kabinshop blog

In 2021 i made a [ LOT ! ]  of pottery plates and bowls for the prequel of the  Netflix show The Witcher titled Blood Origin which has finally just been released on Christmas Day 2022.

There are more images and short pieces of the film on my kabinshop  instagram profile 

If you are not familiar with the fantasy mini series it is set 1200 years before The Witcher series and depicts the creation of the first Witcher and the events leading to the "Conjunction of the Spheres." Also it shows the Elven civilization  of the Xin'trea kingdom  before its downfall. The elf Seanchai saves Geralt of Rivia's ally Jasiker where she has him write down the untold legend of seven warriors who went up against the forces of Xin'trea following its seizure !

 Many of the scenes are fast moving and dark so something that took me a week to make might be visible for a second only ! I was fully aware that the art department have thousands of props so what i made might not have even be used or that scene could be cut out ! Nevertheless i was extremely excited to devour each of the 4 episodes and managed to spot most of the things i made.

It started with a few bowls, followed by a set of 50 rectangular plates , bowls in the shape of fish , very large rough looking platters , some goblets and a lot of large rustic dinner plates . Everything had to look rustic and a bit rough as though it had been around a long time and glazed inside so the actors could safely eat and drink  from them .

Blue fish plates : These were based on ancient pottery with a kind of fish mouth and tail , glazed inside with blue mottled glaze and the outside left unglazed.

I also made a brown version of this plate .

 These little rustic bowls were for a cave scene .

Green rectangular plates for a harbour scene.

Next i made rustic plates for a scene with the elves.

These are the goblets i made . 

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What to do when you have a cake baking disaster, and the cake sticks in the tin and breaks up !

So it was recently my mum's 80th birthday and i had been planning in my mind that i would bake her an " amazing ! " cake. I am not a regular cake baker but how hard could can it be ? I decided on a Lemon and Thyme Bundt cake after searching the internet for interesting recipes and set to work the day before her birthday. I followed the recipe exactly and watched it rising rapidly in the oven only to look again and see it collapsed right down. I could share the recipe but there is probably no point as this is more about rescuing it !

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Cake stuck in tin 😔

As you can see it was stuck fast inside the tin although it was not actually burnt and actually tasted delicious !  

So the answer was decoration baby ! I scraped it out and arranged the pieces as nicely as possible on a plate then set to with pimping it up with sugar flowers !

Firstly i made crystalized Rose petals using washed and air dried rose petals. These are very easy to make, just dip first in whisked egg white then dip in castor sugar and leave to dry and harden. They can be stored for many months once they are dry. 

Washing rose petals.

Drying rose petals

 Ingredients for crystalized flowers

 Drying crystalized flowers

Next i made icing flowers , I decided on Royal icing flowers as they dry very hard unlike butter icing which are softer and i needed to transport them without another disaster ! 

I mixed Icing sugar and water and a little lemon juice in a piping bag and piped flowers using a flat piping nozzle. I mixed a few different pastel colours including yellow for the central stamens.

 So once you have made a pile of icing flowers and crystalized flowers, simply make a jug of icing using icing sugar, lemon juice and water and pour it over the cake ring making sure it is not too liquid or it will run straight off ! Then decorate with your flowers! You could also add some fresh flowers !

My mum and her cake , and yes she thought it was funny ! 

I was lucky to have to have my ceramics featured in Country Living UK Magazine's Rustic Living 17 Feature this month. The beautiful photos were styled by Alaina Binks and shot by photographer Nato Welton at his studio .