking. When they were looking she smiled, and held their hand, and sang the song for the flying, a song of birds and butterflies and anything with wings.

Hold yourself aloft by hope, Sing the death of fear, Flyer in the empty blue, Hold my promise near.

Snatch the sky and set it free, And let the rain be bright. Take the sun between your wings, And sing me safe and right.

It was a childish song. A nursery rhyme. A lullaby. When Ixi sang it, it was better than anything. And Helador burned and shook but somewhere in them her voice caught a knot that was trying to unravel and held it steady, and so they were broken but did not fall to pieces.

But the wing of their glider was poking out from beneath their bed, and the fraying edges of the fabric brushed by night against their tired will until one day they told Ixi to drag it out and hold it up for them.

“Helador, why?” she asked, fearful reproach too evident in her tone.

They only raised an eyebrow at her, and she laughed ruefully because the gesture was so familiar and so sad.

"It’s nearly finished. You need to let me tell you how to finish it.”

And she opened her mouth to protest.

And she closed her mouth, because they were Helador and she was Ixi and there was nothing she would have refused them in the world of the living.

Outside Helador’s sickroom, their blood faded and melted into the cobbles under the light of the great orb, rising and setting in feeble mockery of the sun. Some other children poled rafts to and from the edges of the sky, and it was as blue as ever but there was no song in it; Helador’s rough tenor had not sounded a melody in months, and Ixi’s voice belonged now only to them.

And when the doors of the forge had shut and shuddered the world twenty-seven times, and the snow that was not snow had begun to melt, Ixi kissed Helador on the forehead and walked out into the street with a glider under her arm and tears crowding behind her eyes, forbidden to fall.

There was a black shadow, so small only three people noticed it, that crossed the hot red light of the orb as it set that day. A small boy dancing to his father’s flute saw it and laughed; a woman hanging clothes outside her window blinked at it and turned away; and Helador saw it, just barely, from their window. And they smiled.

And somewhere above it all, under a sky that bled real rain and a sun that burned hotter and brighter and deeper than the great orb ever could, above an ocean that smelled of salt and reflected a blue that nobody had had to dye into the sky, Ixi swooped low and screamed a desperate, hopeless, unfathomable joy at doing the impossible without Helador.

She gathered up the waters of this wild, unending, untamable ocean and swooped down again through a crack in the sky, and she brought them home to Helador. 

[hantii]

Oh don't get me started on pawprints in bricks.

From the 3rd Dynasty of Ur, there are accidently pawprints alongside the inscription on this clay brick.

Cat pawprints, date unknown, found in Fife, Scotland.

Cat pawprint in a Roman tile from 100AD, Lincolnshire, England.

Cat paw prints in a red brick Georgian house, approx. mid 18th Century.

Puppy paw prints in 5th Century house in the ancient city of Sardis (Western Turkey).

Viking pottery with cat and dog paw prints.

We are walking in the pawprints of our ancient companions, and I think it is beautiful.

You ever think about how unified humanity is by just everyday experiences? Tudor peasants had hangnails, nobles in the Qin dynasty had favorite foods, workers in the 1700s liked seeing flowers growing in pavement cracks, a cook in medieval Iran teared up cutting onions, a mom in 1300 told her son not to get grass stains on his clothes, some girl in the past loved staying up late to see the sun rise.

[ads4services]

A Few Great Ideas For Your Own Classifieds Site

1. Product Catalog or Comprehensive Corporate Website

One of the unduly forgotten applications of a good classifieds script is running a full-fledged corporate website on it. The built-in CMS allows you to create all sorts of pages, include news and current events, product and services description page and categories. And, of course, the catalog of the products presented by your company (equipment, machinery, devices, furniture, etc). You can break the product catalog in several sub-categories, if needed. Besides you can include a number of fields to provide extensive description of all the features of your products and/or services, insert video and plenty of pictures to present each item in the most favorable light.

