A Tuesday trip

- the first for quite a long time.

We went to The Vyne, a National Trust property we visited once years ago, but despite the best of intentions never got to again. I think we were put off because to get there from here you have to drive round Basingstoke.

Now I am well aware that there are otherwise normal people who drive round – and even through – Basingstoke, on a regular basis – but they know where they are going, and which lane they should be in, and which exit of the 27 available at each roundabout is the one they want. But we don’t. So we end up in the wrong lane and in the wrong place and it’s scary.

But we took our courage in both hands and went – and we only went wrong twice.

But I digress.

We were motivated to visit by an exhibition of furniture by Mark Brazier Jones. Do not be misled by the first page of his website - this was not an exhibition of motor vehicles, but of furniture. Somewhat unusual furniture. Reading the list of his clients on that page may give you an inkling of what the furniture is like. [We were told the sparkly side tables were covered with Swarovski crystals. And I mean ‘covered’.]

I went expecting not to like it – after all, I’m someone who thinks good furniture design pretty well started and ended with the Bauhaus – but I was taken by some of the pieces. Like this one, which they have in the house in Barbie pink hide. [I always did have a weakness for tassels.]

I liked the lighting and the clocks too – unfortunately I can’t find any images on the website of my favourite ‘escaped from Brighton Pavilion’ standard lamps – if you can use such a mundane phrase about something covered in crystals. [When I say ‘like’ I don’t, of course, mean ‘would like to own’. Even if I could afford it.]

Wensleydale, on the other hand, was rather taken by this. No, not the mirror. I can’t think why. [You can find more images under the ‘Flashman’ link but don’t look unless you are feeling broadminded.]

We decided we needed to go back another time, when the furniture wasn’t there, so we could concentrate on the house.

And, as usual with NT properties, the gardens are lovely and there is a teashop with very good scones.

It was even worth driving round Basingstoke.

Hope you like the new look…

I’d got bored with the black and purple and decided I wanted something lighter and fresher. This is one of Blogger’s themes and I haven’t quite mastered it yet, which is why that heading may look a bit big, and some bits could be more legible.

Of course, this being Blogger, changing the theme has buggered up the arrangement of all my previous posts – but I hope you’ll forgive me for not going through all 568 to sort them out. [Gulp.]

Wensleydale and I had a very pleasant outing on Saturday afternoon, to the Southampton Art Gallery. I may have mentioned before what a good gallery it is, if you like contemporary art. The ‘Sea Fever’ exhibition is excellent – a wide range of sea themed pieces, from their recently restored early Turner to living artists like Julian Opie and Richard Long - the majority are 20th century.

………………………

Well – I wrote that yesterday – and more – but the laptop crashed [which it has been doing rather too often recently] and I lost it all. Teach me to save regularly. [Click.]

So today I have emptied the recycle bin, and defragged, and cleaned discs – and I have my fingers firmly crossed that it will help. If not, I shall have to wait till the techie returns from here to take it in hand. [Somehow all my computers have always known when their master was on holiday.]

But I digress. I was going to write a long description of the exhibition – but I’ve rather lost the motivation. All I can say is that it is well worth visiting, especially if you are interested in contemporary art, and there is a small exhibit of amusing Lowry drawings as a bonus. [And entry is free! – although car parking isn’t.]

But I must end with a quote from Maggi Hambling, posted in the Gallery next to her wonderful image of ‘Erosion’.

‘The older I get I identify with the land which is being eroded. The sea is like time – you can do nothing about it.’

Last night I felt pretty eroded…

Today was contemporary textiles day …

the last one as it happens, because we’ve decided not to go next year.

So of course it was the best one we’ve had.

We were told to take a box, so I took one I've been saving for years, just in case.

Amazing what a bit of spray paint and a flash photo can do – unfortunately it doesn’t quite look like this in real life.

This is just a slip case -

 

 

this is what it looks like inside. [To give you an idea of scale, it originally held two miniatures of Talisker, a present to Wensleydale, though I helped him drink it <g>.]

 

We had to make an ‘environment’ inside, inspired by our choice of poem. Sensible people chose poems with lots of visual imagery, but I chose ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti.

Having a gold box, I had only taken gold and black fabric and threads, so I was a bit restricted. And I’d been looking through this book by Rozanne Hawksley before we started, which might have influenced my choice. [The only time I ever cried at an embroidery exhibition, was at Hawksley’s ‘The Seamstress and the Sea’, which we saw some years ago  in Portsmouth, a particularly poignant place to see it.] 

