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Popular HGTV star Vern Yip was the toast at the hip Star Grill restaurant in Mandeville on Saturday, October 20, where he participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the new eatery. In fact, the designer/interior decorator was the big attraction of the day, signing autographs and revelling in praise for the exquisite décor of the restaurant he conceptualised and executed. Vern Yip The green building with the red star logo strikes the visitor's eyes, and the interiors transcend from waterfalls to white goblet lamps floating on the ceiling. "Our decor is the most talked about in town," restaurateur Andrea Patmore said. "Our guests enjoy relaxing at Star Grill and taking pictures almost as much as they enjoy the food." It was the lush green hills of Manchester and the clouds descending on them that inspired designer Yip. "If you look at the lamps, they are delicately hanging from the ceiling, as they float in the sky," he q...

Shrimp pasta.   It was a sojourn of two foodies that created Star Grill in Mandeville. "When we lived in Kingston we used to go out to eat a lot," said Andrea Bulli-Patmore, who owns the restaurant with her husband Christopher. They moved to Manchester, where Andrea’s husband has a family business, and did not find many dining options. “We saw a need and decided to fill it,” she said. Armed with a dream and a mission to create a unique dining experience, the husband-and-wife duo started to lay the blueprints. “The restaurant was named after our eldest daughter, Rohini, which means star,” she explains. Star Grill opened its doors in November last year, but had its official opening on Saturday. It is a combination of a drive-through, fast-food and fine-dining segments, which, like a fusion of cuisines, converge on one premises. Star Grill restaurant offers a variety of cuisine, Bulli-Patmore explains. “We have fine dining – stea...

Phillip Supersad playing a tune on a ceramic drum Sporting the aura of a dreadlocked ascetic of India transcending from the Himalayas ... just that this particular art ascetic descended from the hills of Manchester, clad in denim, engrossed in the drums, Phillip Supersad’s fingers rhythmically hit a tune.  The ceramist, teacher and drummer is living several creative traits. Surrounded by his tools of trade, Supersad manufactures drums and ceramics in his studio, nestled in a bylane of Fletcher’s Land in downtown Kingston. “The Jamaica School of Arts was in this compound,” he said. A crumbling great house surrounded by ramshackle structures and a rusting wrought-iron staircase standing testimony to its former glory. Supersad is a self-taught drum maker, “The materials that I use are 100 per cent recyclable,” he informed. “I use palette board, which is white and yellow pine used for packing; it is recyclable material. I get goat skin from the butcher or abattoirs....

Entrance to Port Royal , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Giddy House, Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Giddy House, Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Fort Charles, Port Royal... , a photo by AmitabhS on Flickr.

Jewellery designed by Damaris Mayne Jewellers get inspiration from natural material “God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things,” once said Pablo Picasso, epitomising the vastness and out-of-the-box creative material that nature offers. “I am a 3D thinker, and when I was at school (Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts), the logical gravitation was towards jewellery design,” says Damaris Mayne. Mayne, a fine jeweller who works with noble metals and precious stones, started out designing gold jewellery, but over the years, she shifted to experimenting with more natural materials. “The transition to natural materials happened after the prices of precious metals shot up,” she said. Necessity is the mother of all inventions, it is said, which in Mayne’s case, helped in carving a niche for her as she started creating earthy designs. “I use a variety of materials ­ co...

Norma Rodney Harrack transforms clay into a work of art  Norma Rodney Harrack takes a lump of clay, kneads it into a ball and throws it on the top of a spinning wheel, with a flick of a button the spin is set in motion as her nimble yet firm hand movements start transforming that lump of clay into a vessel. “The potter’s wheel was a synchronization of feet hand and brain,” Rodney Harrack said, working like a drummer in harmony - tapping the pedal with his foot to play the bass drum as the hands work the drum sticks on the cymbals to produce beats.  Pottery, Rodney Harrack says, is a very meticulous process requiring patience and hard work.  Like cooking, the prepping of the ingredients is a time consuming task. It starts with choosing the right clay, which is soaked for around two weeks to get the sediments settle down, then passed through a sieve. “The clay is in a consistency of thick ice cream, it is then kept to dry, when it becomes a leather hard...