Spoons

Poured spoon, layered inks, charcoal pencil

I keep coming back to Mary’s spoons.  I have been drawing them in different ways, observing forms, details, characteristics and noticing things as a consequence.  The fig-shaped bowls of the Apostle spoons, different shaped finials and spoon ends, stamped initials, twisted stems, worn edges, shadows left in boxes.  Difficult to capture the essence of these through drawing!

Observation drawings of trefid spoons

Apostle spoons and first ink pourings

Sketchbook drawings exploring spoon and spoon box

The worn spoon edges were particularly tricky.  Pencil just wasn’t quite right so I began to explore other media.  The edge looked like the edge that is made by a liquid – full of tension yet fragile and vulnerable (have a good look at a puddle or a drip of tea!).  How to represent that in a drawing?  I liked the notion of drawing with a liquid.  I have always enjoyed the marks created as a liquid dries.  I began to make puddles of ink, tipping these away to form the shaft of the spoon, discovering that the density and movement of the colour could be controlled through careful angling and supporting when drying.  Layering thin stains of colour created further subtleties and nuances and working over the pourings when dry provided additional detail.  I am beginning to see ways in which these qualities might be translated into clay through slips and glaze, pouring and layering, marking and stamping.  Making the drawings, drives the testing, the testing feeds the making….   Sharon

Spoon pourings, layered ink, resist, charcoal pencil

Guardian Research Profiles

The Guardian is launching a new regular feature highlighting interesting university research projects. Each week they will profile a researcher / research team and their project. They are asking for examples of any unusual, ground-breaking or exciting research.

Mary, Mary is all of these!  What do you think?  It would be a fab way of launching the blog / website!!  Sharon

Visitor Numbers

I’ve been going through the file of stuff that Melanie compiled for us and came across the visitor numbers again.  Did Mary have any objects in or connection with Heaton Hall prior to 1922?  It’s just that in 1921 the visitor numbers were 14,818 but in 1922 (the year Mary’s objects were accessioned) that figure rose to 125,688.  That’s an increase of 110,810 visitors in just one year! (Incidentally the visitor numbers thereafter are regularly over the 150,000 mark, peaking in 1933 at 181,017)   What was the cause of this extraordinary turn around?  Was it Mary’s involvement? A local cultural revolution?  Or is it a misprint?  It would be good to clarify this as it could be significant.  Sharon

MuseumNext

Following a rather nervous discussion about how we might proceed with a public documentation project of the Mary Greg archive, Liz and myself took the plunge and sent a proposal to MuseumNext. Our proposal has been accepted as a ‘wild idea’ and can be found here: http://www.museumnext.org/blog/

MuseumNext takes place on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 October.

Caught in the Act of Collecting

These are the books I showed you when you came to visit my workshop and ones that I know Mary would have loved.  Splendid day by the way! The dice are drying nicely and awaiting the next stage of development.  I am also awaiting results of Ebay bidding on some vintage bakelite dice blanks for laser cutting (I hate the waiting on tenterhooks business!).  I have missed out on similar before, wish me luck!  It would be very interesting to see if we could get Marilynn Gelfman Karp interested in the Mary blog.  Another woman after Mary’s heart I’m sure.  Sharon

Collectors and their passions

The Quilt-maker's of Gee's Bend, Alabama, USA

Matches

Matches

Thinking along the same lines as the spoon.

This is the reason why I love the Mary Greg collection,alongside wonderful expensive artifacts (dolls houses and a beautiful Noahs Ark stuffed with animals) are the banal objects that bring history back to the everyday. The matches are slightly different from the ones we use..but different enough. Most were throw away..tossed in the fire they lit..but here we have some examples….The large ones look hand made. I tried breaking some thin wood from an orange crate into spills and its an art. Also note the museum accession number, it rather overwhelms the matches.

LISTS

One of Mary's lists

Work in Progress

Creativity is a messy business, and a quick snapshot of my work bench illustrates that quite well.

Lots of half started pieces…most of the pieces have been cut out and filed and I can assemble them now whenever I get a spare few hours.

I am more influenced by the chatelaine than I thought, as I do seem to be making a making a set of objects to carry.

Pencil holder

String Winder

String Collector

List capsule

I think I need to work on the names, if only I could think of something like Quizzing Glasses.

ALSO note ..I have started stamping JONES on the objects I am now making for the Project.

Curious wooden SPOON

Found in the collection on our last visit.

This is another reason I love Mary Greg’s Bygones Collection.

An old wooden spoon, presented by Mr Goodwin in 1842.

“found several feet…….surface at Bakewell”

An object that has no material value, but is now a

“Curious wooden spoon” with its own museum number and a place in history.

Secret Roll of Paper

On our last visit to the collection I found this roll of paper in a metal tube.
You could see little bits of handwriting on the paper, but it remained impossible to extract and required someone with he correct tools and gentle coaxing to unroll it.
Not being able to read it does make it even more intrigueing, and had inspired me to make paper rolls with lists on ..which you can’t quite read…well you almost can..
Some of which will be shopping lists.
Horse Carrots.
Milk