Blog inspiration: Rosa from A Ervilha Cor de Rosa

Rosa Pomar is the lady behind the blog 'A Ervilha Cor de Rosa'. Her blog is written in Portuguese as she lives and works in Lisbon, so unless you are fluent in Portuguese too, you have to translate her blog to read it. However, with the functionality of Google Translate this is not as big an issue as you might think. With every post she has some lovely photos so her blog is also such a pleasure to look at.

Living in Lisbon she is the perfect person to take you on a crafty tour of the city. It was already somewhere I would love to visit but now it is even more so. She looks at traditional crafts and talks to traditional crafts people about spinning (do fiar), knitting, tiles (quadrados), and quilting.
Her posts are so beautifully presented and the most interesting part of the blog from a history perspective must be her textile history posts.


D Laudecena of Peroselo teaching Rosa to spin (copyright Rosa Pomar)

If you have any interest in the African textiles from John Gillow's book of the same name (reviewed here) you might also be interested in Rosa's posts on African textiles.


Blouse made by Rosa from African textiles (copyright Rosa Pomar)

Rosa also sells her own craft work at Retrosaria.



Finally let me just say - if you do read Portuguese and find that I have misunderstood something on her blog, do let me know (preferably in a gentle and nice manner).

Do you have a favorite blog that you think I should take a look at then give me a nudge about it. I am always looking for new inspiration and interesting stuff.


The images in this post are copyright of Rosa Pomar who has kindly allowed me to use them for this post. If you wish to use the images please request permission directly from Rosa.

Blog inspiration: Robin Wood and the HCA

Heritage Craft Association Launch © Robin Wood, Heritage Craft Association

What I want to share with you today is actually two blogs, a great organisation and what promises to be an exciting event.
Let's start with the organisation, Heritage Crafts Association (HCA). I have mentioned them before as we were present at their launch last year (read our post about it) where we discussed things such as 'why crafts are important'. They have been going on a year now and are doing their first spring conference on the 19th March (details of signing up for this can be found here).

In their own words the conference will allow attendees to "learn about the context of heritage crafts in the 21st century and get an insider look into the working practices of traditional craftspeople active in the UK today. A mixture of talks and presentations from academics and practitioners, including a keynote speech by Professor Tanya Harrod, will appeal to anyone with an involvement or interest in traditional crafts."

Other speakers include BBC's Edwardian Farm's Alex Langlands, chair maker Stewart Linford, and stained glass tutor Sophie Hussain. This promises to be a great day full of inspiration.


Wood bowl (Copyright Robin Wood)

Let me finally tell you about the two blogs I think you should definitely have a look at. The first is the HCA's official blog: The Traditional Crafts Blog and the second is Robin Wood's (Chair of the HCA) personal blog. Robin blogs on both blogs and thus there is a bit of an overlap. But if you have an interest in woodworking (and Japanese woodworking too) as well as traditional crafts I would suggest subscribing to both.



I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you about the Balvenie Masters of Craft awards which will be judged by Robin and Kevin McCloud, the presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs.

"Nominations are sought for craftspeople who uphold elements of traditional artisanship and recognise the importance of working to innovate and develop sustainable markets for their products in today’s world.

Nine awards will be given in total. One for each of the seven craft categories (Stone, Wood, Metal, Glass and Ceramics, Textiles, Leather, Food and Drink), one for The Balvenie Young Master of Craft 2011 (those 30 years of age and under, who symbolise the successful passing on of skills to a new generation) and one for the overall Master of Craft 2011. Craftspeople can nominate themselves."



The closing date for entries is: Thursday April 21 2011

The majority of the images in this post are copyright of Robin Wood from HCA. If you wish to use the images please request permission from Robin.