Tour of the Studio

I had a very nice Spring clean yesterday in my studio and here is a little tour of the space!

 

From outside.

 As you walk in.

Turn right...

 then left...

then right again...

 and carry on!

 Artist Faisal's lovely lino cut 'Willlos' and some greeting cards based on the other original linos.

 And a few new experimental cushions... hand printed, based on Faisal's original lino cuts. All displays on the side window.

 My workbench.

 More little animals!

 Workbench again.

 Little Pixie that lies on her bed underneath the sink and barks at the customers most of the days (very annoying).

 My workbench from my side.

And from outside the window that looks inside the Brewery Arts corridor.

 Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Mirjami Design Tagine

It's been a long time since I've been here, sorry. And the warmest welcome to the new readers! Not much to read, but hey – maybe the New Year will bring new changes and I will write more.

These days my favourite thing to do on Sundays is to cook. To prepare a roast or a casserole, have a tipple or two of wine and let the cooking dissolve all the stress of the week. Perfect.

My all time favourite used to be a roast chicken or lamb and then to make a delicious curry from the left overs, very yummy.

However, a couple of weeks ago we discovered the magical tagine and now the Sundays are all about tagine, tagine, tagine!!! Love it and couldn't rate it more highly!

As I was getting the initial stages of tagine cooking I smiled to myself of the realisation how it resembles all a bit too much of Mirjami Design!  We got instructions to cook our tagine from Larry at the Golden Fleece in Stroud and lamb is now our definite favourite.

The basics are these: pour a good lug (a lot and lot) of olive oil to the bottom of tagine and then cover the bottom with a layer of onions followed by marinated meat and a pickled lemon. Let it to cook slowly for a couple of hours and then add your vegetables and carry on cooking for another hour or so. And there you are – the most simple, but the most delicious meal!!!

So as I was layering the bottom of the tagine with sliced up onions I thought this is just like my business and all the work involved. Larry who gave us the recipe, calls the layer of onions "the sacrifice", because the onions will protect the meat when cooked so that if anything gets burned it will be the onions. Poor onions :(
It made me think how many things I have sacrificed to get my business running....

However if the tagine is well looked after, making sure the heat is not too strong and it is left alone unrushed, the onions will only get dark brown and caramelised adding the most amazing flavour to the whole dish. If rushed the result will be a burned bitter mess.
So a good solid foundation is the key....

Then I thought about the meat. The best is if you can marinate it a night before. Again the key is not to rush it, but also choose your spices well and use good quality meat. It might be more expensive now, but what a difference it makes in the end.
The good ingredients make always a better result....

Also what is added this stage is a pickled lemon. Cut it into a few segments and cover with meat. It will gently cook away, releasing lovely lemon flavor and in the end it will all dissolve only leaving the skin behind. Absolutely delicious! But if you put too much lemon in, the whole dish will taste a bit like lemon scented washing up liquid. (Not that I've tasted washing up liquid, but trust me this is what it would taste!)
So basically, don't over do it or you ruin the lot!

The next stage is to do nothing for a couple of hours. Maybe go and read a book, walk a dog, take a bath, do what ever you want to do, but don't disturb the tagine! Let it gently simmer and do what it is meant to do.
Sometimes it is so easy to over do things. And also, the best things comes for those who wait :)

After a couple of hours it is time to add vegetables. I used simply a humble butternut squash, a red chilly and whole garlic cloves, a pinch of salt and a generous bunch of fresh coriander. It is very tempted at this stage to pile up all sort of vegetables, but I think simplicity is the key. Otherwise the flavours will get lost and it is easy to forget what it was that you were making...

An other hour or so and voila – it is all ready! Perfectly cooked meat, surprises of succulent garlic cloves, tender squash and a hint of fiery chilly. Serve it with couscous and why not to add a few side dishes to bring out even more flavour from the main dish. Maybe make a cooling cucumber yogurt as a side dish. A piece of flat bread and hummus, maybe a few olives and the meal is fit for a King!

So simple and delicious, but it all must be planned ahead, use good ingredients, execute with love and cook slowly without rushing it through.

P.S. In no way this is a perfect authentic tagine recipe, but it works for me :)

Artist's Statement – What to Write?

I need to submit my Artist's Statement today that will be used in the exhibition at the New Brewery Arts called the Art of Childsplay that opens this Saturday the 23rd of July and I will have a selection of my work exhibited amongst other fantastic artists.

I’ve been trying to write my artist's statement now for a while. I’ve cut and pasted various sentences from different ‘about me’ sections of my website etc. but I don’t think I still got it right. What is an artist’s statement?