 

But I digress. By the end of today’s session the box looked like this inside.

 

 

I had also tacked this together, to go inside. It was going to be a panel placed on the other layers that are in there already - there are another 3 you can’t see.

But when I got home it folded itself over and told me it was a book.

It will become a book of photos of my parents and grandparents – I have several of those tiny black and white ones they took in the 40s and 50s, which I think will fit quite nicely.

On a much less serious nautical theme, the mermaid’s purse is finished. Note my attempt at set dressing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And another bit of seaside felting – I can’t remember if I showed you this bit of hand needle work.

Tomorrow we’re off to ‘Sea Fever’. All this salt water splashing around. Must be the summer …

A productive weekend

So productive I’m gobsmacked.

Most importantly – this is finished.  Sewn down to the backing, cord made to hang it by, and all the paperwork done. It took me most of yesterday afternoon to write the critical evaluation.

It is all bagged up [I’d like to pretend I made a drawstring bag specially for it but really I liberated one I keep my slate frames in] and ready to go to college on Wednesday – together with all the stuff I need for painting still lives.

 

Flushed with success I went back to this and finished that too. Note I said ‘finished’ – I’d done quite a lot to it while I was procrastinating about the 2D piece. The lumps at the bottom are whipping over pipe cleaners, so it curls round and stands up by itself. There are also beads but they don’t seem to show very well.

 

 

 

And then I finished another piece of procrastination. [And weirdness.]

I didn’t expect it to stand up by itself – but it does.

Anyone else remember a fashion for vessels with holes in the sides, made of terracotta, some time last century? [I love saying that.] Possibly in the 70s? Or am I imagining it?

 

Then I got started on this. 

Two layers of florists’ wrap [possibly Sizoflor], with threads and sequins in between the layers, free machined, [forgot to photograph it at this stage] sewn into a bag and zapped.

 

 

In case it isn’t immediately obvious <g>, it is a lining for this, the mermaid’s purse to be.

I keep telling myself I don’t do whimsy. If its ugly enough, does it not count as whimsy?

 

 

Speaking of odd things - in my self imposed mission to rescue all textile related objects I come across in charity shops, last week I bought four ring frames and a bag of floss [£4.50 – bargain!].

And hidden among the floss, along with the world’s rustiest needle, was this – a combined ruler and knitting needle gauge. Must be quite old as its pre-metric. It is made of heavy card, and can’t have been used much. I love it.

But then I'm weird.

“Don’t panic. Don’t panic!”

Although I ‘knew’ that the 2D piece was due in next week, I kept telling myself:

1. ‘you’ve got plenty of time’ - and
2. ‘actually, it’s not really due in till the following week’.

Until Thursday. When suddenly there didn’t seem to be plenty of time and I really knew it was due in next week – yes, I checked.

So what did I do? Procrastinated. Even though I hadn’t finished the embroidery, and had only the foggiest idea how I was going to mount and hang it. In fact, I think I procrastinated because I had only the foggiest idea how I was going to mount and hang it.

But I made myself work on the embroidery – I don’t think there’s a single patch I haven’t redone at least once – and today [after making some bread and some soup and writing a reference!] I took off the calico I’d sewn round the edges so I could use an embroidery hoop – and looked at it.

Mmm. I always go through a stage of hating what I’ve just made. Sometimes it persists – like the belt I made for C&G which I hated so much I can’t remember what I did with it – though one day it will be retrieved and ripped apart to rescue the buckle which belonged to my mother. But I digress.

I had been encouraged by the tutors to leave the calico in place, but wasn’t sure until I took it off <g>. Then I knew they were right. But I wanted to use some better calico, so it wasn’t a disaster.

All the time I have been working on this piece I have gone on to anyone who would listen about leaving the back visible, because families, like embroideries, have a ‘public’ [i.e ‘right’] and a ‘private’ [i.e.’wrong’] side.

But when I put the embroidery down on the calico to work out how wide the borders should be, I liked the look of the frayed edges against the calico and I didn’t want to hide them on the back.

Abandoning the idea of having a 2 sided piece made all the decisions I'd been procrastinating about much easier. It is now mounted on what Wensleydale described as an unquilted quilt, using the calico and some of the felt that wouldn’t dye [I knew I’d find a use for it]. It’s just tacked together at the moment but I shall spend a quiet evening backstitching round the edges.

