Mosaic Club Fun

Got to be a short one today, off to Lime Walk House to grout their mosaic:

But in the meantime, I need to recover from mosaic club this morning. My sides hurt with laughing! 

It never ceases to amaze me, the range of topics discussed around the table; interesting, scary, deep, funny. What I did notice, was that when someone is in the 'mosaic zone' they will miss most of a conversation but just one word will bring them back to real time. This can have either a mildly confusing or hysterical effect! Needless to say, it was the latter of the two today. Though I hold back divulging details about the well known, high street, adult only store which brought forth much merriment!

As I am thinking of bringing a dog into the family, various ideas as to the breed came up.  Once everyone was settled with everything they needed and their chosen brew, we did a bit of 'googling' but I'll blog that separately.

This took us to the www to research images and I was very happy to show one of my ladies how to use dropbox as she expressed a desire to further delve into the artistic creation of 'grotesque birds'. We were laughing too much to consider reprimanding Kevin when he said he was used to the company of grotesque birds on a Wednesday morning! 

I love the diversity of designs produced during Wednesday morning workshops: house numbers, dogs, dragons, hedgehogs, foxes, Italian City scenes and Toucans (Guinness!)

Mosaic Club!

What a busy day!

8:15 - veggies washed and chopped ready for the slow cooker...

Easels away at the top end to make room for the mosaic class...

Mosaic for St Michael's Church in the middle of the room...

9:30 - students' table, ready and waiting...

Straight in there! Well done for finishing your first mosaic project, Janet - I know it looks like you've just covered it up but wait until you have finished the grouting...

...see, you can see some of your lovely mosaic now...

...getting there...

...finished! Gorgeous!

Another beautiful mosaic, Georgina - please bring it back next week grouted so we can see!

Ah, class over, time for soup! Recipe at the bottom.

Hm - think I ought to stop breaking pretty dishes to use in mosaics.

The soup was another winner today. It was pretty good, I must admit. Here's the recipe:

1/2  x butternut squash

1 x onion

 1 x courgette

2 x sticks celery

1 x sweet potato

herbs de provence

chili and garlic flakes

fresh ginger (lazy ginger is good or powdered if not)

2 x bay leaves

Stock

2 x tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1 x cup small pasta shapes

Wash and chop the vegetables. Cover with vegetable stock and add herbs and seasoning. 

Either bring to the boil or put on high in slow cooker for  3 hours, add the peanut butter and whisk up - I like to leave some chunky bits in but the peanut butter makes it thick and creamy! Add the pasta and serve when cooked.

We all really enjoyed this soup!

Why not come and join us - for just £15 a session, it's a great way to spend a Wednesday morning.

Treacle and Soup

I really enjoyed Sunday at the Treacle Market, setting up a table outside Mike's new shop, mosaicing with my gorgeous SMALTI.

I do not know where this week has got to!  It has been a wonderfully creative week, making coasters with children on Sunday, water colour beach scenes at Mount Hall and Mosaic Club on Monday, shifting 360 kilos glass yesterday and my mosaic group this morning.

I DO love Wednesdays.  I got a little excited today as my new slow cooker arrived so I could do a bigger batch of soup! Recipe at the end.

Janet and Georgina's mosaics are coming on so well - really proud of you girls! 

Well, the slow cooker worked.

I do not think I could EVER be able to run a cafe serving soup, I would not be able to make the same soup twice!

Here is what we had this week:

3 x small potatoes 

4 x small carrots 

2 x celery sticks

1/2 x white onion

1 x vegetable stock cube

1 x chicken stock cube

2 x fresh cloves garlic

1 x bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 x tablespoon cous cous

garlic and chili flakes to taste

1.5 litres water

splash of semi skimmed milk

Do not peel the vegetables - just the onion and garlic. 

Chop everything up small.

Place everything except the milk in the slow cooker on 'high' for 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Optional - whizz half the soup with a hand blender and add the milk before serving.

I would actually have liked pearl barley in this but it was tasty nevertheless.

Mosaic Club Soup Recipe!

