Tuesday 16 December 2008

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: Teacosy* Number 8; Sugarpink Colonial Cosy, 2008

I am holding a random lucky draw for this tea cosy as a special event!

Je fais un prix de cet couvre-theiere, comme une 'donation chanceuse' de Noel!


If you are interested in putting your name into the draw, please leave me a comment here in answer to this question:
Si ca vous interesse, laissez-moi ici votre reponse du question suivant:

What is your favourite tea cosy/tea drinking/tea party scene or paragraph in a film or novel?
C'est quoi votre souvenir de preference au sujet des cache-pots dans un film ou un roman?

I will then put everyone's names in a tea cosy on Monday the 22nd December and ask the Curator of Decorative Arts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Mr Peter Hughes, to draw out the winning name.
If you re-check this blog again on that Monday night, there will be the winner's name posted.
Ce lundi le 22 Decembre, je vais mettre tout vos noms dans un cache-pot en attente de la main de M. Peter Hughes (Directeur des collection des Arts Decoratifs au Musee des Beaux Arts de Tasmanie), qui va tiens un nom gagnant. Epuis je vais ecrire le nom ici le lundi soir, donc si vous reviennez voir ce blog, vous le sauriez!

Tea cosy dimensions: (interior measurements) 31cm x 24cm. So will fit a two or three-cup tea pot.
Dimensions du cache-pot: (d'interieur) 31cm x 24cm. Ce cache-pot marche avec un theiere du 2 ou 3 tasses.







Hand embroidery on silk, cotton velvet, transfer print on silk, antique needle lace, wool, hand printed linen lining by Aunty Cookie, vintage brass bits, printed hemp by Pippijoe of Melbourne.

Brodee a la main sur la soie, velours du coton, homme inprime sur la soie, dentelle vielle, laine, lin imprime par Aunty Cookie, cuivre jaune vieux, chanvre imprime par Pippijoe de Melbourne.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a moment in "a piano for the Piranease" where one of the authors friends suddenly mum dies. Tony (the author) isn't there but his quiet, builder bloke is there and came up with the perfect response to the situation, all he says is "i'll put the kettle on" and then he does. It reads better in the book by Tony Hawk

Anonymous said...

Merci Tara, c'est tres gentille de ton part. My favorite is in Alice in Wonderland, when Alice attends the Mad Hatters Tea Party and, confused by the riddles put to her, leaves, claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to. Just what we tend to do when we are confronted, non?

Anonymous said...

How lovely Tara!

My favourite (today) is the breakfast scene in Sante Sangre where Fenix, wearing maribou cuffs and long false nails tenderly replaces his armless mothers limbs with his own to serve her tea and toast. He still jiggles the cup a little when she is unkind to him though. 'Stop it!' she says 'You are making me dirty'. His hands dab at the spill on her white maribou gown, his fingers flex and she says 'Now we shall practice my concerto...'

Anonymous said...

Comment from Anna Phillips.

hi pet, happy christmas to you. your new work is beautiful. very beautiful. i tried to enter your competition on your blog, but it was all in korean, is this another of your talents? i could not answer it, but I thught if i told you my fav. cuppa scene, maybe that would do. it is sucha teary film with trevour howard and the lady (ceclia something)and they meet in the train station and Almost have an affair, but she wont leave her husband in the end, trev plays a doctor and wants her to go away with him, but they just drink pints of tepid tea in the cafe instead. the music is swoony and moody,the film is 'brief encounter' trev howard and ceclia johnson and lots of cuppa tea!!!
xxxxanna

emily said...

Salut Tara! Although I think Lewis Carroll's tea party is magnifique (particularly the treacle well), in the interests of diversity and patriotism I'd have to nominate a good strong sweet cup of billy tea, shared in the company of Bunyip Bluegum et al, accompanied by a hefty slice of the Magic Pudding. There's no one central tea scene, but they're constantly putting the billy on their campfires as they travel! It's how I like to do things too.

Anonymous said...

"It was always the same every year, I always came down by the same train, arriving at tea-time, and always found Aunt Sadie and the children round the table under the entrenching-tool... it was always the same table and the same tea-things; the china with large roses on it, the tea-kettle and the silver dish for scones simmering over little flames..." Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

Anonymous said...

Just to explain more fully.... The Pursuit Of Love is one of my favorite all time books; so delicate and peculiarly English, and so stunningly, inevitably tragic... summoning a different era with different tragedies and concerns...
Astrid xx

Anonymous said...

From Jo McIntyre:

Thank you for your message re the TC Revolution. However, I cannot seem to respond to your request re favourite tea drinking/parties etc. on the blog. -My favourite scenes, though, have been those episodes by Agatha Christie, in which Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple have taken (elegant) tea or tisanes. Will this suffice?

The Exton Gardener said...

I'm afraid I can never go past Agnes and Grace! Does that count?

