Devonshire Tea at Neil Pitt's Menswear store

This is a regular thing I do with dear friends CatRabbit (Cat Badcock, a distant relation and craft superstar), and Alan Moyle (Photobat, fabulous Tasmanian photographer), at Neil Pitt's Menswear Store in Launceston, Tasmania. Devonshire Tea here costs $6.50 and the scones are homemade and the tea comes in little old embossed aluminium teapots, it's totally fabulous!!

Neil Pitt's occupies the old 'Majestic Theatre' in Brisbane St, Launceston and a few weeks ago we managed to ask for and receive a quick tour of the upstairs part, to discover the late 19th Century ceiling and lead-light fan lights intact above a false floor used for storage. It was a magical moment...and will probably lead to a photographic project for Alan, and emerge in my work and Cat's somehow too.

Antique Tea Cosies from my personal collection

I took advantage of my new white shelves to take this (slightly dodgy) photo of three antique Victorian/Edwardian silk tea cosies I've collected over the past five years, two have hand embroidery or ribbon work embroidery decorating them.

The red enamel teapot is a recent acquisition too, from a local junk shop...it makes a great cup of tea!

Swedish cosiness chez Julia and Patrick

I just wanted to include this great photo my friend Julia Adzuki sent me the other day, as she features in the little photo or her and I (just on the right of the screen), having our 'Iced Teaparty' at Ice Hotel in 2005 (northern Sweden).

She and her partner Patrick, who I met at Ice Hotel too, have a market stall selling crepes in Sweden (south, near Stockholm somewhere), from Patrick's vintage caravan...and they sell tea too!

I love this photo of two very talented friends living an idyllic artists' life...sigh!

Too cool for words, and just what the Revolution needs!!!

The Terrorist Teapot By Jackie Piper - Home Furnishings - Unica Home
http://www.unicahome.com/catalog/item.asp?id=43299#height_491

Thanks to fabulous Dianna for this link and the following one too!

Ambroise Courtier Tray by ibride

Ambroise Courtier Tray by ibride
Originally uploaded by whorange

This famous French design studio creates the most divine tea trays...they did have tea sets too, though they must have worn out their stock?!

Their website is amazing too, such a pleasure to visit:

http://www.ibride.fr/ibride.htm

There's even a tray called 'Tara'!

And on the Tea Cosy front...

I've been a little neglectful of the actual tea cosy side of this tea cosy dedicated blog lately, and now that I'm at home in Tasmania and winter is starting to turn into spring (I cant tell you how grateful I am to my tea cosies during my working days, and indeed any day!), I'm processing all the fabulous sights and discoveries from my recent trip to Europe and waiting to see what sort of cosies are going to be born.

I'm really keen on the whole glamour of Paris Department stores and the aspirations of individuals, so I want to make some quite tailored cosies in "finest woole aynd silkes", very chic and restrained...to that point of erotic control which the French seem to achieve so well through dress and (city)lifestyle!

Oh and I have started an Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5898052
So I'll be uploading a tea cosy section soon too...

Its just a good way for me to reach a broader audience and I'm hoping it will help me hone my retail knowledge and skills and eventually find some good actual retail shops in the world for my work?! That's my current mission....alongside all my other 'current missions'...who said life is short?!!

Wishing you all very well with your daily tea drinking, and let me know if you need a new tea cosy? I'm happy to work to a tight budget, or do swaps....

So this is my most fabulous clothing creation from recent months, to give you an idea of where I'm taking my tea cosy designs...photo by the fabulously talented Alan Moyle (www.photobat.net), and my friend Anoushka Hughes is my model and lucky recipient of this hand embroidered pink silk camisole with real Macaw feathers (courtesy of my neighbours, Deb and Scott Wilson).
You can also see more info and images about this garment and the project it is part of, called Beautiful Empire, a collaboration with Monique Germon (www.moniquegermon.com), at our blog: www.beautifulempire.blogspot.com




Thanks for visiting!

Delightful!

I probably ought not to post info about another blog, and yet its such an amazingly fantastic blog full of treasures which I highly recommend perusing (in French: http://florizel.canalblog.com/), like this image:

Maps at Mariage Freres in Paris

This fantastic poster was also in Mariage Freres, and I love what it says for Tasmania...

Mariage Freres Salon du The in Paris...

These are some pics of the treasures that can be found in the Musee du The (Tea Museum...and please excuse the lack of correct French lettering...I haven't worked out how to do this on my blog yet!), upstairs in the Mariage Freres Tea shop in the Marais in Paris.

They serve tea in teapots which have their own felt-lined metal-casing cosies and so we dined on Mongolian Darjeeling and green tea cake with Earl Grey tea conserve...and it was....HEAVENLY!!