Up to Our Eyes in it. (Snippet No.6)

Reading through the letters brings up many interesting topics..but I can’t resist adding this to the blog even though it is rather childish, it made me laugh..and that is good enough reason at the moment.

From a letter to Mrs Greg from the Assistant curator 31st July 1923…..

“…Secondly, we have been compelled by the authorities to have the drains of this institution relaid so we are up to our eyes in it and will be until about the middle of August.”

Hazel

“Moths in the Lumber Room” (Snippet No.5)

Envelope addressed to Mr Batho Esq

Letter to Mr Batho from Mary Greg, June 4th 1924, talking about some dresses she wishes to donate to the Gallery…

“I want to get them sent off but not to lie in boxes in some lumber room where the moths may destroy them.”

The reply , on the 6th July 1924, is from the Assistant Curator ,who like the curators today, clearly takes great pride in looking after their collections and replies with..

“We will see to it that they will not be placed in any lumber room and you must never for one moment think we allow moths amongst our exhibits. Anything liable is examined often and kept clean.”

You can almost sense the horror in their voice that anyone would think they have moths and that  exhibits might be  stored in a lumber room.

Hazel

Snippets from the Letters No.4 (Childhood Joys)

Spellicans found on Frodsham boot sale, similar to ones in the Bygones Collection.

June 4th 1924 . Letter from Mary Greg to Mr Batho

“I am getting old!  but never I hope too old to be interested in the things that can interest others”

I love Mary Greg’s view of life, she stayed interested in things up until the end. She seems to have a particular need to provide objects that children will enjoy in the museum displays.

Hazel

Silhouette 3

I thought I’d show you some colour samples fresh from the kiln that I’m testing out for the silhouette dish.  I’m trying various combinations of black and white with reference to the original, paper cut silhouette.

Dark grey slip with white over

I need to take more care when applying the resist to mask out the head as the resulting edge isn’t crisp enough.  I need that edge to make the same visual impact as the paper cut edge of the original.

I am considering using a touch of glaze, perhaps just on the head, perhaps just as an incidental splash, to draw out some further contrasts and animate the surface with reflected light.  However, on this test the glaze has drawn out the black pigment in the grey slip too heavily and shifted the focus from the head to the glaze splash, so I can see I need to be careful how I handle this.

Red clay, grey slip with white over and a splash of glaze

I normally work with a white clay base as it shows colour well but I have also recently been working more with red terracotta.  I like the bold colour contrast of the red clay with the black slip and this particular combination gives a cleaner edge around the profile when the black is rubbed away.

Red clay with black slip

However, I have found that the red clay warps much more than the white through the drying and firing process (no matter how careful I am!) so I have tried using a red slip on the white clay.  Whilst this solves the warping problem the colour combination isn’t quite as dramatic.  So blending red clay with white, or buying a grogged red clay might be the next step if I choose this palette.  I also turned Mary round so she’s looking back at us, or with an idea that there could be two, one facing the other!

White clay, red slip, black slip over

The tests have also shown me that I’ve lost the detail of the netting around the brim of her hat and I need to think about whether this is important and if it is how I can bring it back.  Either some other form of mark making in the clay or other forms of finishing post firing such as glaze, enamel or transfer.  I was already planning some transfer lettering for the inscription, so this may be an option if I think it’s necessary.

Decisions about the work are made through the sample making process and all the samples are made with a question in mind, testing out the theories (as theory is often very different in practice!), considering the options, feeling confident that the right choices are being made.  As I move towards resolution, I need to feel sure that the final piece is the best it can be.

Perhaps if you are reading this you might care to comment on some of these deliberations.  As the idea is still in progress you have an opportunity to affect the outcome.  All tutorial advice will be carefully considered!  Sharon

Silhouette 2

The creative process can be a funny business! I had all sorts of plans for things to make, none of them based on the silhouette of Mary, but I just couldn’t seem to get it out of my head!  When that happens it’s best just to go with it, so I’ve been developing this idea for a commemorative dish for her. I really wanted to keep the simplicity of the silhouette and use it as a focal feature, the border of the dish acting as a frame for the image.  I think it’s promising.  I now need to develop the palette as I have a few options in mind, mostly building on the black and white contrast of the original cut out.