Anonymous said...

I SO wanna win this fabulous random raffle!!! Merry Xmas, dear lady.
For the greatest 'tea' moment of all time, you can't go past (and make sure you do the actions as you recite):
'I'm a little teapot
Short and stout
Here is my handle
Here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
Then I shout
Tip me over
Pour me out'
Viva La Tea Cosy/Nursery Rhyme Revolution!
Lots of love from Melbourne
xxxBrigette

MG said...

From The Piano (Jane Campion)

'TEA!'

'Morag, what would you think, if someone were to play a kitchen table, like it were a piano?'

'Like it were a piano?'

'It's strange isn't it I mean, it's not a piano, it doesn't make any sound.'

'Biscuits!......no, no sound.'

'I knew she was mute, but now I'm thinking perhaps it's more than that, I'm wondering if she's not..
.....brain affected.'

'Shhh! No sound at all?'

'Well no, it was a table!'

'Well she was very violent with the veil, she tore off a chunk of lace. If I hadn't been there to see it, I'd have sworn she'd have used her teeth and wiped her feet on it!'

'Well, it hasn't come to anything yet...it's simply a concern that's all.'

'Yes, yes of course, a concern.'

'There's something to be said for silence.'

'Indeed.'

'And with time I'm sure she'll become.....affectionate.'

'Certainly there's nothing so easy to like as a pet.....and they're quite silent'

(end scene)

Monique Germon xx

Anonymous said...

From Joce Moen:
Arraaaa!!!

It's so long since we've talked, and there's so much to talk about.

First of all, my favourite tea scene I can think of right now is the one between Gwendolen and Cecily in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest. I can't remember what scene it's in but it must be towards the end somewhere. Will you put my name in the cosy? What a lovely and generous idea!

Gros gros bisous,
Joce xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

Hi Tara,
The cosy is just so lovely...
One of my favourite scenes (or more so - favourite movie) is Enchanted April where right near the end after the guests have spent their time relaxing in a stunning rustic villa on the coast of Italy, San Salvatore, they are having a picnic amongst the breezy grasses and trees overlooking the water. They have a lovely squat blue and white teapot which is sent off for a refill. I always wish I could spend some time there.
Cheerio,
Sarah

anastasia said...

Wooo, let's see. My favorite scene involving tea would be from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon when Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien spoke of their love of each other out loud. The place was very quiet and calm and made you focus on these two souls that could never be together.

Michelle said...

What a beautiful teacosy and a most generous giveaway.

My favourite scene is the Floating Tea Party from Mary Poppins with Uncle Albert floating uncontrollably in mid-air whenever he laughs. Tea with magic - a perfect combination...

K.J. said...

My favorite tea scene is in the movie "The Great Escape". It is when Blythe, the forger, and Henly, the scrounger, meet for the first time. Blythe is carfully making a cup of tea from leaves he's already used 20 times and he says "tea without milk is so uncivilized." Henly leaves the room to get fire wood and amazingly returns with a small tin of milk for Blythe's tea.

It is so fun to read everyone else's favorites.
-kelly (harthillsouth)

isabel f. said...

well Tara ..... I love all of your work, beautiful! so... thank you for your kindness :D
about the movies, almost all films have a scene with tea, but as you know the tea was started by being consumed in China and Japan and who brought him to the rest of the world?
..... someone who may well be an my ancestor :DD a Portuguese:)
was a Portuguese who brought tea to Europe and then D. Catherine of Braganza who married D. Charles II took the tea to England and thence to the world.
So we, the Portuguese, like a lot of tea, too :D
hugs and Merry Christmas to you
Isabel

Anonymous said...

Comment from Sandra Auld:

Hi Tara,

Not quite sure how to enter at your blog so I thought I'd send you comments this way. Love your tea cosy giveaway....as I'm sure everyone does!

As far as the movie/book with a "tea moment " goes.... in a recent revisit of the movie "In the Bedroom", the mum [played by Sissie Spacek] is trying to cope with the sudden death of her son.

Unlike her husband, who copes with his grief by immersing himself in his work and in the familiar, the mum hibernates away, in her home, closing down and becoming introspective, closed and withdrawn.

In the shots we see of her in these manifestations, she is always accompanied with her teacup and saucer, whether watching tv late at night, or sitting at the kitchen table, alone, smoking and reading the paper.

The association of grief, of loss with the soothing efficacy of a cupof tea is apparent here. From an aesthetic point of view, in the cinematic experience as artform, the mother's sense of interior design/ decorating is keenly viewed in the shots inside the home, in the tastefully appointed rooms with their eclectica. Here, amongst the daily domesticity, most of the movie's central theme emerges, where a very New England taste abounds. Echoes of such appear in the tea cups and saucers, old, restrained and elegant!

Have a joyous Christmas Tara and a great New Year, when I look forward to hearing from you,

Kind regards,
Sandra.