Can you afford it? Yes you can!

We’re all watching what we spend at the moment and with all the doom and gloom about the economy it means that those wonderful, must have, spur of the moment purchases are making us feel even more guilty!

So we thought this might be a good time to remind people about the brilliant COLLECTORPLAN scheme, run in conjuction with The Arts Council of Wales.  It’s an interest free loan (yes…completely interest free!) from £50 to £2,000 payable in up to 15 installments.  Good eh?  It makes us as happy as this Christine Cummings pointer!

It takes minutes to fill out the application form in the gallery and it means that Wally Keeler teapot or gorgeous Peter Beard vessel could actually be yours, not just something to dream about!

Since the scheme began in 1983 over 26,000 people have used Collectorplan and been able to buy the one thing they really can’t live without for an affordable monthly payment.

So…..what are you waiting for?

New on the starting grid!

We’d like to welcome our newest member of staff to the team at The Bowie Gallery.  Paul Latham-Jackson was a Design and Development Engineer in the car industry before giving it all up to spend the last 10 years bringing up his 2 daughters.

Now, no-one could call us girls in the gallery petrol heads but even we were impressed to learn that Paul had worked on the DB7

  (that’s an Aston Martin to those of you who don’t know….yeah, we knew you’d be impressed!), the Volvo C70 AND the Bugatti Veyron.

He’s even designed and put into production his own car!

The Latham F2!  Gorgeous eh?

He’s also worked in Formula 1 and Formula 2 so let’s hope he can keep up with life in the gallery fast lane!

Paul obviously has a fantastic eye when it comes to design and this coupled with a keen interest in contemporary craft means that he’ll fit right in.  We’re really looking forward to working with him.

Confused.com?

We’re a bit concerned about Bailey, our lovely gallery dog.  She’s a little confused with all this strange weather we’ve been having and can be found every day bringing back sticks from her morning walk.  We’ve got enough to start our own bonfire now!

 

And they seem to be getting bigger every day!

 

Thanks Bailey but we’ve got the heating covered!

Sipping Pretty

As we enjoy this lovely sunny day our thoughts turn to strawberries and cream, Wimbledon, cream teas, cucumber sandwiches and picnics by the river so we thought we’d share a special find with you all.

Picture the scene….wonderful cakes, delicate sandwiches, tea from proper bone china cups and saucers, the sound of bees buzzing lazily around as you doze in dappled light under a tree.  A plethora of lace and chintz.

We have found THE most amazing company that hires out vintage crockery, glassware and linens….AND it’s based in Hay on Wye!  Owner Jo Hodges has great vision and the idea is inspired.  It’s pefect for weddings, tea parties, that special Wimbledon finals ‘do’ when Andy Murray gets past Nadal……and Jo offers such a great service that you don’t even have to do the washing up!

 

Looking at the luscious website for Sipping Pretty makes us want to waft around in floaty dresses eating cake (of course) and sandwiches with the crusts cut off (Bailey’s favourite!) pretending we’re in a episode of Brideshead Revisited.  So if you’re planning a perfect summer event why not talk to Jo and make it really special?

 

 

Man down!

It feels very quiet in the gallery this week.  We’re a man down with Joy recovering from an operation and an unscheduled stay in Hereford hospital!  We could only think of one way to cheer her up – flowers and cake.  Then we thought of something EVEN better…….a bunch of flowers made out of cake!!  What could be more brilliant?

Made by cake maker extraordinaire, Louise Blackwell, it certainly put a smile on Joy’s face and made her feel loads better…..the cakes not only look amazing they taste absolutely delicious as well!

   

Hurry up and get back to work Joy!

If you want to commission Louise to make you a fabulous cake bouquet for a really special occasion then email her on louiselblackwell@aol.com

Technically we’re down 2 men really as Rachel, our lovely friend and photographer, disappeared off to New Zealand yesterday on a year’s working visa.

!  Not before she’d photographed lots of new work to put on the website though!

We all wish her the very best over in NZ and look forward to following her adventures on facebook!

Well met in Hereford

You bump into the strangest people in Hereford these days…..yesterday it was the Hereford Craft Market in the town centre and taking part were a few of our makers – jeweller Bronwen Tyler Jones and ceramicist Bev Milward were sharing a stand and had a good, if not slightly damp, day! It was also Bev’s birthday!

Garry Jones was also spotted making a sheep in a bath (excellently called ‘Sheep Dip’) and he had plenty of lovely sheep, dogs and chickens on his stand.  It’s nice to see our makers our and about!

Happy Sad

We’re really happy to be back in the gallery today although we seem to be surrounded by boxes to either unpack, repack or send back to makers!  It was really sad leaving our lovely gallery on site yesterday although the packing up went very smoothly thanks to all the help we had from Barty and the Zebra Design team and the sun was shining on us too!

 

That’s it….we’re done!