Am I suppose to state what I do and why I do it? Are readers interested in my background or more of how I created any particular object? Are people really reading all these in an exhibition?

Maybe the statements are like a good story: crab people's attention right at the beginning and maybe you have a chance them reading the whole story.

I suppose my trouble is that I still don’t consider my self as an artist and therefore I have never really looked at my work from an artist point of you. I’ve always thought of myself as a maker. Someone who creates by making something solid.

I very rarely sit down and think first as what I am about to make. In fact I never do that! I never think of a message that I am trying to convey to the others. I just simply make and I love it. I love the process of making. Call it fiddling, I can fiddle for hours without any reason at all! Is that good enough bases for an artist’s statement? Probably not....

Then there are the materials and colours, should I have a reason better than I just think the materials and colours work on my items?!
I haven’t been on a search for different techniques or materials. I haven’t tried to find anything new and ground braking. I just make things from what I like at the time.

Now having written all that down and have read it back I realized that it is not all true. I suppose I do think a bit as what I do. I chose to use the woollen fabrics because they are local and I love the quality of it all. I love going to the mill and see what they have, what wonderful ends of rolls they have pulled out this time.

I realized I often buy fabric because I like it not because it is for something particular. In fact the fabric often tells me what it want to be made into. For example, I bought bright yellow fabric not even liking yellow that much, but I just had to have it. I tried to think as what to do with it to justify the cost, but I couldn’t think anything at all. Of course I bought it feeling a little guilty, but then much later on the light bulb switched on and I exclaimed: “lions”. That is what the fabric will be used for!

I’ve also have fabric waiting to be made into a frog and another into a Kingfisher, but I haven’t got that far yet.

And when it comes to the Bears I simply go through my fabrics until I find something that crabs my attention on that day. After the Bear is made I think of the accessories. What would this Bear like to wear today....? And right in the end I name the Bear and that is when my work is done.

I suppose now I have to get all this into much shorter form....

Nearly finished... 

Time Flies

Wow – the last posting was written last November! Where did the seven months disappear?!!!

So much has happened since then and I vaguely remember thinking that I must post a proper update and then it would be easier to write about other things when the 'basic info' has been dealt with.
But then more and more happened and eventually this simple task of recording the changes became daunting and only now I am willing to face it.

Sad really since the last half a year or so has been absolutely incredible and it would have been nice to share it with those that ever wonder here to my pages. Now all I may offer is bullet points...... Or is that cheating? All I can say that if I embark on the journey of telling you every detail you'll be here for a very long time and in fact you will probably never return since it was such a painfull experience. Nobody of course are forced to read on, but just in case you did.

So here is the bullet point list of what has been going on in my life and to make it a little easier I have tried to illustrate every point with a picture.

December 2010
* Christmas sales were incredible and I had a lovely time in Selvedge Christmas Fair.
* I got my second order from Liberty through.
* Very exciting, but a tiring month.

January 2011
* I moved my studio to Cirencester to the New Brewery Arts.
What I thought would fit into max. two Volvo car fulls took at least six goes and then lots and lots of other journeys with more and more bits and bobs.
* Very stressful, but very exciting times. I meant to document it all, but now I don't even have a photo to illustrate the whole move!

February
* We would have hoped to find a new place to live, but failed miserably. Luckily a friend of hours let us to stay at hers whilst the search for home continued.
* The Country Living Magazine featured my little brown mouse and The Gardens Illustrated featured my Blackbirds and Mouse and the sales rocketed.
* Very confusing month, but I was getting settled in my new studio and was very busy with orders.
* I decided to take our dog in and she took upon herself to bark at every single person who came in. Very annoying.

March
* The search for a new home continued and we grew even more stressed out and tired, but the business was going well.
* The dog carried on her barking and I think there was a mutiny on the way against her since her barking echoed everywhere! Plus the better I knew the person, the more she barked.

April
* We found a new home and moved.
* The whole month seemed to whizz by with the move. How did that happen?
* I started making girl bears inspired by a new commission.

May
* Mirjami Design took part in the Stroud International Textile Fair and Open Studio Trail was great fun.
* The fifth Liberty order was in the making and the new summer range made from Liberty fabrics was finally done.
* Horrid cold/flu took its toll and things were falling behind.
* The Dog stop barking!!!!! I forgot how quiet Brewery Arts can be.