Sharon

cloth silhouette of Mary Greg

Removing the cloth template

Impression in clay

Finished dish awaiting colour

Hoof Rack

Hoof Rack by Michael Leigh

This latest collage is inspired by seeing the Noah’s Ark and especially the missing limbs a lot of the animals had in the Mary Greg collection.  Finding the right kind of shop front was a problem but soon settled on this image from a local newspaper of a shop in Northwich. I wanted to find several different shop fronts so I could have Hoof Rack , Tails R Us and Mary’s Head Swap Shop but hopefully can contrive to find some suitable in future. I have made Tails R Us but it needs some work but hopefully can add this soon.

Michael Leigh

“An Infinity of Things” by Frances Larson

Simple tablet dispenser from the A1 Scrap Metal collection

As I said in an earlier posting, this project has taken us down new lanes I didn’t expect to go down. One being an interest in the people who collected objects in the past who have created our museums. We are gradually finding out more about how many places Mary Greg donated her collections and that is one area I would really like to know more about. Amanda Ravetz suggested a wonderful book to me called “An Infinity of Things” (How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World) by Frances Larson, which is about another prolific collector (some of Sir Henry’s collections were catalogued by weight because there was so much of it). I spent many happy hours in the Wellcome Collection ,which was above the Science Museum in London, when I was a student. Much of my early work was influenced by the strange medical equipment in there.

One chapter is called “HEREWITH PLEASE FIND THREE ROLLS OF CHOCOLATE FOIL” the foil was from sweet wrappers which he used them to demonstrate possible tablet shapes. His collecting often informed the designs he used in his pharmaceutical business. I use collections in the same way except on a much much smaller scale.

Learning at the interface case study

Learning at the Interface is a conference being jointly held by the University of Brighton and the V&A on 1-2 July this year. It is all about collaborative projects between universities, museums and galleries and seeks to address the question of how institutions can work together to enhance the learning of higher education students. I put forward a case study about the Mary Greg project which is available online.  It has been selected to form a publication and will be discussed as part of the networking event which Sharon and Hazel will hopefully be attending at the V&A in July.  We will feedback after the event!  Alex

Ghosts in the attic: Platt Hall

Box of shoes at Platt Hall

Wedding dress with embroidered ivy leaves

And so many ideas about how we might exhibit some of these things in this amazing space (especially following our visit to Enchanted Palace at Kensington Palace, and the Concise Dictionary of Dress at Blythe House).  A giant dolls’ house in itself…  Where will these thoughts take us?  We shared some interesting comments with Miles too about whether Mary’s collection only came into the gallery because of a desire to have the ‘grander, more important’ ceramics collection of her husband.  Miles always refers to Mary as ‘Mrs Greg’.  I like that.  I wonder if there is a difference in the generalised contrast between the ‘scientific’ collecting of men (e.g. the costumes of Mr Cunnington who apparently could have been a ceramics collector had ceramics been more affordable – instead he looked to something affordable and other – e.g. costume – that he could catalogue, collect specimens and almost finalise) and that of women – Mary who collected what she loved because it was beautifully crafted, domestic, just a lovely thing that she wanted to share with others, particularly children.

So many ideas.  So much that we still haven’t seen.

In the meantime, look here on Flickr for further pictures I took today…

Alex

Snippet from letters (No.3)

Wills cigarette card 1934

Letter from Mr Batho to Mrs Greg. Dated 3rd September 1935.

Mr Batho and his wife went to visit Mary at Westmill, and it seems the driver got rather confused and they spent a while lost, Mr Batho shows how kind and easy going he was by his response to this event:-

…Believe me we did not feel it a waste of time through the driver making the mistakes he did. My experience is that mistakes of this kind take you into lanes which you would never of seen. It was most interesting on both outward and inward journey…

I have felt a bit like that with this project..we have gone down lanes we might never of seen..and the journey is most enjoyable.

Hazel