Jasmine and Chamomile...

Sea Witch is back at Tynemouth Station Market this Saturday, 16th November - I hope you will find time to stop by and say hello if in the area. New this week are Jasmine and Chamomile botanical sachets, in antique linen and cotton prints from Morris & Co, Liberty of London and the Da Gama Company. These are a new blend - the chamomile flowers, as well as adding their own unearthly and stress-soothing fragrance, preserve the usually fleeting floral scent of the jasmine essential oil, in the same way as natural gums and fixatives such as orris root. Try them if you want to make a pot-pourri and don't have time to look for fixatives - the dried flowers are available at health food stores and can even be taken from herbal teabags bought at the supermarket!

I'll be adding these to the online shops next week.

Also new, for the Sea Witch's familiar:

William Morris 'Sweet Briar' catnip mice, with tails of cotton lace or handspun silk.

Listening:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03h3ybp/Afternoon_Drama_The_Icelandic_Journals/

Lavinia Greenlaw's play adapted from William Morris's 'Icelandic Journals'.

Sea Witch at Tynemouth Market

Sea Witch will be at Tynemouth Market from next weekend - some photos of the newly restored
Victorian Station from earlier posts:

http://seawitchtynemouth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/heritage-skills-at-tynemouth-station.html

http://seawitchtynemouth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/doves-rivermouth-wishes.html


http://www.tynemouthmarkets.com/market-info/

In Thunder, Lightning, or in Rain - 3 Witches' Hats for Halloween/Fair Trade Silver

http://folksy.com/items/4565851-Hubble-Bubble-Witches-Hats-Ceramic-Decorations

Some cute and only slightly scary Halloween decorations added to the Folksy shop this morning, and also available at the Fish Quay Fair in North Shields.

I've been busy this week sourcing fair trade jewellery supplies, the metals/minerals trade being something of a worldwide tangled web, but fear not, supplies of Karen Hill Tribe fair trade silver are sailing our way soon. If you would like to read about the work of these Thai craftspeople and see some of their beautiful designs, please follow the link below:

http://www.karenhilltribes.org.uk

... and while I was about it, I caught up with new earth-friendly packaging supplies from The Tiny Box Company, including ribbons made from pulped waste wood and gift bags woven from banana stalks:

http://www.tinyboxcompany.co.uk/p/8698728/small-sinamay-bag-with-cord-drawstring---10-pack.html

Hope all fellow northern hemisphere dwellers are keeping warm and enjoying some extra star-gazing as we travel into the dark side of our year :)

Usti the Seahorse

Thanks to the generosity of customers and staff at the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields, who have been buying our chocolate sea shells, Sea Witch has been able to adopt Usti, a spiny seahorse whose Cherokee Indian name means 'little'.  As Usti is not yet fully grown (she will eventually grow to about 8") customers will be able to watch her grow up via updates here on the blog and also displayed at the Sea Witch stall in North Shields.

You can read more about the work of the Seahorse Trust here:
http://theseahorsetrust.org/

Poem, Pearl, Pagoda

The teeny tiny sea pottery pagoda from the Etsy shop is going to a new home overseas. It's probably part of a 'willow pattern' plate or cup, a design which has been popular since the second half of the eighteenth century. The 'story' of the willow pattern is now thought to be of English origin, as key elements such as the apple tree, doves, and figures on the bridge were not included in Minton's first copy from the original Chinese design:

The Willow Legend There was once a Mandarin who had a beautiful daughter, Koong-se. He employed a secretary, Chang who, while he was attending to his master's accounts, fell in love with Koong-se, much to the anger of the Mandarin, who regarded the secretary as unworthy of his daughter.

The secretary was banished and a fence constructed around the gardens of the Mandarin's estate so that Chang could not see his daughter and Koong-se could only walk in the gardens and to the water's edge.One day a shell fitted with sails containing a poem, and a bead which Koong-se had given to Chang, floated to the water's edge. Koong-se knew that her lover was not far away.