And hanging it is easier if the back doesn’t have to be visible. As I reached for the spray starch for the calico, my eye fell on the perfect thing for the hanger. Yes. it is what you think it is. I keep them in a bucket on the windowsill behind the starch. [A small, decorative child's bucket.]

Tomorrow I shall make a hanging cord and then I think it will be finished. Apart from writing up my self assessment of course. I lost marks on the Drawing Studies module because I didn’t write enough [must be the first time ever] so I regard that as permission to go over the top.

And then I've go to do some genealogical research for Mrs Cheddar [I haven’t forgotten!]

Another thing I haven’t forgotten is Babybel’s mum’s triumph in the BUP 10K. She knocked 10 minutes off her personal best! As someone who couldn’t walk 10K, never mind run it in well under an hour, I am full of admiration.

I know where Babybel gets her determination from.

Here she is getting ready to cheer her mum in – and practicing running, so she can join in next time <g>.

Progress has been made …

on several fronts.

The piece of green felt has acquired some running stitch – and I have some ideas about making it stand up for itself.

 

After an impromptu tutorial on Wednesday I have made a few changes to the 2D piece. Much as I liked the caterpillar emerging from a strawberry, it was just too eye catching, and sadly the lovely blue fabric from Babybel’s dungarees that her mum sent wasn’t eye catching enough. I managed to find an alternative piece of the Hungry Caterpillar fabric so he is now emerging from a plum. The orange is from Babybel’s mum’s first bit of knitting for about 20 years, which I fused to some felt with the embellisher so it won’t run. The pin is temporary, to be replaced by some stitch while listening to ‘Lewis’ tonight.

 

This was inspired by an off the cuff remark by someone on Wednesday.  I have made a couple of knitted bowls before, but I wanted to know if I could knit a bottle.

I could. Whether I should is, of course, an entirely different matter.

The trouble is that now I have all sorts of ideas for knitted bottles whizzing round my head.

 

It’s the result of my admiration for the work of Tamsin Van Essen. [Don’t look at the ‘Contamination’ section unless you have a strong stomach.]

The mermaid’s purse is on the back burner for now – 4 things on the go at once is a bit much, don’t you think? [Of course I’m not counting the everyday sketchbook, the vessels sketchbook, and the 2D sketchbook, all of which need some work …]

Nothing will be done tomorrow as we have an appointment here.

No, we’re not running [although I did suggest Wenselydale tried it now he’s so proficient on his crutches] but Babybel’s mummy is, so we are going up to help Babybel cheer her on. Go L!  Personal best we hope!

Having to eat my words.

In the past I have bored many people by saying that I don’t like hand made felt – or rather, that I don’t like my own, although I sometimes like other people’s.

Well, yesterday in college I made two pieces which I like.

This one

 

 

and this one – although I suspect it is one of those things which only its mother could love. It isn’t quite what we were meant to be making –but

1] I need my ears syringing again and

2] I wasn’t really paying attention to what the tutor said

so I ended up with this. The ‘tail’ reminded me of the things you find on the beach we used to call ‘mermaid's purses’ [cuttlefish egg cases?] so with a bit of stitch, some beads, a lining and a handle, that’s what it will be.

The green piece is also destined to become a vessel, because yesterday was the first official session of a new module - ‘3D Form and Structure’. My heart leapt when I read the first assessment criterion - ‘Demonstrate knowledge by producing a wide range of experimental pieces’ – hey, that means making lots of samples :>).  Then I discovered, on another page, the weasel words ‘fully resolved pieces’ - hey, it means producing lots of thought through, finished pieces :>( .

Fortunately they don’t have to be felt - although I really enjoyed this felting session – and I never thought I’d say that – it is time consuming and hard on the arms. We have other sessions on different ways of making things stand up <g> and I think the pieces we made with Kim Thittichai also count.

After all that excitement yesterday, today I went back to the gym for the first time since the chest infection from hell. The good news is that I’ve only put back one kilo of the four I lost – the bad news is that it was haaaard work at the gym – and all I can say is ‘aaargh’.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last few posts – apart from the person who commented in Chinese – again. It’s probably all done by machine but if you are reading this, you are wasting your time commenting in a language I can’t read.