I moved into my new studio in Fittie a few weeks ago, and something has been bugging me...... now, you would think that being in my lovely new studio would be nothing but a pleasure, 30 seconds walk from the beach, right next to my house, so that I can easily roll over there in the morning with my cup of tea, in the lovely wee community of Footdee, Aberdeen (known to locals as Fittie,) but no, I have an issue. The walls outside my studio! White walls. Dull walls. Flaky Walls. Need-more-than-a- wee-touch-up-walls.....so, I decided to do something about it, and decided that I would need your help!
I grew up on a farm in Caithness, far north of Scotland, in a very old farmhouse. Long ago, long before my immediate family lived in the house, long before the days of recycling, the occupants had another way of disposing of their old things....it seemed a great idea to just throw it all in the back garden! When I was a wee girl, I loved nothing more than digging holes in that garden, and would come across a wonderful array of objects, my absolute favourite being wee bits of pottery or ceramic, tiny segments of old fashioned plates, which had smashed when they had been turfed into this makeshift dump. I treasured these wee finds, kept them in a box, and carted them about wherever I went, taking them out every so often to pore over the details of the design, wonder what the original plate looked like, and where it came from; it really sparked that young artist's imagination.
One of the truly great things about living in Fittie is the proximity of the sea, and the wonderful things that it can offer up to you, including (you guessed it!) pieces of ceramic, now beautifully smoothed and aged by the tide.
This is where you come in - I would love for you to join in with my great ceramic hunt, enjoy getting down to beach and beachcoming, finding the best pieces of ceramic and pottery that you can. Once you have found your trove I'd ask that you donate it to me, by placing it in the wee turquoise-coloured pot that sits outside my front door at 15 North Square.
Once I feel I have enough, I'm going to transform those big boring white walls, into beautiful imagination sparking mosaics. Again, I'll need your help to do it! When the time is right, I'll have a special mosaic making event. It'll probably happen over the course of a few days and possibly happen during the school holidays, but I'll announce it on my usual social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and give a shout to my mailing list, as soon as I know for sure.
I was going to limit it to just sea-ceramic (is that even a thing?!?) but the additional colour options that sea-glass would provide would be just lovely, so can I please have some of that too? Mostly curious little bits of ceramic though!
I can't wait to see what lovely pieces arrive at my front door!!
Thank you everyone!!
Shelagh xxxxxx
