Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Making Pots and Soap- Things to do when the grass doesn't need cutting







The grass didn’t need cutting this week. Yay!

The whole process from start to finish only takes me around ten minutes so I don’t really know what the exclamation mark is all about, but there is a feeling of calm knowing I’ll only need to give it a trim once every few weeks now. I like to keep a bit of length to the grass as the growing season ends as I think it gives a bit more protection from really wet weather.

I’ve also stopped mowing the chamomile lawn. I only started trimming it back this year as a lot of regular grass is creeping in so I run the mower over the area to stop the grass going to seed and speeding up the time when I need to dig the whole area up, clear it of weeds and start planting new chamomiles again. I think I’ll get away with not doing it for another year.
The chamomile selling season has slowed down now and this has given me a bit more time to catch up on a few creative jobs that needed doing. 

Clay
The first job to do was make a few stoneware clay pots. My lad’s mates have opened up a vintage clothes shop called The Storefront in the Glassworks in Derry and I said I’d do a few small glazed key bowls with their logo on it as a promotional item.  I wanted to keep my identity anonymous so they suggested I come up with a pseudonym and seeing as ‘Banksy’ is taken I had a think and came up with a few. Dan Dale or Mantis Toboggan was nearly top of the list but I have decided to go with ‘Arthur Sixpence’ I think that has a cool retro vibe the youth are looking for. I can use that name and still keep my anonymity when walking around town.

I also made a few small tea cups for myself made from plaster cast molds of my vintage Carley’s Bridge Pottery plant pots which I think came out quite well. They don’t have handles which is probably a good thing as they will be used in the garden. 

I don’t know about you but I always tend to put my cups of tea in the most unsuitable places without thinking, on the top of fence posts, balancing on a wall or in the wheelbarrow. I often find an old, cold cuppa on top of the wheelie bin days after losing it.  You can guarantee wherever the cup is left there’s a dead fly floating in it within seconds.

I was thinking of mass producing the plant pot cups and selling them to people who wanted ‘that something special’ for the gardener in their life at Christmas but like most things I make I don’t think they have the mass appeal. I have created a spoon rest though which I think might be the next big thing. One side is a spoon rest but turn it over and it magically turns into a used teabag holder.
It sounded better in my head at the design stage.

Soap
I’m also making some soap for the lads to sell or give away as a promotional item in their shop. It’s my first attempt and I used around 4 types of oil (there are hundreds you can use) and lye which is caustic soda. The whole process was like a chemistry class and very enjoyable. I have embossed the cut soap with their shop logo and will wrap them with thin strips of my wax cotton wraps which I made last year and tie them off with some jute string. They are scented with orange and ylang ylang and are currently smelling out the house for six weeks until they have cured.  I haven’t used any colouring in the soap as I wanted to keep it natural but I did cut the heads off around 50 calendula flowers growing in the front garden. I dried the leaves, scrunched them up and sprinkled them into the mix. They are one of only a few flowers which keep their colour in the chemical reactions that go on in soap making. They have made the soap look a really vibrant orange colour which complements the orangey smell from the soap. So far I’ve done twelve bars but I’m sure there will be more to come as it’s a very satisfying process.

Making soap is definitely more enjoyable than producing sauerkraut. Those jars are still sitting on my garage floor and only get the odd sniff from the dogs as they walk past. 

More future fill for the compost bin.

No comments:

More stories

Related Posts with Thumbnails