Lindy Whitton Studio

Last night I came home from work to find the house filled with flowers from our garden. The Writer had been putting down the mulch all day and celebrated by filling almost every vase we have with casual bunches of blooms. It looked so lovely after a slog of a day!

Ceramic cat and vase- treasured memories

When we travel The Writer and I are always on the look out for an artsy find to add to our travel collection. We both love vases of flowers scattered around the house and since there’s not a lot of wall space left we often choose a unique vase to bring home.

This is one of the first vases we bought. We’d just made the walk up to the stunningly situated abbey of ST Martin Du Canigou ( The Writer almost broke his face smiling when we finally got there as it had been on his list for a very long time!) On the way home we stopped to explore Villefranche-de-Conflent and found it full of art galleries and ceramic shops.We loved the colours which reflect our own house palette and the black lettering was so graceful we couldn’t help ourselves. I remember packing it in trepidation- lots of jumpers wrapped around it and hoping for the best. We still love this piece and use it often.

If not a vase then it’s likely to be a useable piece of kitchen art in the form of a bowl or platter.Every time I use these ceramics I’m transported back to sunny holidays. Even the simplest meal eaten off the red, yellow and black plates I bought in Bolseno at a tiny ceramic studio in a back street becomes a feast. The vivid red broken by the abstract yellow lines just sings to me. I loved these small plates so much that the next time we were in Tuscany we made a special detour to Bolseno to visit the studio and I saw some similar larger dinner plates – but there were only three. So… I asked could she make a fourth and we would come back again in a week to pick it up. Yes- she could! Over the course of 4 or 5 trips we gathered a collection of pasta bowls, small and large dinner plates, 2 serving bowls and a large platter and I absolutely love using them.

We couldn’t choose between the plate and the bowl with this lovely kaleidoscope pattern of coloured glazes . So we didn’t choose – we just bought them both and now we can’t remember who preferred which! We found them in a the Worthington Gallery in Springdale , Utah when we were visiting Zion National Park.

Not every piece is functional. I fell in love with this earthy , desert coloured pot with it’s leather bound wooden handle by K.Rasmussen simply because the colours were so evocative of the Utah desert landscape. It wasn’t cheap but I love it more each day and The Writer appreciates that I insisted on this one as he had his eye on another – he says the colours remind him of that great desert national parks holiday every day. I was so scared about getting this safely home I spent 2 hours in Santa Barbara shopping for a carry on bag big enough to hold the box it was packed in. Finally found a $15 dollar beach bag that fitted it perfectly!

Sometimes it’s a simple design that grabs my attention and this small, blue vase was a very inexspensive find in a small Spanish town neat the Pyrennes. The simple geometric pattern adds real interest and it’s one of The Writers favourites.

The Second Son bought this little ceramic cat home on a trip to Europe where he befriended every stray cat or kitten he could find. He lured them into our apartments with offerings of ham and bowls of milk, he spend hours playing with the landlords kittens and couldn’t resist feeding strays with titbits from the alfresco restaurant meals. A purrfect souvenir. We found the slab built vase in the artist village of Rousillon in Provence. The earthy colours are a reflection of the ochre cliffs in the area.

This grouping of holiday memories inclueds a trio of vases from  Tournus , France , a large pot from Springdale, Utah and a photo taken in St Guillem de Desert, france. I love the earthy colours!

So there you have it – a peek into our collection of holiday ceramics. What do you like to collect on your travels?