Tag: France

The Ceramic Egg Tray

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Two years ago I went to the Drome Valley of the Provence, which is in the heart of that county, one our South of Lyon, two hours north of Marseilles. The most gorgeous inland area of the Provence with lavender fields in bloom, poppies coming out, sun flower fields starting. Slowing rolling hills and small medieval villages situated on either side of the road.
What I did not know that this particular area was known for a very special red and white clay.
The reason for that is, of course, the weather. Even when my husband and I visited, it was hot and sunny during the day, but heavy rain storms during the night. In the morning everything was breathing, steaming, mist was lifting just the most magical climate.
But what if must do to the earth is providing it with the right ingredients for the best possible clay, white or red, though red clay is clearly the superior one.
We visited a small pottery, one of many, and that is where I first saw the ceramic egg tray . I have never seen anything like it and it just looked so nice, cute and practical at the same time. Luckily my husband speaks almost perfect French so, I asked him to find out about these lovely products.
I always thought that eggs must be kept in the fridge to keep them safe. But there and then I learned that eggs are better kept outside the fridge as the porous shells can pick up everything else from the fridge, whether its ham or cheese or meat and chicken smells.
It cannot possibly be dangerous to keep eggs in a fridge or I would have died a long time ago, but ever since, when I bought my first ceramic egg tray or egg holder from that little pottery shop in Provence , I have kept my eggs outside the fridge.
It is not only an attractive addition to our kitchen, it holds 12 eggs (6er egg trays are the other choice), but it seems to be the better way to keep your eggs at home.
And I have noticed the difference in taste. Of course this could be imaginary but it seriously does feel as if my mushroom or cheese omelette tastes better since I have our eggs outside the fridge than before.
All in all, this is one of the unique kitchen or pantry items I have ever seen and all people who have come to visit have become egg tray or egg holder. Erde Ceramica is a unique ceramics and pottery shop where the products are hand-made, hand-painted kitchen and tableware from a selection of longstanding family owned potteries in Provence and Aubagne in France and Manises near Valcenica in Spain.

www.erdeceramica.com converts!

Why Choose Oak Flooring Directly From Timber Merchants

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Deciding to remodel your home is a big decision, and installing hardwood flooring is a solid investment. How can you reduce your costs but still enjoy the beauty and the benefits of oak flooring? One solution is to buy them online, or to buy them directly from timber merchants UK Timber, who can provide some of the best prices on the market!

With gorgeous English and French oak floor boards from these timber merchants, you will be able to create the design that you are seeking for your home, at a reasonable price! With different types of grade there are a diverse range of styles available, from a more contemporary look for your home to a unique traditional or rustic interior that will exude richness and warmth.

Unfinished Quality Oak Flooring From UK Timber Merchants

With many years of knowledge and expertise, UK Timber have much experience of manufacturing solid oak flooring, which they think of as a precise art. With these skills their timber is an excellent choice for home flooring. Solid oak flooring is highly sought after due to its amazing character, durability and beauty that is unsurpassed.

Therefore, you should choose your supplier very carefully. From timber merchants such as UK Timber, oak flooring comes completely unfinished, so you have the freedom to choose and apply your own preferred finish and bring out the best of this versatile type of wood flooring for the exact colour match that you are after.

Quality oak flooring from UK Timber is manufactured from kiln dried boards imported from France and England. This top quality flooring is tongue and grooved, and these oak boards can be end matched if you request it. Oak floor boards from UK Timber are planed ready for sanding after installation.

Quality Solid Oak Flooring For Your Home

UK Timber has different types of oak flooring available at their online store, offering superb quality and character. French oak flooring options include character grade unfinished and rustic grade unfinished oak flooring that has a lovely character and a few sound knots, face shakes, colour variations, and slight imperfections offering plenty of personality!

This flooring is available in various widths and with random lengths. The wood is kiln dried to approximately 8-12 percent moisture content. These floor boards do not require sanding, and they are ready to be finished in any way that you like. They are unique and of superb quality!

UK Timber also offers solid English oak flooring, which is beautiful and similar in appearance to French character grade oak flooring. Manufactured from kiln dried boards using home-grown trees, it is also tongue and grooved. These floor boards are planed ready for sanding after installation, and extra thick floor boards are available upon request. In terms of appearance European oak flooring is identical in density and wear resistance to the French oak floor boards.