2. Vehicle Classifieds Portal

You can also create a fast growing and popular on-line multi-category vehicle classifieds portal that offers exciting and effective service to buy and sell any type of vehicles, accessories and related services. Classified ads can include vehicle specs, photos, mileage, price, year, body style, fuel type, exterior and interior color and more. And powerful and flexible search tools will have buyers searching for their specific vehicle. With your own vehicle classified website, you are instantly gaining the competitive edge by offering the highest variety of vehicles on a single website.

3. Business Directory

There is an effective way to create a fast growing and attractive Business for Sale Directory Service and give your customers access to a wealth of new business opportunities and resources. Your target audience will include startup business owners, entrepreneurs, investors, business brokers, managers, everybody looking to start a new business. You can easily create a SEO-friendly online business directory designed to offer businesses for sale, franchise opportunities, and feature business wanted ads.

It's a chance to organize a unique on-line marketplace where your customers advertise their businesses and expose multiple business opportunities to prospective buyers.

4. Restaurant and Hotel Guide

You can create a clean-cut Yellow Pages-style online Restaurant and Hotel Guide. It features popular neighborhood locations or tourist hot spots, and serves as a great town/city guide for visitors and locals alike. You can add extra sections (entertainment, sports and recreational activities) to turn your website into a veritable city/town community making money on banner advertisements from local service providers and listing fees. Such a guide for your local community is a steady source of income from local businesses lined up to post their classifieds ads on your resource.

5. Travel Agency Website

What do you think about a travel agency website? Great overview of travel packages on the front page. Hot/discounted tours posted as Featured Ads. Detailed description of every tour on Static pages, with a summary of offers for every country also on a static page with links to individual descriptions. Sounds good, doesn't it? Each listing displays essential field data: price, starting date, ending date, countries visited, a colorful slide show of places of interest, detailed description with an itinerary, and the ability to book the tour by sending a reservation request (event calendar). Summary of all the offers by continents, countries and regions worldwide can be presented at the front page.

6. Collectibles Website

One of the most obvious and simple applications of a classifieds software is creating a collectable website. You can have an all-in-one collectable website for your local area, or run a nation-wide collectable website on a more specific category (dolls, coins, toys, knives, artwork, antiques, jewelry, glass, pottery, radios, photos, sports items, memorabilia, etc.), or even a very focused website (Pre-WWII Silver Dollar Collectable, or Bowie Knives of the World). You can set up a collectible community and let fans like you build it and grow it. Change the design, look and feel, use advanced SEO features to get your items indexed by search engines to get max exposure and attract new members.

7. On-line Career Network

A good classifieds script can serve as an efficient tool to create a popular on-line career network serving Career Builders and Recruiters in your region, nation-wide, or worldwide. You can develop your unique job website that will serve the needs of businesses and recruitment agencies by offering thousands and thousands of full-time, part-time, and contract job vacancies everyday! It is also a great way of letting individuals advertise their skills and capabilities looking for their dream jobs. With career-related classifieds website, you will give people a voice and a platform to promote themselves, make them visible and available for new career opportunities. Feel free to contribute to your nation's economy by reducing unemployment and overcoming the recession.

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[creativeenquiryastrid]

As I was investigating where to find clay within my location, turns out Glasgow has loads of it. This website was really useful because turns out there was almost 50 potteries here alone during the 1800s. Both industrial and decorators.

Was trying to understand more about material agency. This just added more significance to my project. It's part of Glasgow's history and being from here is something I am proud of. Even in my local area there was 5 potteries, meaning there must be some left for me to find

[visitingdornoch]

Get started early with your Christmas shopping and shop local to avoid the crowds!

We know it is early to start thinking about Christmas but why not get ahead of the crowds and start shopping early this year? Better yet, avoid the crowds altogether and shop for all your Christmas presents locally in our gorgeous range of independent shops. Combine with some lunch in one of our many cafes and stop for an afternoon tea or hot chocolate break and make a day of it! See some ideas below for some great Christmas present shops.

Make your Christmas shopping a fun and pleasurable experience this year. Skip the crowds and come to Dornoch for a wonderful festive experience.

With over 20 independent shops to choose from, Dornoch is an ideal location to find that unusual gift, piece of jewellery or special cashmere jumper.