June
* I started developing new animals: fox, frog, mole, elephant etc. were forming in my mind and then on the paper followed by numerous misshapen creatures that are still in making.
* The mid summer came and went and my thoughts turned to Cxxxxxxxs (won't dare to say the word aloud...)

And now we are in July!!! So there you are, not too painful :)

Winter Wonderland

The end of November and the weather has turned very, very cold. The nature looked yesterday as it is made from ice and today started with falling snow flakes.

My workshop is freezing and I so wish that our little wood burner from the sitting room could be moved to my workshop! To our terrier's bliss, I've kept the fire on day and night. She sits on front of it the entire time so at least one of us is nice and warm.
After coming back from a walk with her it is rather amusing to watch her to rush straight back to the cosy fire.

Then I must apologise for those who might actually occasionally read my blog and say that I am really sorry not to have written anything for what feels like forever!

Things just have been so, so busy. It's been now a couple of weeks since the Country Living Fair finished and wow what a time we had at the fair!
I had hardly any finished stock done and at first I thought I would just take orders. Silly me, nobody wants to place an order if the very mouse or owl is sitting on the table looking at them and asking them to take it home!
Therefore I had to sell what was finished and at the same time trying to finish others off!

My stand at the Country Living Fair. 'Less is more' is all I can say about the stand!

I took my lovely old Singer sewing machine with me and at times it stole the show completely. Visitors told me time and time again how their mother had a machine just like mine! And as I praised my little machine and demonstrated how well it works, I learned how many actually still had their mother's old machine, now tucked away somewhere up in the attic. Most of these people left my stand with a new determination to dig that old Signer out and see if it was still working.

Country Living Christmas Fair

The whole fair was a hilarious experience and a true race against the buyers, which I think I won for the most part, but even then there were always those few disappointed customers at the end of the day that came back and their favorite animal was gone and no substitutes :(
So basically we sold the maximum that we possible could have and I just would like to say a HUGE thank you for all those who came by and bought an animal from me. It was wonderful to find so many good homes for them!

So this time I am pleased to say that not only the feedback was good, but the sales too :)))

What was also nice, was to see some good old friends from the previous fair and meet some new, lovely people. I would particularly like to mention Nikki, The Cow Lady , who was next to me at the last fair and who was there again, sadly in a different area, but whose glorious cows were just as charming as ever.

Lovely new neighbours were Nicola and Dagny from who I've got a lovely new purse that is more than perfect and most wonderful scarf that annoyingly I cannot have till Christmas.

We also exhibited at the City of London Club Christmas Fair last Thursday where many more animal paperweights found new homes. It was a rather fun day and just wanted to say thank you for the organizers who looked after us ever so well.

The next very exciting Fair (last one of the season!) will be the Selvedge Magazine Christmas Fair next Saturday. I'm in the process of desperately trying to get more stock done and in fact should go and carry on pretty soon! I'm really looking forward to Saturday and will try to report back as soon as I can.

Isn't is amazing how these spiky chrystals are formed?!

An Exciting Order!

Last time I mentioned about a London shop possibly wanting some of my animals and they did placed an order!
Soon my Paperweight Animals can be purchased from the shelves of Liberty!!! Soooo exciting!
And what is the icing on the cake for me is that they found me and approached me wanting to have some of my animals!
Aah, sweet success :))

But now of course I have to make them...... a lot of them! It'll be looooong days from now on, but I am not complaining! What a change from those cold and miserable winter's days when nothing seemed to be happening no matter how much work I put into things.
Now I cannot stop smiling :)

September Update

Once more the time has simply flown by! In fact, I have no idea where August disappeared and by this rate the September will be gone too in no time. Scary.

But, I have some good news!
Since my pages went online on the NotOnTheHighStreet.com and especially since this newsletter notonthehighstreet.com came out last Tuesday, I've been so busy making owls, mice, hearts etc! Finally I feel that the things have picked up and it is SO exciting!

And then if I wasn't over the moon already I got a wholesale enquiry from a very well know shop in London and it seems like I am getting an order in! I won't announce the deal yet, just in case it falls through and I would feel really stupid if I've already mentioned it here to the world (hahaa, especially since the readership of this blog is so vast!), but I will as soon as I get an order through.

Egg Cosies in making – nothing to do with the text, but the colours are fun!

So basically I'll be very, very busy for the next few months, but I have no complaints, it is great to be busy and feel that all that hard work over the past few months (years!) are finally bearing some nice fruit and I suppose I have to conclude that anything is possible with a lot of work, and then a whole lot more work with enormous amount of faith in what you do, and a little bit of good luck :)