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Design for ‘Lost’.
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The Hansel and Gretel enamelware nursery service, begun as a whim when I took a notion to make some unbreakable tableware for use by the very young children of visiting friends, has turned into a set of thirteen decorated pieces. Eight plates, a chocolate-pot and four mugs. I had no idea at the outset it would become such an absorbing project, having intended merely to make a very few pieces. Today I finished the last plate, ‘Lost’, and I can put my porcelain pens away for a while. No more trawling the internet for elusive 26 cm enamelware plates, and no more well-taped boxes arriving here with every post. My job is done.
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Clive Hicks-Jenkins' Artlog: 
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Aw, ‘Lost’ is so sad! I wonder which ones will prove to be favourites among your visitors?
I think ‘Lost’ remains sad only until one recalls what little Gretel does to the Witch! That kid is tougher than she looks!!!
They really are brilliant, put together like that they make a stunning set. Enjoy the Pullman retellings, the annotations are well worth the book and he has a feel for the orignals.
Thank you, Charlotte, for the Pullman recommendation.
Be sure to touch base and let me know what else emerges on the enamelware front. Hope you get one of those coffee-pots to decorate. I know you’d make a great job of it!
Entirely delightful and apetising. It’s often this kind of project, done spontaneously, joyfully, and without creative angst that turns out to be so satisfying. Now when you are next chained to your easel , Clive, and in the throes of ‘serious’ painting you can take a schokolade und kuchen break with these spirit-lifting objects and lighten the load.
It’s been tough year in oh-so-many ways, and I guess this playfulness has been one of my strategies for weathering it. But I’ve invariably found that work undertaken as play, has a way of filtering into the serious stuff later. We’ll see.
Thank you for your enthusiasm for this Natalie. As a fellow artist it helps that you understand why the light-hearted occasionally has to take precedence.
I just love, love, love all the pieces. What a fun treasure!! I certainly hope my children are two who may be able to use it on a future visit!
Indeed, Elizabeth. That will be something to look forward to.
The complete set looks so splendid laid out on the table, I’m in awe of how quickly this came about from that first sketch to this fantastic service, you really have been motoring Clive. The designs all work so beautifully on the enamelware, I do admire the way you started this and just went with it, it’s fab
Well, truthfully it just ran away with itself as a project. Philippa and I have been thinking we should do a ‘fairy tale’ project together by way of an exhibition, given her current preoccupations with Hans My Hedgehog and Red Riding Hood, and mine with Hansel and Gretel!
what a magical and one-of-a-kind pleasure. i agree with beth’s comment about the brothers grimm, excellent 😀
I’m just about to order Philip Pullman’s highly praised retelling of some of the Grimm tales, so I’m in the right zone!
fantastic, that cat is really great, so arrogant and proud, excellent. wonderful set of tabletop fun.
Well you clearly need to come Ty Isaf for kuchen und heiße schokolade served on my Hansel and Gretel enamelware!
Fabulous, Clive. I love that ominous “CAGE”, and those children definitely look very LOST indeed! You’ve created something delightfully macabre that would even please the Brothers Grimm.
Praise indeed. Thank you Beth. Working on Thaliad throughout the summer got me in the way of black and white collage combined with a folk-art idiom. Without which I probably wouldn’t have found myself washed up on the distant shores of decorated enamelware!!!
Those lucky visiting children! I predict that the grown-ups will want some chocolate too… And I won’t be surprised if some enamelware manufacturer comes thumping at your door.
Well a visit from an enamelware manufacturer would be nice, though it probably won’t happen if I don’t pursue them first, and frankly I have so much work to catch up with at the easel that I don’t have the time to pursue. Ho hum. As you’ve remarked here at the Artlog before, I’d need parallel lives to get everything done!
Well done, and any children using this will feel very lucky and equally delighted, I’m sure.
Thank you Julia. Sometimes something intended as a trifle takes one by surprise and grows into something bigger. That’s what happened here. Oh well, we’ll never be short of enamelware now!