She was soon dismayed to learn that she had been betrothed to Ta-jin, a noble warrior Duke. She was full of despair when it was announced that her future husband, the noble Duke, was arriving, bearing a gift of jewels to celebrate his betrothal.

However, after the banquet, borrowing the robes of a servant, Chang passed through the guests unseen and came to Koong-se's room. They embraced and vowed to run away together. The Mandarin, the Duke, the guests, and all the servants had drunk so much wine that the couple almost got away without detection, but Koong-se's father saw her at the last minute and gave chase across the bridge.

The couple escaped and stayed with the maid that Koong-se's father had dismissed for conspiring with the lovers. Koong-se had given the casket of jewels to Chang and the Mandarin, who was also a magistrate, swore that he would use the jewels as a pretext to execute Chang when he caught him.

One night the Mandarin's spies reported that a man was hiding in a house by the river and the Mandarin's guards raided the house. But Chang had jumped into the ragging torrent and Koong-se thought that he had drowned.Some days later the guards returned to search the house again. While Koong-se's maid talked to them, Chang came by boat to the window and took Koong-se away to safety.

They settled on a distant island, and over the years Chang became famous for his writings. This was to prove his undoing. The Mandarin heard about him and sent guards to destroy him. Chang was put to the sword and Koong-se set fire to the house while she was still inside.

Thus they both perished and the gods, touched by their love, immortalised them as two doves, eternally flying together in the sky.

(www.thepotteries.org)

Waves, Willows, Autumn

Summer is really over - a wave here thudding over the North Pier this morning - and I have been out cutting goat willow along the banks above the estuary, ready to weave into Christmas garlands.

The green willow withies are still soft and springy. If you have some cut and aren't ready to use them straight away they can be kept in a bucket of water to stop them drying out.  The leaves are still so fresh and green I hung up a small garland without removing them:

ivy, berries and other decorations can be added later in the year.

More about the willow and its uses;

http://www.ecoenchantments.co.uk/myogham_willowpage.html

Sea Witch at the Fish Quay Fair

A group photo from the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields, at the end of the August Bank Holiday weekend :)

Hearts, Flowers, Recycling, Holidays

Some last minute makes for the new Sea Witch shop at the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields - a little wooly flower made from some hand-painted 4 ply merino wool and assorted glass seed beads:

- its leaf, knitted in another colour way called 'mermaid', has ended up as part of another project:

- a red shell button heart-shaped garland, with glass pearls and some Blue Faced Leicester wool wrapped around recycled wire (I think it used to be a coat hanger, which then evolved into a garden tea light hanger).

I also managed to find some green jute twine for the new winter pansies and violas which I will bring to the fair again tomorrow and also for the Bank Holiday Weekend:

Hope you will find time to come along and see us, if in the area - the Fair is open 8am - 4pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Hols.

Fish Quay Fair, Origami Shrimp

Early morning as we made our way to the new 'Crafters Alley' at the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields.

Vjollca helping to set up the stall...

... later the organiser gave her a stall for her origami -

origami shrimp.

Dolls

Rainy day doll-making - we think this one is going to be a ballerina, so great fun doing the tiny shoes.

Meanwhile I'm told that this sleepyhead is not getting up until I finish knitting her new cardigan - I'm making it with some hand-dyed merino wool from Shunklies, Sheffield.

Sea Lavender bottle pendants - the early Autumn chill in the air reminds me to restock these dried flower pendants for the Etsy shop ( https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/156132441/sea-lavender-botanical-glass-bottle ).

Beach Hares

Bless this weather! I took some sewing to do on the beach after the school run this morning - here is a new 'Pocho' Provence lavender hare under construction. The tiny hares are popular just now and I'm busy restocking the Etsy shop and making extra bunnies for the weekend markets, so that nests around the King Edward's Bay area must be stuffed with little scraps and threads of Nani Iro cotton.