Jail Dornoch combines its historical setting of old cells with contemporary design to display a range of luxurious clothing, country wear, exquisite gifts, jewellery, Scottish pottery and glassware. New for 2019 is Becca Mac, a ladies’ and gents’ boutique with the very latest fashions.

Browse in the Dornoch Bookshop for your Christmas reading, pick up a tartan rug and a length of tweed at Kingcraig, or explore the Aladdin’s cave that is Simply The Best Fair Trade Gift & Toy Shop and its sister shop Outside the Box.

    Simply the Best and Outside the box

  Mitchell's Chemist

Mitchells Chemist is a family run community pharmacy. Alongside the usual facitilities you would expect in a pharmacy, Mitchell's chemist also stocks an extensive range of gifts including candles, makeup, scarves and designer handbags and purses including Kipling, Brakeburn and Oilily.

Dornoch Garden Centre

Dornoch Garden Centre and Tool Hire is located in the Retail Park. An ideal place to shop for the gardening enthusiast there is a great range of outdoor clothing and fishing tackle, DIY tools, plants, seeds, bird feeders and gardening equipment. They also have clothing from brands such as Crocs, Hoggs of Fife, Joules, Deerhunter, Muckboots and Jack Murphy and don't forget to head down for your REAL christmas tree!

Kingcraig Fabrics

For everything tweed and tartan,  Kingcraig fabrics is the place to go. They specialise in Scottish Woollen goods including travel rugs, scarves, bags, hats, tweed and tartan fabrics as well as luxury knitting yarns. They also have a range of beautiful cashmere goods and yarns. Get an extra special one-off gift made to your own specifications- cushions, curtains, bags and capes.

The Jail and Country Interiors

Dornoch Stores

Barn Owl Bothy

The Carnegie Whisky Cellars

Royal Dornoch Golf Pro Shop

What better gift for a golfer than Royal Dornoch branded goods in the Pro’s Shop including golf balls, tees, hats, jumpers and tee shirts.

  Why not treat yourself to a hair or nail treatment at Hair & Beauty in Dornoch or the luxury of a relaxing massage at Aspen Spa in the Carnegie Courthouse or alternatively purchase a voucher for a loved one? You can also get vouchers from Ultimuttly Groomed  and Go Wild Highlands.

These are just a few of the wonderful shops we have in Dornoch, take a look at the shopping section of our website for a full list of all our wonderful shops!

  Original Post Here: Get started early with your Christmas shopping and shop local to avoid the crowds!

[whitbyjet]

Whitby Jet in the Bronze Age

Many prehistorians will agree that the Bronze Age could, in the British Isles at least, be renamed the “Jet Age” due to the prevalence of jet we see in the archaeological record. The above image shows a spacer plate necklace, a popular style of jewellery in the Bonze age and found extensively around the British Isles. It has been proposed that these items are a skeuomorph of gold lunulae in the 22nd century BC. They are found in association with female burials, and occasionally cremations. Interestingly many of these spacer-plate neckpieces show jet simulants being used alongside the Whitby Jet. The jet beads show evidence of wear, possibly by many generations and if a bead was to break, it has been replaced by materials other than jet, probably reflecting the difficulty of obtaining the raw material.

Photo © NMS V-perforated buttons are a type of dress accessory that was adopted from Continental Beaker use, and some have indeed been associated with Beaker pottery in graves in Scotland (Kirkcaldy, Fife and Limefield, South Lanarkshire: 2009) Most of the Scottish examples had been associated with males, although their occasional use as fasteners in spacer plate necklaces indicates some use by females. Some had clearly been used to fasten jackets, as at Rameldry Farm; here, a set of six were found (including one of lizardite); it appears, from finds elsewhere in Britain, that six was the standard number of buttons used in this way. At Harehope, one exceptionally large button may have been used to fasten a cloak, as Shepherd has suggested (2009)

The image above contains artefacts discovered during the excavation of Barnby Howes, an Early Bronze Age burial close to Whitby. It was a cremation burial but contains jet grave goods carefully placed beside the cremation vessel. Interestingly these jet artefacts are broken, but the breakages appear to have been caused during manufacture. Does this perhaps represent the burial of a jet craftsman?

reference

http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/4333-early-bronze-age-use-jet-and-jet-materials-22nd-century-c-1750-bc

[wemyssware-blog]

There's a moose loose aboot this hoose!🐭🏠

[mybeingthere]

Jo Walker is a ceramicist based in Fife who trained as a Jeweller and Silversmith but went on to discover her passion for pottery.

