Box of Frogs Mosaics

01/02/2025

My lunch is leftovers from last night’s dinner, struck me that it looks like my student’s project.

(Don’t be impressed, I’d just been to the shops, got the right ingredients for my salad, usually it’s a dried up pitta bread and some random tin from the back of the cupboard😂)

28/01/2025

It’s slow progress but I’m making a few pieces based on Aesop’s fables, this one’s about a clever thirsty crow.
More details to follow..

05/01/2025

Unique Cottage Studios exhibition opportunity for 2025 😊

21/11/2024

What a lovely, mad, busy couple of weeks!
❄️ Thank you to everyone who came to ❄️the Frost Fair at Molecey Mill ❄️ and our Christmas open studios ❄️
This week I’m very happy to be back in the studio working away on some new pieces ready for the Christmas Doo Da at Grange Farm, Whittlesey on the 7th and 8th December.
If I’m in the studio, visitors are very much welcome - please do check I’m going to be here by calling or sending a message if you’re making a special trip though ❄️

12/09/2024

22/08/2024

It feels like a long time since I’ve actually broken china to make anything - running with a theme here, just love the pop of red ❤️

22/05/2024

Very excited to have some of my enamel bowls in this exhibition at Ferrers Gallery
The copper bowls have been spun by the rather clever Warren then acid etched and fired by me multiple times in a small kiln with powdered glass to give them their silky, saturated colour and texture.
The art of metal spinning is on the heritage crafts endangered list so I’m very proud to be able to work with Warren.
https://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/craft/silver-spinning/

09/01/2024

Everyone’s back at work and uni, I’ve done my tax return and got over my Christmas covid, so now it’s time to get back into the studio - hooray!
Photographing your work as you go is so useful, I can see changes that need to be made first thing tomorrow, time to prise off a few pieces I think…

21/12/2023

Delighted that this piece of work made it onto the cover of the 75th anniversary Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust members magazine - with a feature on me! to follow in 2024
The icing on my Christmas cake is that the original was sold by The Jessica Muir Gallery as part of their 20th anniversary exhibition 😊😊

Thanks to everyone who has liked, followed and supported my work and taken part in workshops this year, it’s been another busy one and I still love it.
I wish you all a happy and creative 2024
Fiona xx

23/11/2023

So happy to work with Rachael at Ferrers Gallery - and it’s a lovely photo 😊

It’s been a while since I showed my face! For good reason as having owned the gallery 21 years I have aged along with the business!! 🤣. But with new followers it’s time to pluck up the courage for a piccy and introduce myself and my wonderful team. (The proviso for having my photo taken for this post is that they have to do the same!)
So this is me Rachael Chambers and apart from owning the gallery for many years what else can I tell you about me, well……. I love travel, my favourite city being Barcelona - I love Gaudi’s mosaics which is perhaps why I like these winged hearts so much. I love taking photos - I have over 21,000 on my phone (ironic considering the fuss it took for me to have this photo taken!!). My husband and I are learning to ballroom dance - although my menopausal memory means I’m always forgetting my steps, and I love a glass of white wine - which is usually needed after the dancing! But my great love (after my son, husband and dog!) will always be the gallery itself 🥰

27/10/2023

Saw lots of these ghost signs on my walk through Stoke Newington on Monday with Eleanor Watson (absolute favourite one is in Lewes though)

If you've ever looked at the side of a building and seen a faded advert for a company long since closed down, then Historic England wants to hear from you as it is creating a map of Ghost Signs.

10/10/2023

I’m busy making work for Ferrers Gallery and came across this plate in my box of gold china. Most people know about fine metal hallmarks but this is a mark issued by the British Patent Office between 1842-1867 when the design was registered. (mark was still used but slightly different for 1868-1883)

IV is for the type of product, in this case clayware
M is June, 20 for the day and U for 1848
Designed to prove the plate was made in Britain, and to give some protection to the design owners.

Now to decide if I use it….

28/09/2023

Just a few more things found for tomorrow’s sale - various lengths of Laura Ashley fabric, more boxes of sequins (I must have bought almost every design available) and some original work that’s been hidden away for a few years, maturing like a fine wine😂
Available from my studio at Unique Cottage Studios from 10am tomorrow or I can post if you’re not local.

25/09/2023

Lots of goodies beginning to build up for the studio destash sale on Friday and Saturday this week at Unique Cottage Studios - unused screen printing kit, canvases, card making paper, embellishments, vintage tins, painting materials. Also adding books, china, fabric and trinket boxes.
Open from 10am ‘til 2pm on both days

19/09/2023

If anyone has sent me emails in the last two years - they’re gone, like a scene in every Tom Cruise movie they deleted in front of my eyes, I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. If it was anything important or jolly, please resend, my inbox is looking overly cleansed….

17/08/2023

Right now I am in Rowcroft hospice and I hope I’ll be back home soon.

I wanted to let everyone know that we’ve now raised £2699.30! Thank you so much to everyone for all your amazing donations, messages, and beautiful photos …. I’m sorry I can’t reply to everybody, but I hope I’ll be back to crocheting very soon x Sue

13/07/2023

Too pretty to break? Really?? I suppose it is rather lovely (still ended up in a junk yard though)

And that is why I have boxes and boxes of beautiful unbroken plates and an ongoing argument in my head.

New resolution is to be bold and use what I’ve got because it’s what I collected it for.

Comment
🔨 get on with it for pity’s sake
🧡 put it back in the box
💰 make a donation to who are looking after a lovely friend, be the first and I’ll post it to you.

10/07/2023

Before and after potential disaster in the studio - luckily I caught the old shelves before they gave way and dropped all my tiles and tiny pieces of carefully sorted china over the floor. Honestly, I think I would have cried and then binned the lot (of course I wouldn’t, I’d have spent the next two months re sorting every last piece😂🙄)
What it has revealed, is the need to have a studio destash……