Jewellery making

 In the middle of the kitchen renovation week, we had booked in to do a private Masterclass-type session with a renowned silversmith. Masterclass by me indeed!

We had asked to be taught how to set stones in bezels. And what an amazing process it was. I doubt I will do much more stone setting myself, but it was a remarkable day and I learned so much.

Wrapping the bezel setting strip around the stone and making sure the ends meet up perfectly.

After soldering I checked that my beach pebble would fit and it did pretty well.

The next job was to solder the ring to the base plate - quite a job but I did it!

Followed by my least favourite job - sawing the silver. It is so slow and my hands cramped up a lot!!!

But I did it.

I formed a ring and soldered it together; and my next job was to file a flat surface for the base plate to attach to.

And then came the bit I didn't do - soldering the ring to the base plate.

I was tired by the end of. My brain was full, my hands were aching and I was so appreciative of the time spent with us.

What a gorgeous outcome! A simple, humble, beach pebble made beautiful.

Thursday Thoughts...

"When I was growing up, all the women in my house were using needles. I've always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive, it's not a pin". 

 Louise Bourgeois

I love the way Louise Bourgeois thinking about sewing and stitching, and in particular about needles.  The notion of stitching to repair and to mend is important I think. The way many of us stitch to make things whole again.

Stitching and sewing also also creative acts whereby new things come into being as a result of a needle, filled with thread,  passing through fabric.

I really love her distinction between a needle and a pin. Never had I thought my way into that space until now. I can see exactly what she means by the potential aggression of pain, with somebody wielding it as a weapon almost and ready to prick a hole or pierce the skin. Pins are otherwise for holding, rather than making or repairing which needles achieve.

I love this idea and could explore it a lot longer.

I stitched the book!

 After posting on Sunday I got down and worked at the kitchen table and managed to stitch the book.

There were 24 single sheets to go into the covers I had prepared before coming away; including the title page and colophons I had printed back in Maleny. Each book will have a different cover and be stitched with a different waxed linen thread.

Here are some mid-way-process photos:

My stitching was a bit wonky, I smiled to myself as I thought 'very home-made'!

But the books stands up and opens well.

And here it is back in place at the Museum as it opened on Monday! 

Here are some more of the responses, now stitched in the book.

This one. An exhalation...

And this week's question and cards all set up...

"When I think of home, a word I think of is..."

Hame activity and the light...

 Part of the Hame exhibition is about exploring notions of home with visitors to the gallery. Each week I will pose a different question; and after the Museum closes for the week on Saturday, I will collect the postcards that have been written on, and bring them home to stitch a book. All going well, on Monday I will return the book to the exhibition as a guide for the current week's question and participants. 

Plan A. Today is Sunday and I am yet to stitch the book!

That is in part because we have been replacing a kitchen bench, sink, tap and cupboards all week and are just putting the finishing touches on it. Almost there and then back to the book-stitching

Week 1's question was this:

And the absolute joy I experienced as I went through the responses was wonderful. Here is a smattering of the types of things folk wrote:

I received about 22 cards, so the book will have a nice feel to it once it is done. Stay tuned.

We have managed to walk each morning and the walks have been more valued than usual as we have otherwise been inside working on the kitchen, so it has been lovely that the weather and light have rewarded our early morning wanderings.

This is the gentle morning pink light, just to the edges of the glowing sunrise which follows.

With the sun just beginning to rise.

And almost up and over!

A great way to start the day.

Thursday Thoughts...

"I don't read a book; I hold a conversation with the author." 

 Elbert Hubbard

I like it when I come across a quote that makes me wonder if I agree with it or not.  Some folk are quite clear in their statements, and I imagine that for them they are true.  I wondered about this one for myself.

Do I really feel as if I am having a conversation?  

I think if I am reading a book with purpose, and it is a literary fiction book it is possible I may be with the asking some questions along the way. I will try to understand what they are doing, and why they have done things and measure their success against a few things. I might wonder about the effects they achieve by some decisions they take around narrative style or punctuation; but I don't actually feel as if they respond.

It is not until I can listen to them being interviewed and hear them actually respond to questions like my own that I feel as if I have gotten to understand them and their intentions better.

I have come to understand that I get a lot more from a book when I listen to the author speak about it as well as read the book itself.

I also get lots out of a book when I chat with others about it. Big Book Club, Maleny 2024.

Setting up Hame...

Working a bit in reverse, here are some shots of setting up the exhibition. It is always such an interesting transformation of a space.

