Bell Challenge

Looking around the house for a subject to do for this week’s challenge, I came across this service bell in Rouen style faïence – used , I suppose, for calling domestic help to clear the table. Having lived for a long time in my husband’s grandmother’s house in Normandy, we ended up with a lot of objects like this, that no one else really wanted. Rouen’s never been my favorite style for ceramics – I prefer simpler, less colorful things as a general rule,but it’s still very popular. anyone who has ever visited Rouen will know that there are ceramic shops everywhere – this is the thing you buy while you’re there if you want a souvenir. I like the fact that this connects us to the past though, to a time when Michel’s grandparents lived the high life, before they lost everything in World War 2. I know this drawing’s a bit wonky, but I decided to leave it as it seems to me to match the subject. (These things are all hand made) I was also testing a new Chinese sketchbook (cheap cheap) to see how it holds up to watercolor – fair to middling I’d say. You get what you pay for.