Calligraphic layering

 I am having fun working within the constraints of my tiny wee studio here.

I have been working with photographs and papers and layering and experimenting and exploring.

I am enjoying the lettering experiments. First in my journal I did a few tests/samples. Just handwriting, not neat, not tidy, just jotting words down.

Checking out how they handle water and ink, and overwriting.

Some areas and approaches were more successful than others. I am glad I kept a good record as there were only two pens that I decided I wanted to keep working with.

I don't have much good paper with me, but my eyes lit on some cheap and cheerful black paper and I wondered what if?

So I wrote in lead pencil, which I knew would show up on the black.

And then I wrote in black ink on the black, which is actually very hard to photograph, but it is there I promise.

And over the top with water and ink I went. And over writing. LOVING where this is going!

This one made me laugh so hard. I popped a wash of ink over the lead pencil and it utterly and completely disappeared. I sat looking at it for a while feeling pretty silly, but I eventually went back to it and started to make scratch marks into the layer of ink.

Much happier!

So constraints and mistakes are me right now.

Silversmithing dreaming

 One of the highlights of our visit here has been the chance to do another workshop with Lindsey Gallagher, a fine silversmith based in Thurso, ur main service town. We always enjoy wandering through her gallery space and have taken a number of pieces home with us, but the best fun by far is to it and learn with her in her workshop space alongside the shop.

I really, really wanted to learn how to solder. I had described what I wanted to try and do and so Lindsey set me up in the morning practising how to solder, by making lots of copper circles.

My work bench - I do love a well-organsied space with lots of fun tools.

Making my wobbly shapes into circles.

I then hammered some texture into the surface.

I made three circles of different sizes, learning as I went, and because they worked out so well, I decided that I might actually make a piece of jewellery from them even tho I hadn't planned to use my practice pieces.

It is tricky to solder through large spaces like this, but I managed to get all three circles attached.

I then made a jump ring to pass some cord through (when I get back, as I don't have any black cord here).

When I took it home, I kept looking at the really loose jump ring (I had made it too big) and the solder that remained even after filing as much of it away as I could, and felt I needed to finish it better.

I had some tan, some cream and some purple cotton cord, and decided on the cream. I wrapped the cord over the solder as if it was meant to be there.

And then I tried to squeeze the jump ring. Which almost worked, except for how it bent as the outer circle acted like a fulcrum point for bending!

But I solved that problem as well and am now very happy with how it ended up.

And because Lindsey is such good teacher, back to what I started out thinking I would like to make - some pebble-like earrings out of silver.

And here is what I managed to make (with help from Lindsey as we were running short of time...)

She showed me how to cut six circles in a quicker than usual manner. I then rolled them through the mill to squish them out of shape a bit.

I then hammered them to get more texture.

And ta- da here they are, all buffed and polished super shiny by Lindsey on her special wheel.

Lindsey also soldered the posts on the back for which I am extremely grateful.

I am thrilled with all I achieved, and have well and truly caught the soldering bug. I will wait till we get back to have another go I think, but I have so many ideas for what I could do!  

Thursday Thoughts...

"Don’t stumble over something behind you." 

Unknown

I know not where this quote comes from, but it is often these short, sharp quotes that grab my attention. 

They make me think is it really so? Is it too cute to be true? 

But like many truisms it is apt, simple and gets to the nub of things.

So often the worrying about what we did, how things were, what we could have should have done, what we didn't do etc etc can hold us back and limit our enjoyment of the moment and the future. We can get frozen or stuck by the past, let alone be tripped up by it.

I like it as a simple reminder to pay attention to the past, but not to be captured by it.

Jerzy Kedziora, Krakow, 2017

Pressing Matters

 Sometimes art making and ideas seem to come from nowhere, yet are clearly connected. Barry and I were talking about the threads I had dyed with flowers from here a few years ago. I realised that it was about the same time of year, as many of the flowers were still to be seen on our daily walks. But only just.

I had the idea to gather some flowers and press them - to try and retain them in another way, so on our morning walk on Sunday we found and picked a selection of things I had previously used for dyeing.

First up the last of the thistles.

This is bog asphodel. It grows only in the bog, the peat,  and is a lovely rusty orange colour. Also quite firm.

The very last of the bell heather.

Luckily, Devil's Bit Scabiosus is still around.

The heather is due to end on 14 September, and I would agree with that - the few flowers left are quite dry and not nearly as vibrant as they were even a few days ago.

