"...a lovely place to work"

ART
Gwen Bainbridge
This week it is the turn of Ceramics. Gwen currently lives in Cumbria and gets some of her inspiration from the surrounding countryside, but inspiration is often found in the Vintage/Retro fairs and Bric a Brac stalls she frequents. Lace prints feature in some of Gwen's designs. Exploring the work of craftsman from the past ignites Gwen's little creative grey cells to creating something with either a Elizabethan feel or the retro times of the 50's and 60's. “It’s quite an eclectic cocktail of inspiration stored in my mind and continually re-visited”

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1950's coasters are a popular item at the fairs Gwen attends, other wise known as Gwen's Porn.

Porcelain and Bone china is the medium Gwen creates with, lace is pressed on the Porcelain or Bone China leaving an impression which makes every item Gwen creates unique.
Gwen also gives School children the opportunity to be creative with the materials and tools she uses.

I love this Teapot and cup set Gwen has created. It reminds me of The Mad Hatters tea party from Alice in Wonderland.

These cane toppers are great for the keen gardeners who are forever having near misses with eyeballs and bamboo canes.

Jewellery and a whole host of buttons appear in her gallery at Brougham Hall.
Here is her website and Facebook page.

Brougham hall also houses
Mary Chappelhow (another potter),
Susan Clough (silver Jewellery)
Maria Burton (artist & Photographer)
Simon Whalley (Photographer).
Next time you visit Cumbria come and see their work.

BEER
Brougham hall has a brewery so it would be really rude of me not to mention Eden Brewery in this blog. For those that don't know, this is my place of work and I brew the beer. We have been in this building since October 2011 and in March 2012 our first beer was brewed. It took three attempts to get it right but Eden Best eventually hit the taste buds. I didn't start working with these guys till 1st November 2014. I originally was doing a bit of admin for them and when he heard I was looking for a full time job, he asked if I wanted a Full time job with them. I said yes expecting it was admin and the odd jobs around the brewery. When he told me it was brewing beer my response was “Are you taking the piss?!” Well I'm still here and still enjoying it even though...

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1. I have been stung by 3 wasps in the space of one month having never been stung by one in my life. I now have a slight allergy to them.
2. Had to ditch a brew because I read the recipe sheet wrong and put 4k of Chocolate malt in to Eden Best. It required 400kg! Suffice to say I did try convincing the boss to turn it into another beer. But I learnt that too much chocolate malt makes the beer bitter!
3. Miss out the said Chocolate malt in Eden Best, but this one went out and people still loved it.
4. Burnt my arm pretty bad on the steam coming out of the kettle lifting the lid off.
5. Steamed my forehead by not climbing up to the top of the ladders and lifting the lid at eye level. This was actually quite funny later.
6. Generally is wet through the day because the hose pipe end flies off spraying water all over.
7. And the best yet, I nearly feel into a VAT of Revenge trying to get a gravity sample which was almost out of reach. I did have to balance myself on the vat leaning in with my legs in the air trying to aid my balance.

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All in all I think I have done OK so far.
Here's the brewery latest blog by Giles "A wake up call"
Here's our website and Twitter page.

GARDEN
If you wander around the back of Brougham Hall you will find a little sunken garden. It is quite peaceful and occasionally when I have time during the beer making process and it is sunny I will sit and eat my lunch there. Whilst it is a cobbled are there are pots of flowers dotted around. With a view out to the small wood you can very occasionally see a red squirrel darting up to the tops of the fur trees.

Just round the back is St Wilfrid's Church.

MUSINGS
Brougham hall is a 14th Century fortified house. Instead of me going through the history of the place why don't I let you read their website at your leisure. But I will tell you one fact - Winston Churchill used the hall along with Lowther Castle and Greystoke Castle to test his 'secret weapons' (tanks) in 1942.
What I will do is tempt you with some photo's.

TUNE OF THE WEEK
Gwen the lady I featured in the Art part of my blog is in a band called the Misdemeanours here's their Facebook site. Alas I can't find and tunes to play for you.
So I shall leave you with another Ukelele player
Jake Shimabukuro - "Bohemian Rhapsody"