Saturday 30 April 2011

Dali Roofs

Dali is in a beautiful setting - hills on one side, Er Hai Lake on the other. Here are some photos of the view towards the hills, with some rooftops thrown in too!
Looking out from my room to the hills



Blue, black and white patterns under many of the roofs


Dali Silversmiths

I travelled to Old Town Dali for a few days - 4 hours' bus ride from Kunming. I have seen lots of silversmiths working at the front of their shops. They have a small dish with coals and they hammer on bars set on tree trunks. They make delicately patterned spoons, bowls, jewellery and tea sets.
Silversmithing at the shop front, on alow stool, producing exquisite hand crafted objects
 I spoke to this silversmith's wife - in a mixture of English and Mandarin (was told my mandarin is quite good - hehe...!) and discovered that her father is also a silversmith. He made the ornate teapot and cups photographed below.  I bought a few large pieces of coral here and enjoyed talking about silversmithing.

Showing me a sword and highly ornate scabbard


Teaset made by expert silversmith




Another silversmith working at his shop front in Dali


Tuesday 12 April 2011

Jade and Pearl Market

I had a lovely time at the market today with a friend, choosing the jade pieces for my new collection. We spent a long time selecting what I need and bought quite a few rock crystals too. 
Tiny jade beads go into the counting trays, making life easier!

entrance to the Jade and Pearl Market

Kunming at night on Renmin Xi Lu

Sunday 10 April 2011

Chinese Tea Party

Tea Set with Coral Roses



My first purchase in Kunming was this tea set, bought in the Tea Market today. There were dozens and dozens of different cups to choose from but I settled for the calm green and earth colours rather than the patterned ones. The tea is poured liberally across all the cups and the water drains through the carved lettering and patterns to a tray beneath. Yunnan is famous for its Puer tea - a rich smoky flavour - and there are Puer Tea Rooms around the city. Puer Tea is strong and perfect for a caffeine boost, as I once discovered when I had insomnia one night after spending a couple of hours (in the early afternoon) drinking Puer.
This tea set will be accompanying my jewellery to shows in Northern Ireland this spring: I'm most likely to be serving refreshing Jasmine and of course Oolong Tea - my two favourites.

Entrance to the Tea Market


China Feast


Where to start?
 My first meal in China this year - for 12, in case you're wondering - was, as you can see, totally amazing. The standard set is now extremely high. The restaurant, Dubai City, is huge and heavily decorated - it even has toilet cubicles in the shape of red barrels. We were impressed by the training for car attendants to direct traffic in the parking area (at least that's what we think they are doing)


Trainees giving full attention
 This is the flattest duck I've ever been served. I'm afraid the presentation did put me off and I ate from all the dishes, bar this one.....

Sunday 3 April 2011

A day in The Forge



I spent a fantastic day in Howard and Steve's studio yesterday making three new spoons. My favourites are these two - the Baby Rose Hips. Just waiting for the next stage of filing and polishing 

They're related to my original Rose Hip Spoon, which is the first of my favourite spoon collection, launched earlier ths year.