More Cakes and Tasty Things....

Yes. I love cake.


This is the next lot of silly cupcakes.

Yummy.

I can't remember if I've mentioned before (so sorry if I have), but I am currently partaking in a Sugarcraft Flower Making Course......ie, you know on nice wedding cakes you get amazing roses and lilies etc made of icing....I'm learning to make them. Not as easy as you'd think!! Thus far I have lots of buds, and a dozen delicate lily petals. I will upload photos once they actually look like something.......

Private View and A Lot of Tasty Cake.....

So Sunday was the day that Hannah and I have been working towards all year - the Private View. Yes, we do things a little differently at the Garden - what with Private Views traditionally happening before the opening, as opposed to a month after...... but we like the Garden to look it's best - and that's pretty much now.


Artists, clients (both Hannah's and Anthony's), important people and so on descended on the Garden to view the spectacular new collection and to eat the delicious cakes Hannah had bought.


Photos.....well, you can see my priorities...

Here we have the lovely Lorraine and Monika...

And here is some of Neil Wilkin's work (wish I had my real camera, as the shaft of light looked incredible!)

That's it. 

Bits and Bobbitybobs...

So what have I been up to?


Well, sculpture garden wise....it has carried on being absolutely manic. We opened on Saturday (and sold something that afternoon...great start!). I have been working on a film which will be shown on the website and in the reception, and will be for sale as part of this year's DVD (ahhh pressure!). I have also made a new series of postcards to be sold.....and they all have my name on the back :D

6 postcards...

Ok, so it's not readable in this photo, but the bottom line says 'Photograph: Vikki Leedham'

Ha.

I've also been getting going on the whole cake decoration malarkey. The Gotto's gave me lots of cake making stuff and a lovely book as my leaving present, and the following day Mother Leedham gave me two cake books as well! So I'd better take the hint....

This is the first batch of fancy cakes... 

(obviously only showing one....I made 12 but some were a little questionable....)

So there we go. Exciting stuff.

Manic Morning (or three..)

Exciting time of year at the garden - all the new sculpture is being placed ready for the summer season. As Hannah didn't go to Australia last winter, she found 9 new artists to exhibit, as well as the old favourites. I've been rushing about like a headless chicken for the past few days: trying to organise sculptors, supervise work placement, fill out contracts etc etc etc. And of course, on Friday morning EVERYONE decided to turn up very promplty at 10 o'clock, which caused absolute bedlam and me almost missing out on Lorraine's amazing Victoria Sponge (oh it's a hard life).

Thankfully I have managed to document a few pieces placed (one of which took all day!).

Here we have Paul Vanstone shifting one of his spectacular Rajasthan marble torsos... absolutely stunning green veined stone. Paul, like many of our artists, has his own mobile gantry that he uses to shift his work (although, as seen in the Autumn, sometimes they just opt for sheer brute force!)

 And this is Keith Rand, with the biggest sculpture I have even watched placed in the garden - a 14 feet wooden 'ridge' structure. First they had to plant a limestone base to hold up the sculpture (I helped), then manhandle this beast through the woods and down to the area. Hannah and I were chilling out on Anthony's decking at the time.

I am hiding in the office today as I am feeling a little sorry for myself (leaving party from the Parrot last night....).

FOOOOOOD Part II

Here's a couple of the photos I took on Monday. I am very bored of my eyes going squiffy trying to differentiate between different shades of grey in Photoshop.


And yes, it was all damn tasty.

Not bad, huh?

FOOOOOOD

So. Yesterday.

Yesterday was my first experience of a photo-shoot where I was the photographer taking shots of another person (and his lush food) whilst more experienced people stood around and watched me. To say it was nerve wracking was a bit of an understatement. But, once I got in "the zone" (ha) it was fine. And Gerry's food distracted me somewhat.

After nearly three hours and nearly 200 photos, I hope we've got some usable shots. I'm currently waiting for them to download from my camera...and then comes the painstaking task of beginning to edit. Bleh. I know if I was a better photographer I wouldn't need to tweak so many, but I haven't exactly been doing this very long! Fingers crossed I do get better with practice. 

*twiddles thumbs*


Come on, hurry up and download.








Oh. There they are. 


Hmmm. Not bad.


(don't worry, I'll show you some soon)

Still to come...

For all my lovely friends whom I gave my business cards last night, this is my photography website.


Vikki Leedham Photography


Exciting updates to come in a couple of weeks;


I have a proper photography job for a chef (photographing and then eating his delicious food...)


The new sculpture will be arriving mid-April at The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden (so check back for some insights into the crazy installation process!) 


Ta-ta for now.