Her work is made from clay, usually thrown on the wheel and finished with layers of clay slip using a technique called SGRAFFITTO.

SGRAFFITTO is the Italian word meaning to scratch. For pottery it is a decorative technique which requires applying layers of coloured slip on top of the thrown pottery ( usually leather hard/partially dry ). Tools are then used to scratch into the surface to create contrasting patterns, textures and images to reveal the other colour of clay underneath. Tools such as a wire stylus or rubber tipped shapers work well to create the desired effect.

Her patterns and imagery are inspired by nature, the simplicity of Scandinavian design and ’50s textiles. In particular plants and birds influence the form and function of her ceramic works.

https://www.fcac.co.uk/.../treat-store-artist-profile-jo.../

https://www.jowalkerceramics.co.uk/

[archaeologicalnews]

Neolithic pottery and flint tools found in Fife

A hoard of Neolithic pottery and flint tools, which lay buried for over 4,000 years, has been uncovered during works to lay a pipe in Fife.

The find at Kincaple was made as engineers laid pipework to connect St Andrews University's green energy centre at Eden campus in Guardbridge with North Haugh in St Andrews.

About 30 pieces of "grooved-ware" pottery were excavated from a pit.

Tools, made from flint - most probably from Yorkshire - were also found.

The tools show trade over considerable distances for the era.

Analysis of the flint showed the tools had been used for stripping bark and skinning animals, amongst other tasks, and probably represented a tool kit for someone. Read more.

[onlinevideoproduction]

Wemyss Ware Exhibition Talks

As part of the Victor Murphy Trust's Wemyss Ware exhibition, the Institut is hosting a series of talks by pottery experts Graeme Cruickshank and Norval Bonney providing a bit of insight into the exhibition and some of the individual pieces on display.

Scheduled Talks

The inception of Wemyss Ware (Graeme Cruickshank)

Identifying Wemyss Decorators (Norval Bonney)

The demise of Wemyss Ware (Graeme Cruickshank)

Wemyss post-Kirkcaldy (Norval Bonney)

About Wemyss Ware Originating in the 19th century in a pottery in Kirkcaldy, Fife, its original and vibrant style was the result of a meeting between Robert Heron, the pottery owner, and Karel Nekola, a decorator from Bohemia, who eventually moved permanently to Scotland to make a life for himself. Wemyss Ware ceramics, easily recognised by the skilful use of colour, interesting shapes and hand-painted details, are among the most collectable and sought-after pieces of Scottish pottery.

Full text available from the National Trust for Scotland

Event Details

Wemyss Ware Exhibition Talks Presented by the Victor Murphy Trust Tuesday, 24 September 2019, 14:00 to 15:30 FREE | Reservations recommended via Eventbrite

Institut français d'Ecosse Salle Emilienne Moreau-Evrard (first floor) West Parliament Square Edinburgh EH1 1RF

Access Details The Institut français d'Ecosse and the Salle Emilienne Moreau-Evrard are accessible with step-free access available at West Parliament Square and George IV Bridge.

IFE Membership and Discount Rates While this event is free and open to all, the Institut programmes many members-only events and offers discounted member rates at other events. Find out more about becoming a member of the Institut français d'Ecosse.

Image and logo: Wemyss Ware Pig, Early 1900s © Compton Verney Photo by Jamie Woodley Source: British Folk Art Collection

from Institut Français Écosse http://www.ifecosse.org.uk/Wemyss-Ware-Exhibition-Talks.html via IFTTT

[newagefan-blog]

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