Starring The Rock and The Candlestick

A new movie is being made called Lizard Music and it’s about a boy whose parents decide to leave him at Home Alone for a while, and his life soon gets taken over by….Lizards performing music! We were approached by the Production Company who are shooting the movie to ask if we could agree to a Mary Rose Candlestick appearing alongside the lizards. We can’t help being excited even though we know of old how plans can get watered down. Mary Rose’s 3 Station Candlestick is one of her glorious three dimensional sculptures that she originally tackled simply because nobody else believed it would be possible to make such a thing all out of clay. The movie will come out next year as long as The Rock doesn’t get let loose in the china shop

As we related in the April newsletter Mary Rose made a beautiful heart studded chandelier. We then posted a video of it on Instagram that somehow attracted so many “views” that we’ve just been staying in bed and watching the money roll in (not). Anyway just in case anybody suspects the whole thing was some kind of modern day publicity stunt we received this photo from the real hero, the dear gentleman who ordered the piece, showing it installed above his dining table in what appears to be a very beautiful room. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lizard Music now rip up their agreement with us and relocate right there in that room….they’re both in Georgia (not the Russian one) Isn’t the cable cloaking line of beads leading up to the ceiling something?

Candlesticks as Lamps

It may be beaded and it may be a candlestick but thrillingly now it seems to be a Lamp. It wasn’t even our idea really but what a great one it is. The customer was a devotee of Purple Rosebush and so that’s how the pieces are decorated, but Mary Rose has already been inspired to make another set for our gallery and I expect they will be the multicoloured version, although perhaps black and white. The loveliest thing is the way the whole crown with its beguiling coloured bobbles is fully visible beneath the raised bulb holder and shade, and the narrowness and elegance of the stem’s tactile beads feeding up to the light is just great

As you know we work in the Forest of Dean which is a true Forest and not a place that only used to have trees! And Mary Rose makes Christmas trees, but it would be something of a stretch to say she’s inspired to make those by living in a Forest…. But this unusual piece does tempt one to say exactly that. She was asked to create a container for a dear departed somebody’s ashes, somebody who loved the great outdoors, and this is one of the ideas Mary Rose had. Now she calls it a Treepot which is hilarious…. the whole green part lifts off like a lid to leave the hollow purple trunk that will hold the ashes. 

“Anything new?” you’re wondering while I go though things that have happened. Well we do have this Shallow Salad Bowl, it’s not unlike a Platter or a Salad Bowl, it’s in effect a mixture of the two. But it really does hold a personality of its own, it’s perhaps like a “Salver” although AI has just sagely informed me that people are given to calling a half bowl half plate a “Blate”….really AI I know you can’t have made that up but it sounds like you might have. Mary Rose’s Blooms design mixes deliciously with the red rim.

Even though we are sweltering in one of the hottest summers ever and all that warm weather behaviour has completely taken over our lives, at the Pottery we must remind ourselves that things do move on, we will reach for hats and gloves even though the very mention of those words now makes me feel ill. And Halloween will be here and Mary Rose has been trying to cast her inspiration into dark wintry evenings because by the time things are photo-ed ordered made and shipped it will be winter. So here are her latest pumpkins complete with a rose design and an orange and black colour scheme and, this time, the traditional Skeletal Face WOOOOOOOHOOOOO

These designs – Daisies, Candy Cane, Holly and Bugs are of course usually seen with a gold rim, gold lines and iridescence on the background colours. The customer in this case wanted to be free to be able to use microwaves and dishwashers with gay abandon and sensibly asked that Mary Rose make the mugs gold free. So it’s an interesting experiment for us, it’s like asking oneself how peoples’ outfits would look if they’d never invented trainers. I have never before seen these designs like this and I think the Daisies comes out the best, followed by the bugs, but I’m not sure if they really look any different at all in spirit. It’s also good to remind people that Mary Rose is happy to bend her style to fit a customer’s idea.