Calke Abbey

This week's outing was to Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, it's only 10 mins up the road from me - don't know why I didn't go sooner. There are some lovely walled gardens, and luckily it was a sunny day, a rarity during the summer (or any other time come to think of it).  I thought I was going to be disappointed with the house when we first went in.  The rooms were very 'put together' in much the same way as any other stately home, but as we continued the tour it really improved.  The house is in various states of abandonment and decay, just as the family left it when they began to shut off areas from the 1800's onwards due to the cost of upkeep.  The kitchen is exactly how it was when last used in the 1920's! It's a really lovely place and particularly appealed to my love of decay and memory.  Well worth a visit.

More photos...

Book beads

After the Origami workshop the other week I've been thinking about how to use the techniques in my own work.  I am interested in the current trend for book sculpture and bookbinding and paper art in general really, and what better way to recycle old papers?  I'm thinking of using photographs to make memory books, journals and sculptures next year - along with all the other ideas that are whizzing around my head....
With this in mind I have been working on a couple of 'beads'.  I was unable to find any tutorials for these online so I've had to study pictures and then think about it for a long time.  My mind doesn't do mathematical process thinking!
Here's the results.

London again

Yesterday was a mad dash round London, it wouldn't have been but I decided last minute to go to Tate Modern to take part in the Lazy Oaf Self Portrait event being held there.  We walked from Tate Britain, next time we will take the Tube - it's further than you think when you have time restrictions.




So, first of all we visited the Henry Moore exhibition at Tate Britain, it was busier than I thought it would be considering it was the last day.  I liked the sculptures but I preferred the drawings.  The mark making involved is amazing, you can really see that Moore was a sculptor at heart just by 

looking at his lines.  There were 

some of his sketchbooks included in the exhibition which I thought were fascinating.  The drawings were so simple, almost childlike, but they led to some groundbreaking sculptural work.  I often think that sketchbooks are meant to be pristine works of art themselves but in reality they should be a working document full of ideas - which in itself makes them beautiful.  Must relax about this next term. 

In the afternoon we went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  I hadn't been before - I loved it and will definitely go again next year.  There is so much to see that you really need to visit once, reflect on what you've seen then visit again.  I thought all of the work was of a really high standard, it's really good to see professional and well known artists' work alongside amateur pieces, although I really couldn't tell them apart.

Tracey Emin has an exhibition on at the RA at the moment, a collection of her prints.   We had a look at them and thought they were
lovely.  So delicate, many of them were less harsh than the Emin pieces that we usually see although the sentiments were the same.

Blists Hill

What a lovely place.  I love a bit of Victorian history so the Town near Ironbridge Gorge was the perfect day out for me.  The BBC filmed The Victorian Pharmacy at Blists Hill, the chemist store is fully stocked with all sorts of medical, dental and veterinary paraphernalia, some of which I can remember from my childhood!  We had fish and chips for lunch, cooked in beef dripping - delicious.  There is a Baker's shop; we bought some bread and a fruit loaf, a Sweet Shop; we bought a selection of traditional sweets, a Butcher's shop selling pork pie alongside other homemade products, and all sorts of other establishments to look round.  The Print Shop was good, they print all the paper bags for the shop and the newspaper that you can buy from the Post Office.  There is even a bank where you can change money into Shillings and Pence to spend.  I'd definitely go again, despite the fact that we got stuck in traffic on the way home...

The Decorative Plasterers had a selection of beautiful plaster mouldings on show that are 120 years old.  The plaster and the invoices (underneath the photograph of Queen Victoria) are the original ones found in the building when it was restored.

More photos in slide show....

Today's creative endeavour

Or should I say failure.  Thought I'd try some more origami. I had an idea of boxes strung on to ribbon hanging up and looking pretty.  But as I struggle with pretty I'm not happy with the results.  Things never seem to look like I imagine them!