Tuesday 1 November 2011

Mud Maid!

Regular readers of this blog will know that apart from an obsession with jewellery, my second love is St Ives in Cornwall. My daughter and I went to stay there for half term and as always, we had a fabulous time - our dream is to live there one day....you gotta dream!

Ok, so this was the view outside our window....



We visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Heligan is the name of an estate which belonged to the Tremayne family and is described as one of the most mysterious estates in Britain. After years of neglect and a hurricane, the gardens were covered in bramble and ivy, like a modern day story of sleeping beauty. A small room was discovered in the corner of a ruin and a team of people set about restoring the gardens to their former beauty.

There are some sculptures by local artists, a giants head made of mud and plants in the ground but the most spectacular for us was the Mud Maid...


She was created by local artists, Sue Hill and her brother, Pete.


In the spring and summer she is even more beautiful with flowers in her hair!

If you want to read more about Heligan then click here.

We also visited the craft market at Hayle which houses some very special handmade shops and products...I didn't take any photos but you can read and see more here.

We always shop to within an inch of our lives because there are so many unique and handmade items to see.
I bought a cute crackle glaze penguin made by Chloe Harford and Chris Hawkins aka Glazed Amazed for my little girl at Imagianation Art Gallery.







I also bought a gorgeous handmade silver bangle from James King Gallery, I think I have bought something from James King every time I have ever been to St Ives - that's a lot of silver!






Finally, I bought some books - purely for medicinal purposes of course!






All in all, a fabulous and very productive week!