The Cornwall Blog

Rocke & Nutter, a stylish new home and fashion accessories brand inspired by the timeless allure of North Cornish Coastal life, today announced the launch of their online store. Founded by Sophie Mason and Jay McInnes, the brand focuses on design-led, locally-sourced and ethically produced products. The store's inspiring range of gorgeous homewares aims to promote the work of the finest Cornish craftspeople - such as the handmade steam-bent lighting of Tom Raffield and the seascape-inspired ceramics of Charlotte Jones. The hunt for hand-made treasures has also led Rocke & Nutter further afield, to Ireland for the wool felt creations of Jamie Lewis and Paris for designer Nadia Dafri's stunning cut glass jewellery. The store also caters for beach-loving 'Little Nutters', with a range of animal-print wetsuits for children. "There's a freshness, a vibe and a purity about life on the North Cornish Coast that we love," says Sophie. "We're...

It's a land as famous for toiling tin in the past as tantalising tourists today. Surrounded by brooding waters and peppered with mines, Cornwall also houses some of the most creative minds in the country. With a relaxed and friendly attitude, the county boasts a rich diversity of businesses. From designers to wordsmiths and caterers to crafters, there is a focus on bringing the elements of Cornwall's unique aesthetic to the fore. Websites use images of the sea, whilst restaurants focus on provenance: incorporating what grows naturally. Artists gather natural resources to produce. Over time, many creatives cite the sea as an inspiration. From the anthropomorphic rocks to the inky waters, Cornwall's natural beauty weaves itself around those who visit and wraps itself inside those who live here; forever holding hearts. Its unique landscape: from the rugged rocks on the North Coast to the harsh hilltops on the moors, from the sandy arcs of St. Ives to the rattling flot...

On the lawns of Bude Castle this month, Saturday 20 September and Sunday 21 September, an open invitation is extended to readers to discover the class of culinary cleverness hiding around the banks of the old canal. Bude is well-known for its beautiful beaches; stunning sunsets and dramatic scenery. Now it’s time for food to come to the fore. Cornwall’s most up-and-coming seaside town boasts an array of local producers whose food is sourced with care, prepared with skill and delivered with pride – as the festival exhibits outstanding producers of local food. Local restaurants, pubs and cafés, pronounced by their provenance, have been involved in a Restaurant Trail, wherein visitors can collect stamps from participants around town. Come hungry to Bude for Food, as there will be the opportunity to sample everything from charcuterie to chocolates, brownies to handmade bread, pasties to preserves and much, much more. Over 50 local exhibitors will be showcasing their wares in the Art...

Britta Wengeler plate The 2014 Ceramics Trail Cornwall, which coincides with the St Ives September Festival, running from the 13th to 27th of September 2014. Coinciding with this year’s St Ives September Festival is the second Ceramics Trail Cornwall, which brings together twenty four professional potters and ceramic artists as part of a fortnight-long 'open studios' circuit. Visitors to the September Festival will be encouraged to visit the many talented potters based in the town of St Ives and to venture out into the surrounding towns and countryside to explore other pottery venues and some of the smaller, independent ceramic studios of West Cornwall. Linda Styles pot The potters and ceramic artists involved in the trail cover a very wide range of practices, styles and techniques ranging from traditional wood-firing, soda-firing and reduction firing through to the application of digital technologies.The trail will be promoted through a specially designed trail m...

Opening August Bank Holiday Monday and on show throughout September, The Picture Room at Newlyn Art Gallery presents Stupid Beauty, a selling exhibition by Contemporary Landscape painter Gareth Edwards RWA. A graduate of Goldsmiths College, a member of the Newlyn Art Society and an elected RWA Academician, London born Edwards is a tutor at the Newlyn School of Art and a resident of St Ives’ prestigious Porthmeor Studios. This new collection of small, exquisitely coloured oil paintings reflect the artist’s personal memory of places such as Nice, Mousehole, Lindisfarne, Antibes, Puglia, Kefalonia, Camargue, the Euphrates, Essaouira, Bergen, Iona and the Isle de Rhe. Created in a one-off performance of energised, wet into wet knife painting, these diminutive yet vibrantly powerful works are indicative of the artist’s intensely personal relationship with land and the subjective, sensorial experience of time and place. The show will also i...

Cornwall is such a diverse county from the wild North Coast to the hidden coves of the South. Today I want to draw your attention to the very centre, Lanivet. This little village has a great community with a pub, local store, fish and chips (essential!), a church and school and is very close to the legendary Bodmin Moor. Nestled in this Cornish village is Lanneves Cottage Holidays, a lovely self-catering holiday home where the owners have really thought of everything. The cottage is two hundred years old and boasts light and airy rooms with a double and twin bedroom. From homemade jam to welcome you on your stay and the chickens and help-yourself veg patch, it really is a home from home. Lanneves is a family friendly high quality cottage holiday with those modern comforts that make a holiday special. You can also follow the blog on their website for happenings in a Cornish home. Happy holiday makers say "Everything about the cottage was above expectations" and "...

In January of this year, talented St Ives artist and Porthmeor Studios resident Lucie Bray died unexpectedly at the age of 39. An outstanding sea and landscape painter, Lucie held her first ever solo exhibition at New Craftsman Gallery St Ives in 2011 and has held regular annual shows at the gallery since that time. Lucie was working on her 2014 show before her death and this May, in collaboration with Lucie’s estate, New Craftsman will be going ahead with the exhibition as planned. Made up of both new and recent works, the event will be a celebration of Lucie’s talent and passion for the Cornish land and seascape. The exhibition will include contributions from key members of the St Ives arts community, in the form of handwritten submissions to be exhibited alongside the paintings, which respond to Lucie’s paintings and celebrate the subjects which inspired Lucie and her working practice. Lucie was extremely proud to have been part of the ar...

