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Pages and pages

Monday, February 8 2010 - Craft Work

Mary Ann Moss's Remains of the Day course is still bringing me lots of pleasure.

We were invited to exchange pages with another randomly selected maker. Jan of DéjàVu Creations was my swap partner and sent me two of her sheets which will become 8 pages when folded. They are absolutely lovely, beautifully designed with secret pockets and surprises. Just what I wanted. Included in her parcel were many small treasures of labels, envelopes with windows, a bird made from felt and even a vintage hanky. Thank you so much, Jan!

         

         

The idea is to include pockets to hold souvenirs and interesting pieces of ephemera and Jan has made the most of security envelopes and overlapping papers. I am thrilled with these. They'll look marvellous in one of my Shabby Journals.

A while ago, Hugh asked me for a scrapbook to his own specifications to hold mementos of his career. This one is bursting with cuttings, invitations and reviews of exhibitions since 1971 when he set up his own pottery at the age of 21.

         

These pages remind us of Derek Emms, Seung Ho Yang and Bernard Leach, just three of the world renowned potters he has met and worked with over the years.

One book wasn't enough so on I go with my stitching and glueing.

Click on the pics!

Living side by side

Tuesday, February 2 2010 - News from the garden

After a light fall of snow, I went out to feed the birds. The two blackbirds, whose territory includes our garden, are never far away. And Marley the cat has his habitual path to and from the back door.

Marley is no threat to garden birds: too slow and, let's admit it, a bit too lazy.

So, we live side by side - but not all at the same time.

The way they were

Friday, January 22 2010 - France

Few things tell more accurately of the everyday lives of past generations than their books and magazines. I've been looking through my collection for images to use in my Shabby Journals.

          

In this first arithmetic book from 1934 children are calculating in old francs: 10 francs for a live rabbit at the market; 11 francs for a beret.

         

In 1908 French girls were learning English from books like this one. Alice (born in 1895) travels to London. Imagine her surprise when she finds that the traffic keeps to the left-hand side of the street! The author manages to include a warning that "when girls wear corsets and lace them tight, the chest is pressed in and distorted. Many girls die."  

             

I bought this book in a local flea market. It's a story about girls in two rival boarding schools. It came out in 1922, has very fine drawings on each page and is in perfect condition.

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Coming along nicely

Monday, January 18 2010 - Craft Work

My fabulous journey with Mary Ann Moss on her Remains of the Day course is going very well.

I've made four Shabby Journal covers without spending a single euro on materials. Everything comes from my hoards of paper and souvenirs and fabrics.

         

I think of this one as my 'practise' journal. Things went wrong and had to be patched over but, as Mary Ann says, 'Everything can be fixed. Everything.'

And so it was. I struggled with my punch, my drill, my waxed thread... Here's how the cover looks. Very late last night I sewed the signatures into it, thinking I could sleep peacefully having achieved that. But no, my mind was busy for hours with ideas for more covers, more pages, more shabby inventing.

         

These pages were made from (on the left) old French schoolbooks, a sticker from an orange, a piece of embroidery from a birthday card and a transparent envelope which once held a posh bookmark. On the right, quite a plain page made from a poster for a show at the Tate Gallery in London, a ticket from Hugh's new Australian hat (I added the purple ribbon), part of a 57-year-old book's dust cover and a book mark from Peru with a hand-sewn felt picture.

These pages look rather empty but I want to leave plenty of space for adding more scraps and lots of writing.

I still have heaps of pages ready to go. The effects of this class are on-going. There's no reason why I shouldn't make many more. I've already had an order from Hugh for a larger one to his own specifications!

Click on the pics!

Uneventful January

Friday, January 15 2010 - La Borne

January has so far been uneventful and if I'm honest, rather dreary. Snow came and went, then returned.

         

The robin we call 'ours' was ever-present during the coldest days, nourishing himself on crumbs of home-made bread and left-over Christmas cake.

Marley often stepped out onto untouched snow and thought about coming straight back inside again. Here he is at 10 o'c at night.