For more information email [emailprotected], call 01536 267107 or visit

Baroque Furniture In The Home

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If you wish your home to be unlike the humdrum, then give a bit of time to think about furnishing it with antiques. Just by going back one hundred years, Victorian and Edwardian antique pieces can give your home an elegant and majestic look also imparting an unequalled, days-gone-by tone, which can’t ever be experienced in modern boxed flats.

Be carefull before you begin, hold in your mind that purchasing antiques necessitates a little more forethought than purchasing other things for your house. The initial rule of purchasing antique pieces is that they should be thoroughly studied under brilliant illumination to check over that they are intact and durable. Secondly, if possible articles should be carried outdoors and examined by daylight to make sure that they are authentically antique and not imitation. A sound antique furniture seller will not mind you having a very thorough inspection of a possible purchase It is utterly necessary that you get unquestionable pieces without shabby patched work offered as a substitute for precise refurbishment.

One of the major art forms to have shaped antique furniture was the seventeenth century art form identified as Baroque. Characterized by elaborately eye-catching decorative forms, elaborate panels and columns, this art form was popularized in the 17th Century due to its free-thinking origins, under the reign of King Louis XIV of France.

After some time, the powerful Baroque yielded to a more subtly understated Rococo vogue of furnishing, but under the reign of Louis XIV all major architectural constructions, like The Louvre and The Palace at Versailles were adorned with the prominent Baroque style. Typifying military strength and rampant might, Baroque stood up for everything that was all-important and resplendent as portrayed by its majestic and grand expressive style.

Many of the most usual furniture art objects on which the Baroque patterns flourished were intricate looking-glasses on which were sculptured stylistic, interlinking designs and floral motives, the large beds with cloaked and luxuriant spreads and immense cabinets. Because Baroque style furniture has this really spectacular style with luxuriant motifs, it demands lots of space and the befitting context to prevent it from seeming over-elaborate and jumbled.
This is especially so, because it is not like the subtle coloring of Renaissance art and its attractively striking designs, which intermingle along with most environments, Baroque with its strong employment of light and shade and its convolutions of grand movements does require the appropriate sort of background to display it.

And so if you reckon that you want a imposing and aristocratic look for your home try the Baroque look for a real difference. It is genuinely crucial to furnish cautiously, as over crowding could make your home look like an over-large museum. So in the future, when you renovate and freshen up your home, try doing matters a tiny bit differently and and rather more bravely with Baroque.

Ceramic Plates, Jugs And Other Kitchenware

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Ceramic plates have for a long time been a source of fascination for amateur enthusiasts, avid collectors, artists, and everyday appreciators of fine pottery. Pablo Picasso is perhaps the most famous example of an artist who realized that great art works neednt be purely created on canvas. Picasso discovered a new form of canvas in the manipulation clay into objects such as ceramic plates, vases and jugs, allowing him to express himself more freely and obsessively onto the 3D reinterpretations of the traditional canvas.
Ceramic plates with designs of mythological and classical imagery where compulsively created by Picasso, who, within the years 1947 to 1948 created over 2,000 individual pieces in his workshop in Madoura pottery in Vallauris. Painted pottery weather in the form of ceramic plates or other wise are statement pieces that stand out in any gallery or home. His attempt to distil the spirit of his Catalan heritage into clay can be seen in his works, which emit the scents, sights, sun and history of the Mediterranean.
If a Picasso is out of reach, you can capture the essence of the Mediterranean, in any number of ceramic plates, vases or jugs, weather authentic or replicas. Any excursions into rural France or Spain can yielded any number beautiful discoveries in the form of ceramics. Yet, one of the best tools for those searching for high quality ceramics is the internet, where many authentic bargains can be found and shipped at your convenience.
An authentic, well made, beautiful piece of hand painted pottery could set you back a fair amount, especially if it has been sourced through an auction house, many of which specialise in ceramic plates, jugs or vases, particularly those with artistic merit. However, if you know what you are looking for and the signs of a well made piece, perhaps with some history, you could snap up a bargain from a flee market, or even an antique dealer who doesnt know what they have their hands on. Alternatively, if you seek something more personal, you create you own hand painted ceramic pottery for a more customized feel.
The huge range of sources where you could find ceramic plates, jugs or vases and the sheer variety of styles, colours and patterns ensure that finding a particular piece to match your own taste, and that would fit into your home on both a practical and purely decorative level has been made easy.