On Tuesday 15th December 2009 Liz, Alex, Sharon and I went to a conference in Leicester. It has been a LONG tiring term at MMU and I wasn’t sure I had enough energy to join them on the drive there (Thank you Liz for driving). Glad I did, see the link below to read all about it. I also picked up a word which I will use more often as it is vital to teaching and learning.HAPTIC.
http://materiality-intangibility.blogspot.com/
Pondering on folding tools
There are some lovely penknives in the Bygones collection too, they seem to be an essential piece of a chatelaine. Another way to pass the time on the train has been wondering what other types of folding tools I could make for my 21st century chatelaine. Some ideas that came to me were:- testing the gaps on custard creams, tiny brushes for small crumb piles,string gauges, crevice scrapers, loose thread snipers, button checkers… I made a test folding tool last week, it needs a lot more work and I I should make some card ones next to work out the mechanism.
Notes from a train notebook.
Hazel
Mr Batho?
Whilst we have been looking through Mary Greg’s Bygones collection in the museum store this painting has been looking down on us. There is, in the records, a note about a painting of William Batho in the same store.
We had a look around the walls and this painting seemed a possibility. It was a little too high up on the wall to see the signature but the date looked like 1926.
We have been reading Mr Batho’s letters to Mrs Greg and feel we know him a little, the thought that he may have been watching over us sent a shiver down my neck. I do hope this is him, he has a faint smile of approval, but also a look of take care of my collection or else..or am I reading too much into it?
Hazel
Mary Greg's Maxims
This is the printed card which encouraged me into the letterpress room at Manchester School of Art (or MMU as some know it).
I am unsure if Mary Greg wrote them, but I remember something in her letters about printing cards to hand out. These ring true for us all now,especially the last one.
Hazel
Ideas for Damage Indicators
As I said in my last post, the Mary Greg project has sent me into areas of work which I had never considered before. Amongst her letters were hand printed cards. I took the opportunity at MMU to join the students in a letterpress induction as I really liked the aesthetic of the cards.
Creativity isn’t aways a simple step by step process, and the idea of the printed cards has combined with another idea I had about the chatelaines and how they are often mending kits. I thought how the rips and lost buttons needed to be pointed out to the mender and how this could be done. I have embroidered red arrows onto some of my own coats to show loose seams and lost buttons and have begun to make metal arrows. The problem being that indicators will cause more damage in themselves. I have only done my first proof copy of the Damage Indicator card so I can see what to change, David in the letterpress room has offered to help me add a border and arrows. It is a trickier process than I had first thought, David has a real skill in setting up the tiny pieces of type. I do also plan to reprint one of Mary’s cards if the Gallery give me permission. (do you think it would be a problem Liz and Alex?)
Hazel
Bugs from Mary Gregs Nature Diaries embroidered onto material.
One aspect of this project that I hadn’t foreseen was how it has encouraged me into other areas of work. After going to see Mary Greg’s nature diaries in the Graves Museum, Sheffield, I have started a “train” project (I have a 50 minute train journey to Manchester and back). Mary had painted a series of insects and animals (awaiting permission to add photos from her actual book). I thought it would be a tribute to her to try and sew her drawings…not being a great embroiderer it is proving harder than I thought. It will be an ongoing project , not sure what I will do with them yet either.
When I looked at Mary’s Nature Diary I was very taken by her interest in animals and plants, she had included a rubbing from a fence post of the tracks in the wood left by a wood beetle, she had a fascination with the small and everyday things and a real pleasure in recording them.
Hazel
Selection of Mary Greg's collection packed ready for transport to MAG.
This is a picture of the art of Museum packing,as done by Linda, an art in itself.
I have found working with all the staff at Manchester Art Gallery to be a real pleasure and a huge education. It is a very rare privilege to be invited behind closed doors of any institution and to be able to work with and talk about the Mary Greg collection over time with them has been a very rewarding experience. Just being able to watch the care and attention given to the collection was beautiful. The broken birthday candle wrapped in bubble wrap and gently cushioned in huge pillows of tissue was afforded the same care as a priceless roman artefact. Once an object gains a museum accession number it is a treasure, and so it should be.
Hazel
Jones
Sharon found the chatelaine in the Platt Hall collection and insisted I went back to see it. She was so right, I usually make work that sits on a mantle piece or in a box on the wall. I have been considering for a while making objects to carry and wear (but not jewellery) and chatelaines are the perfect example of how I had already been thinking.
It was good to find a well made piece of silver stamped with the name Jones. I usually stamp all my work with the A1 Scrap Metal name..but from now on Jones will be stamped somewhere upon the objects I make.
Hazel Jones.
Chatelaine
I thought it was about time I started recording the projects I am doing based on the bygones collection. The first, and most important to me, is based around the chatelaine. practical objects, attached by a short chain to a womans belt. Pins,thimbles,pencil and notebook. I especially like this one in the collection as it is so simple, one that looks like is was used. I have already made pencil holders (before seeing this one), string holders and am now making a list roll (based on the roll of paper in a tube we found recently), also folding tools, quick repair kits and damage indicators.
Hazel
Keys and other found things
I thought I should add a few recent pages from my sketchbook, I am still working on some ideas based on the roll of paper that was trapped in a metal tube which we found in Mary’s collection. This is my working sketchbook, it sits next to my workbench and everything gets put into it:- Quotes from radio 4, paper templates,collaged and found bits,as well as thoughts and ideas. It isn’t really meant to be looked at by anyone apart from myself. Although it is an important link in the ideas chain(Part answer to the the question..”where do all your ideas come from?”).
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