Between periods of snow, the horses enjoyed their hay in the open. That's our Sienna on the left with Ingeborg's Liberté.

         

While we were doing the year's accounts this morning, a small ripple of excitement (comparatively speaking) came when the commune's tree surgeons passed along our lane trimming overhanging branches. Our ancient apple tree in the potager opposite had a haircut.

I did say January was uneventful!

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Farewell old year

Sunday, January 3 2010 - Photographs

I've had a good year. My blog shows the journeys we made in 2009 and some times we have enjoyed. These are a few images from the last twelve months.

         

JANUARY: cold rain and bitter snow.

         

FEBRUARY: more snow. Then pale winter sunshine.

          

MARCH:  Two different images of beauty.

         

APRIL:  Spring at last in the fields next to our village.  And a shopkeeper, forced from business in one of the oldest streets in Bourges, leaves a protest outside his boarded-up shop.

         

MAY:  A ceramic tile on exhibition at the Centre Céramique in La Borne.  And friends sharing l'apéritif in our garden room.

         

JUNE:  Souvenirs on sale in Trafalgar Square, London.  And the entrée to a special meal on my return.

         

JULY:  A monkey belonging to the Cirque Bidon.  A terrific rainstorm making a river of our little road.

         

AUGUST:  Freshly picked in the potager.  A little Korean friend.

         

SEPTEMBER:  School children in the south.  Seen on a house in the Cévennes.

           

OCTOBER :  Monument to Docteur Louis Mallet in the Auvergne.  A poor woman in the market at Annecy.

         

NOVEMBER: Leafless trees near Sancerre.  Bright flowers for the kitchen wall.

         

DECEMBER:  Decoration on a neighbour's post box.  The return of winter.

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE I KNOW AND LOVE.

Click on the pics!

My heritage

Monday, December 28 2009 - Our family

My father made this beautiful sugar shaker - the one I showed yesterday. Every Christmas I polish it for use on the festive table. It is a pleasure to handle and works perfectly.

Its hallmark tells that it was made by Albert George Brooker and that it was hallmarked at the London Assay Office in the year 1950 with a leopard's head for the Assay Office in London (as opposed to Birmingham, Sheffield or Edinburgh), a lion for the purity of the metal and the letter P for the year.

         

This vase was made in 1950 for an exhibition in the Goldsmith's Hall in London. It was praised by our Queen who wanted to know how the gold stars were applied.

My father was taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London by the great silversmith Francis Adam.

He worked, by commission only, in his London workshop. He taught at the Central School himself and later at the Sir John Cass College when the silversmiths' department was transferred there.

He taught the master clockmaker, Martin Burgess who wrote, 'Albert Brooker was a great craftsman, great teacher, with a precision eagle eye for line and form. His massive talents, acquired by years of hard work and study, were backed by a profound philosophy of work and life.'

                  

He was the eldest child, and only son, of a poor London family. Here he is with the youngest of his four sisters.

Everyone who knew my father loved him. He was very much respected for the excellence of his craftsmanship and his ability to communicate with his pupils - and with his three daughters! I like to remember him in his workshop and to think that I inherited from him not only some lovely pieces of silver but the exact shape of his hands and some of their skill.

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The glorious Christmas pud

Saturday, December 26 2009 - These I Love

         

The seeds of Christmas are sown in early autumn. I open my battered copy of Christmas recipes from some of the great National Trust houses. This one comes from the archive at Saltram House in Devon, SW England. Puddings should be matured for as long as possible. Ours this year was 18 months old!

         

Hugh made these authentic pudding basins for me. The deep edge is there to hold the string which ties a cloth (or in modern times greaseproof paper) while the puddings steam for 4 hours or so.

Tradition demands that the pudding is flamed with cognac. After the Christmas meal, no one wants a huge amount of pudding but, accompanied by cream or brandy butter (or both) and sprinkled with caster sugar, it is a rare treat.

Click on the pics!

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