The Bay is peaceful early mornings: a few swimmers, sometimes a treasure-hunter with a metal detector, and this morning a fishing boat close to the shore:

It's almost high tide, very still, and the only surfer in sight yet is a child's blue inflatable ring:

Sea Lavender, Mist

Mist and cloud have descended this a.m. and there's an excuse to desert the beach and make preparations for the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields, this weekend.

I haven't found sea lavender (also known as sea rosemary) growing on this part of the coast, so have decided to grow some from seed for the garden. The beautiful white sea lavender above is from the Yorkshire coast.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/156132441/sea-lavender-botanical-glass-bottle

Heritage Skills at Tynemouth Station

We had a wonderful time at this year's Heritage Skills Festival - new this year were these wonderful coracles:

We also enjoyed meeting again some of last year's exhibitors, trying green woodworking, raku glazing and stone masonry,  as well as learning more about ancient pottery and boat-building techniques, and took away a hand-carved gypsy rose, our own raku fairy door, and a sun plaque to shine on the Sea Witch garden:

Today as I passed by the station again I saw this:

- a peony skillfully self-seeded onto the rubble left from the station refurbishments.

Zam Pollum, Brambles, Bees, Rock Roses...

An afternoon spent in the glorious fragrance of honeycomb, rolling up a fresh batch of 'Zam Pollum' candles (Zam Pollum is the bee queen in Leonora Carrington's novel, 'The Hearing Trumpet'). I make the candles with wax from a supplier in Lincolnshire, whose sales support the charity Bees For Development. More on their work here:

http://www.beesfordevelopment.org

We had a hot, sunny morning here and I walked around the Haven to the Market Garden on Oxford Street, the air busy with swallows, brambles beginning to flower under the goat willow:

I picked some alexanders on the way (buttercups and alexanders were so abundant this year we called it a 'yellow spring', cold as it was) for an experimental soup:

÷÷

÷÷

Then a flower from the market garden, which I didn't realise was the Rock Rose of the Bach Flower Remedies ('Rock Rose became full of terror' Dr Edward Bach, 1934), or a pinkier helianthemum cousin:

It's living under the Buddha Tree by my front door now.

African Queen - A Storm At Sea

https://www.etsy.com/listing/154808330/african-queen-chalk-turquoise-and-wood

Stormy weather on the weekend of the Super Moon, waves beaten back by rain. I've been busy making earrings, including these 'African Queen' chalk turquoise drops, made from the same recycled African beads as the 'African Queen Bracelet' which was so popular last year:

Lily Pearl Earrings

Summer is here - the lifeguards are back on the beaches and today I saw the first wild roses (sheltering behind the supermarket, the cliff-top ones will take a little longer).

To celebrate, here are some pearl and silver earrings, going to the Sea Witch Folksy Shop.

(Also seen: Star of Bethlehem, Pyrenean Lily, Chives, Fritillary.)

http://folksy.com/items/4387785-Lily-Pearl-Earrings

Doves, Rivermouth, Wishes

Collared doves coo-ing in the excellent acoustic of the ironwork under the glass roof of Tynemouth Station this a.m.:

They're relative newcomers from Asia, the first breeding pair in the UK spotted in the 1950's, now very common in towns and gardens, and often to be found sunning themselves under the station roof. Village-next-door Cullercoats is thought to derive its name from their native cousins, the Old English 'culver', kept in 'cotes': little houses for animals or birds. In 1908 the Dove Marine Laboratory on Cullercoats Bay was so named for Eleanor Dove, ancestor of geologist Wilfred Hudleston who financed the construction of the new building after the 19th century original was burned down.

In a mysterious box waiting for me at the Post Office, a glass fishing float marked with the kanji for 'rivermouth', from Hokkaido, Japan, via Alaska.

Wishing bottles and lockets, filled with tiny bits of sea glass found at Prior's Haven. Some of these pieces of glass are so small they're almost sand again.