Red clover is hanging in there, but most of it is on its way out.

And so to drying, pressing or generally attempting to flatten.

We have recently had our roof replaced. The slates which had been on since around 1835 had done well, but were being to fail and the risk of dampness setting in was getting higher. The most beautiful replacement job was done and we are so happy at how beautiful the cottage now looks with its trims painted and the roof perfect.

We had a few left over, so we began to make a slate sandwich, with different layers of flowers in between.

Thistle to begin.

Devils Bit Scabious up next.

 

Bog Asphodel.

The heathers.

And finishing with the red clover.

Sandwiched between roof slates, we then added more slates to the stack and popped the stack in a corner where we won't run into it or over it and I shall be patient and let them dry. I hope!

I honestly don't know what I might do with the flowers when they are pressed; or even with the paper if they leave nice marks. I just knew there was a story line link  to the dyed threads that I wanted to take the opportunity to try out. Appendages are crossed.

And how gorgeous is this cottage now? With thanks to Brian and Karen for their hard and loving work to make the wee cottage sing again.

Exhibition Installation

 The past week has seen a laser-like focus on installing and celebrating Barry's exhibition at the Strathnaver Museum,  Betrayal and Loss.

We worked solidly for three days setting up and then celebrated at the opening on Friday night. I was available to do most anything - and together we put up the signage/lettering on the wall, formed and built 'the wave', built two display cabinets, and whilst Barry attached 100 boats to the wave, I set up the displays in the cabinets.

My main focus here is on the lettering and the story. After dismantling the heaviest of tables and moving it out of the way, we had a blank wall to work with.

We had had the lettering prepared in Australia; but sadly one of the measurements we had received was wrong and so Barry and I had to re-calculate whether the words would fit and how they might do so. We were little stress bunnies there for a while. 

Never having applied the vinyl lettering before either, we were working hard to make it as simple and as easy as possible for us to keep to straight lines. We worked out our interlinear distance, and ran painter's tape down the wall as various intervals.

The lettering came sandwiched between two sheets. Here I am gently removing the backing sheet. What remains is the sticky side of the letters. We had drawn the baseline of the lettering lines on the the cover sheet (underneath) so we could try to keep it straight. Did I mention stress?

We got the title on; and here B is pressing the lettering through the cover sheets to ensure it attaches firmly to the wall.

It was then my job to pull the cover sheet off really gently, to ensure the letters remain adhered to the wall. May I say that ys, ts, fs and js, along with commas, were most likely to lift. The things you learn.

The beginning of Row 1. B's ingenious approach to achieving straight lines was for us to cut each strip of tape down by the interlinear space after each row. That meant our pencil line on the cover sheet was aiming for the top of the tape, and we weren't attempting to go too far without having a landing spot to aim for. Experts of course would do a full row and not blink. B worked this out in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep for thinking through all the things we needed to do.

I discovered that the small post-it notes we had with us were pretty much equal in size to the space between words, so when our revised lines ended on a word, I would place a yellow sticky down and start applying the next word after it. Here, at the end of a sentence I double-spaced!

We had to work out where to cut the beautifully prepared lines of wording to fit the revised space, and the floor was the only place we could do it. Also, as the lines got longer (average about 2.3m) we had to take the backing sheet off on the floor as well.

But after a long day, it was done, and it looked wonderful.

The story that Barry was responding to is a terrible and sad tale of cruelty and injustice. Strathnaver was the site of some of the worst Clearances in Scotland - when folk were cleared from their land so that the owners could run sheep on the hills instead. Homes were burned and broken and people fled with little, and to nowhere. 

Barry's work focused on Letter 11 of Donald Macleod's book Gloomy Memories. This letter tells of people  who were pushed to the edges of a harsh and rocky coast and forced to become fisherfolk, even tho they knew nothing of fishing or going to sea. Nor could they afford safe boats. This letter describes how along one 30 mile stretch of coast, in one year alone,  more than 100 boats were destroyed.  When you think on how many families that would have affected in so many ways, it is utterly devastating.

On the night of the opening, we donated a First Edition of Gloomy Memories to the Museum for their collection, which they will have after the show is over.

It is difficult to photograph the show well; but here you get a sense of it. Barry will have more detail and information on his blog.

The exhibition is on for all of September, and we hope that folk enjoy and appreciate it. I think it is a beautiful and gentle response to such a horrendous story.