What a fabulous morning! It was so nice to have the window open today. I did not realise how much I had missed the sounds of the canal. Lovely.


Janet asked me to write my recipes down, so I thought I would include a recipe at the end of my blog each week.   Please feel free to send recipes in, though. If I use them, I will put them on my blog.

I am really looking forward to seeing Janet's floral mosaic finished.  I love her use of stained glass and mirror.

This photo just does not do justice to Georgina's beautiful woodland mirror.  Using colour on her grout to add depth and atmosphere, her careful addition of very fine glitter on the grout just completed the look. Stunning!

No - not even Georgina is that quick! She has gone back to a project she started before Christmas and it is looking goo...oood!

Heads down and concentrating. 

We did have a lot of laughs today. 

Actually, we quite often have a lot of laughs!

Just loving Sue's chosen colours for her door number.  I think it may even be finished next week when I melt those glass pieces down into cabouchons!

And what can I say about Tonie's work. It was a pleasure to have her in the class. It is a pity she lives so far away but I was really pleased she wanted to use the GORGEOUS Dynasty Smalti! We found the colours she wanted for her first ever try at mosaics and I think she has been bitten by the bug.

I really must get those photos done now the boxes are open.

You can purchase the smalti from my Ebay shop - just click on  the Ebay icon on my website:

MY WEBSITE

Ok - here it is, the first Mosaic Club Soup Recipe:

Roasted Vegetable and Red Lentil Soup

Serves 4

4 x small maris piper potatoes

1 x large parsnip

2 x medium carrots

1 x medium courgette

1/2 x red onion

2 x sticks celery

2 x mugs COOKED and drained red lentils

2 x pints vegetable stock

1 x teaspoon paprika

1/2 x teaspoon ground garlic and chilli flakes

1/2 teaspoon Oregano

1 x tablespoon olive oil

optional - splash of milk

Scrub all the vegetables, peel the onion but just top and tail the others except the potatoes.  Chop into small chunks except for the courgette, make those a bit bigger.

Dry the veg with kitchen roll or a clean tea towel. Spread out in a roasting tin.

Mix the oil, herbs and spices. Pour over the vegetables and rub in to cover them.

Roast in pre heated hot oven for 20 minutes. Turn temperature  down to medium-hot for 30 minutes.

Place cooked veg, lentils and stock in a pan and bring to the boil.  

Depending on how you like your soup, either add a splash of milk and serve as is or liquidise partially.

Add seasoning to taste if required.

Hope I remembered it all - enjoy!

Winter Sun

Another Wednesday morning Mosaic Club session.  Cauliflower and potato soup today with a lovely wholemeal roll from Brassington's Bakery.

The ladies were so quiet for a while today - everyone concentrating so hard.  The work is paying off though, I am so impressed with the mosaic mirror, picture and door number plate that are being produced!

We have just 5 places available so if you want to come and join us, ring now for further information!

01625 574 005

New Courses Online

What a lovely day. The Mosaic club is growing and we had a lovely morning, welcoming our new member, Julie.  Well and truly bitten by the 'mosaic bug' she was amazed at how an empty olive oil bottle can instill such creativity! We are all looking forward to the new mosaic member joining next week.

The afternoon was equally creative and inspiring.  Lovely to meet Amanda and James, again, who are busy, busy, busy working on the Bollington Movie project.

2012 is proving to be a most creative year and I am enjoying the buzz I'm getting from it.  


I am listening to 'Paloma Faith' at the moment and aim to finish the cd mosaic I'm working on before going home.


***********

Though not complete, folks, I have put details on my current courses and workshops online.  

Please take a look and give me a ring on my NEW number 01626 754 005 to book.

www.thecreativespacestudio.com

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Back to the grind again but that is just what we love, here at The Creative Space Studio.

Here is a photograph of one of our club member's mosaic project, completed just before Christmas for her guest room.  It is amazing what you can do with a cheap Ikea stool, some glass and some guidance from a mosaic tutor!

We still have some places left if you want to join our Mosaic Club - either Monday 5 - 7 or Wednesday 10 - 12.30.