The Leach Pottery St Ives presents an exhibition of more than 80 pots by West Cornwall based potter Peter Swanson. An independent studio potter for the last four decades, Swanson is entirely self-taught and his distinctive and highly accomplished works have established him as one of the UK’s most respected contemporary potters. This exhibition marks 40 years since he moved from Hampshire to Cornwall to open a family run pottery at Penbeagle, St Ives in 1974. Swanson works in stoneware and porcelain using locally sourced clays and produces his own ash glazes from various natural materials such as oak, beech, lavender and granite dust. With a style inspired by Leach and set very much in the Anglo-Oriental tradition, he has travelled extensively in Japan and Korea, absorbing ideas that have greatly enriched his working practice, and has most recently visited wood-firing potters working in Australia’s NSW. In this brand new collection of work S...

Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose has been given the official ‘go ahead’ to hold an Air Day in 2014. The Cornwall based Air Station is pleased to announce that this year’s event will be held on Thursday 31st July. The event, which has become a firm favourite on the Cornish Event Calendar, enables the general public to experience the sights and sounds of one of Europe’s largest helicopter bases, whilst seeing a fantastic Air Display in the skies.  It’s the only day of the year when the public can ‘experience the world of Culdrose’ and see what happens behind the security gates.  The Commanding Officer of Culdrose, Captain Mark Garratt said: "Now that we have been given the official go ahead to hold an Air Day, my team are already starting to book aircraft for the Air Display and are working hard to make it a day to remember.  This year should be a really special event, with some very special visitors." He added: "Often our Air Day i...

"Tall Ships and Small Ships" - by John Dyer, the Festival's "Artist in Residence" A picture is telling thousands of words as school children across the country knuckle down to interpreting an oil-based celebration of one of this year’s great world Maritime events – the Falmouth to Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta. Artist in residence for the Regatta, John Dyer, has unveiled his fireworks and fiesta painting, based on memories of the last Falmouth Tall Ships Festival in 2008, which, with the help of story-tellers, performers, a playwright and a hip-hop poet, is getting youngsters deeply immersed in their own paint and salty tales. Damian Dibben, creator of the world famous “The History Keepers” time-travel series is part of the creative team for the BIG Art & Storytelling Tall Ships Project says, “This is a brilliant, original competition. John Dyer’s picture is bursting with character, life and colour – I can’t wait to see what stories it inspire...

The North Coast of Cornwall has so much to offer, and a real variety of accommodation too. When I think about holidays I think home from home, I want luxury but also privacy. A really lovely cluster of holiday cottages in the little village of Chaple Amble provides just that, Rooke Cottages. Nestled in the rolling hills of Duchy farmland these beautifully renovated cottages provide an ideal base to explore North Cornwall. Within easy reach are the popular destinations of Padstow, Port Isaac, and Wadebridge. You can cycle the camel trail, surf at Polzeath beach or sit with a glass of something cold in a lovely harbour side restaurant in Padstow.  The farm has seven cottages all with private gardens and one beautifully furnished apartment in Wadebridge. The farm cottages have wood burning stoves for cosying-up after a healthy dose of fresh air. They even provide a room to dry wetsuits and parking for your boat (or car)! Little ones are well catered for with a playground an...

In January 2013, the government launched a scheme to provide free boilers with free installation to eligible applicants as part of the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) – £1.3bn project to reduce our energy consumption and pull individuals out of fuel poverty. Part of the ECO is the Affordable Warmth Obligation scheme, which helps individuals who couldn’t otherwise afford it, to install more energy efficient systems. This should result in reduced energy costs through the use of for more efficient boilers than older models. Penryn based Blue Flame Heating Solutions are recognised installers for Cornwall and have already seen success in working with customers to help them review their eligibility, and then installing brand new boilers into properties in the area. They provide no obligation consultations to find out if a free boiler is available for customers, based on whether they are receiving certain qualifying benefits. Funding for the scheme ends in March 2015, so it’s import...

Beginning their 2014 exhibition schedule, Leach Pottery St Ives present and exhibition of work by British potter Mike Dodd showing from the 15th February to the 30th March 2014. A largely self-taught artist whose work has received widespread critical acclaim, Dodd studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a one year ceramics course at Hammersmith College of Art before setting up his first studio in Sussex in 1968. In 1975, along with friend and potter Peter Schofield, he founded the Cider House Pottery at West Cornwall’s Godolphin estate, where they built a small wood-fired climbing kiln, and later constructed and worked with a traditional Thai kiln. Dodd remained in Cornwall until 1980, when he travelled to the central jungles of Peru to build a wood-fired Anagama kiln for an Amuesha Community, in a project funded by Oxfam and Survival International. He now works from his studio near Glastonbury in Somerset. Producing work that has been referred to as ‘pottery without ego’, ...

Phil Beer is one of the most popular ambassadors for acoustic roots music. A dazzling instrumentalist, he is perhaps best known as one half of the internationally acclaimed folk megastars Show of Hands, 2010 winners of BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for Best Duo and Best Song “Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed.” However, not only is he a musician, songwriter, composer and producer, he is also a top flight fiddler in the all-star line-up, Feast of Fiddles, and his skills don’t stop there, he also plays slide, Spanish and tenor guitar, mandocello, viola, mandolin and South American cuatro, not to mention contributing rich vocals. Phil Beer is appearing at this special “one night only” gig to show his support for Gorsedh Kernow, Cornwall’s own Gorsedd, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall. This event is generously supported by The Painted Bird, St Ives and Harding Laity Estate Agents of St Ives. Sunday 16th February 2014, 7.30pm (doors 7pm). St. Ives Guildh...