First up, we packed up our trusty hire-van and this is what an exhibition look like in the back of the van!

We walked in to find a blank room plus a big ladder and half a display table.

Our Day 1 (Wednesday) job was to get the lettering up on the wall. It is the most stressful part for me, primarily because we don't do it very often and there is no emergency lettering support person to be found here in the Highlands!

With Barry's exhibition last year, we had lots of lines to put up and we did it line by line. This year, I had far fewer words and our sign guy had managed to get it to fit on one sheet. Which was great, but added a whole new dilemma for apprentice folk like us - how do you put up a piece that is 2 metres plus wide and about a metre high in one go? Without getting it crooked? Without getting air bubbles? 

We spent time finding the centre of the wall, thinking about how high up it should go and all of that and then got down to peeling off the backing.

And then we got up on two different ladders and did our best to get it on straight, and without bubbles, and then I went through and pulled off the front sheet, leaving the letters behind...

Giving each of the letters a final, gentle rub down to adhere them fully.

And then we re-built the display table and layered the calico onto it.

The end of Day 1.

Day 2 saw the actual laying out of the exhibition pieces.

Working out how the plinths might go; and which scroll might go where... 

I had always imagined a straight line of descending height plinths, then in the middle of the night I thought about varying the heights, (as suggested by a friend) and then on the day I staggered them as well! I do respond to the space I must say.

Laying to the postcards for The Emigrants - with Postcards Home on a white table in the foreground.

Hmmm, that white table really didn't work. So we thought about options and ended up moving the whole display to the right a bit, and released a further 10cm of calico to the floor, where we could cut 30cm off and create a covering for the white table for the strips! And then we put the whole display back to the left by about 10cm

At the end of the day Barry got up on the ladder to direct the lights.

And I went around putting the didactics in place. I love the peg!

Day 3 (Friday) was the morning for final tweaking. I had discovered on Day 2 that I had not removed a double up of the word chair on one of the scrolls. 

These marks are usually removed by heat, and in general, I iron them out. However, I have no iron here and the work was already installed! Luckily I remembered the tip from Liz about using a hairdryer. So I took mine is and plugged it in and it worked!

Ta-da!

And then we were done...

Hame the exhibition, is open.

 After setting up throughout the week, we had the official launch of the Hame exhibition at Strathnaver Museum on Friday night. It was a lovely night and so good to tell and share these stories in and around where they began.

Here are some photos from the opening...

Me being expressive, again...

Fiona and Fiona from the Museum who facilitated the exhibition and does a grand job of promoting the history of the area.

Chatting about the dyeing of threads with Laura.

Lots of support from friends, including Brian!

And here are some of the works on display. 

The main piece is All That was Lost - representing the story of the seven families of Achanlochy who were cleared forcefully, in 1819. I have imagined an inventory of their household items and all that they had; and what remains in the rusty tin is all they could take - a few pieces of this and that which could be grabbed as they fled.

The second piece about the Strathnaver Clearances is Bundled and Burnt. I wrote about it here.  It is now displayed, suspended in a perspex frame, with scattered charred remains below. Quiet, small, powerful.

Two pieces, inspired by the Clearances around the Strath of Kildonan near Helmsdale, are based on the statue The Emigrants. 

The Emigrants is now displayed open, with all fourteen postcards available for viewing and protected under a perspex cover. I have posted about it previously here.

The second piece called Roll The Dice is also displayed under a perspex cover, on a black perspex based. I am not sure I ever fully blogged about this piece; but it tells the story of the family in the Emgirants statue who took a very long nd dangerous sea voyage to Canada, and the hardship of arriving there in deep deep winter, after many turns of bad luck.

The final pairing in the exhibition is about moving between two homes - perhaps where we are born; and where we live. Perhaps for students gone away to study. Perhaps like me in two different countries. Perhaps for children moving between two parents...personal and universal.

Travelling Home has threads wrapped around pegs. The left hand ones were solar dyed from the garden and roadside here in Scotland; whilst the threads on the right were dyed using the garden and kitchen in Maleny. They are wrapped around pegs which for me, symbolise the movement between places. The Summer Walkers and Travellers, often moved between villages and towns and would whittle birch pegs, wrapped with tin, and sell them from door to door. The threads are all about the connections between two homes, two places of the heart.

And Postcards Home also uses threads from two homes and the idea of postcards being sent between two places...

And finally, here is the happy, thrilled, and tired artist...

It is a marvellous thing to have the exhibition open and ready for sharing. Such a lot of work, but oh so worth it.