The first week of the Summer Holidays

Monday, the first day of the Children's Summer Holidays and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will be good. Perranuthnoe beach is a lovely safe beach within Mount's Bay, good for children, a wide sweeping beach with lots of sand and rock pools. Good for making sand castles, building moats and flying kites. Good for swimming and surfing too.


Down at Village Crafts, a new week begins with a new batch of visitors to the village and the area. Although I am often busying around doing a miriad of jobs I do love to be in the shop meeting people, coming from all round the world. Last week I served a couple from the Isle of Gotland off the coast of Sweden, famous for the Gotland breed of sheep. The lady was so interested in knitting and weaving which is indiginous to the island where she lives and like Cornwall there are heriditary knitting patterns and stiches which evolved originally from fishing communities. Like the Isle of Gotland many Cornish villages had their very own knitting stitch which when incorporated into fishing gansies (the Cornish word for a Jumper) and worn by the fishermen of the village was a form of identification should they be lost at sea. Quite clever and intuitive in a era when there were no Passports, Driving Licences or ID cards, perhaps we should all wear a Cornish Gansie, life would be so much easier.



The exclusive
'Mounts Bay Plate'
by Holly Jackson - unique to Village Crafts and to be found no where else in the country. Commissioned by myself Holly made these plates as a favour because they are really very expensive to produce. First she makes the plate and fires it. Then there are five layers of different coloured paint which is swirled to make the pattern, then the plate is again fired. Holly then chips out the design of St Michaels Mount and the lighthouse etc, once she is satisfied with the design she covers the plate again in a clear glaze which is fired again. Quite a process - so you will understand why these things are not cheap. Added to that is the fact that Holly Jackson is a former 'Troika'artist and each plate made has her Troika mark. To check this fact you can look her up on the following link. www.antique-marks.com/troika-pottery-marks.html


Holly Jackson plates are for sale in the Village Crafts shop priced from £35 to £50 each. If you wish to buy a plate please email us on perrancrafts@gmail.com and we will be pleased to hear from you.