Grace Coddington, Clarice Cliff, Sonia Delaunay

When my brain feels like flat grey useless porridge, it is possible that I might sometimes re-watch my crappy download of The September Issue, just to see Grace Coddington tirelessly create the sublime in the face of the ridiculous. It makes me want to push on. This week when I watched it I noticed the gorgeous ceramics on Anna Wintour's desk, and a quickie google led me to Clarice Cliff. Her beautiful pottery remind me a bit of Sonia Delaunay's textiles (a show at the Cooper Hewitt I am so glad CC over at The Blue Cheer has been blogging and flickring about, and which I hope I haven't missed). On the website for her work, I discovered that in turn of the century/early twenties England, she proved her mettle as a woman to her employers by painting their cast-off pottery. She painted triangles over the blips and bumps to disguise them, and called them her "Bizarre" collection. Then she married the boss. Player! Look how gorgeous: