Mary’s Hospital Ark

Mary's Hospital Ark

“I’ve made a few collages using Noah’s Ark as a theme in the past and delighted to see the wooden toy ark and animals in the Mary Greg collection. This gave me the idea of the hospital ark and the bandaged animals being taken by Mary in her own ark to a place of safety and refuge. Some of the animals in her collection had become rather battered and distressed over the years  – some missing hoofs, legs and even heads. Possible scenarios for the future could be shops that sold spare animal parts for those that were unfortunate enough to have bits missing.  Tail Rack, Hoofs R US,  Mary’s Head Swap Shop etc.”

By Michael Leigh.

A Snippet from Mary Greg’s letters.

Lead Fishing Weight from the A1 Scrap Metal Collection

June 16th 1927

from Mary Greg to Mr Batho

I am writing in the garden and the wind blows my paper now and then so I hope you will be able to read my writing which is worse than usual

I can feel a set of letter weights for writing outdoor correspondance being produced very soon…..another object  for the chatelaine.

Hazel

Samuel Crompton’s Threads

Found in the letters from Mary Greg to Mr Batho

This project has taken me down lots of  fantastic  new avenues of exploration, but when it comes down to it I still find myself  inspired by the small, banal  looking objects in the collection, which on the surface look unimportant and yet hold so much history. The Samuel Crompton threads being the most excting for me, especially as it was Sharon and I who discovered them nestled in the pile of letters sent from Mary Greg to Mr Batho. How can such a small piece of thread have such a strong presence? It makes you feel as if you are touching the beginings of the industrial revoloution (or am I being too romantic!).My favourite exhibit at the War Museum North is the small piece of wire from a zeppelin which was sold attached to a crude pin and sold to raise money for the war effort..owning a small piece of something so immense is owning a small piece of history. My love of string isn’t a secret..I think it all dates back to being a Brownie and having to have a piece of string in your pocket for emergencies (I never did have a suitable emergency to use it)..I still collect party popper string from significant events too.

I read in a book about Russian cosmonauts that they tied their cutlery to the hull of the space ship with string to stop it floating around..now that is one piece of string I would like to own.  There are many items in the Mary Greg Bygones Collection that have a real sense of history of everday life too, used spoons ,small keys, matches and padlocks, and much more to discover according to the records. So I sum up….that is what I love about being allowed to spend time exploring this collection, the hidden gems, keys that on the surface look like clock keys but turn out to be from the Weeks Museum and might have wound a diamond encrusted elephant for an emperor of China. (now my imagination is running riot.).

It can be seen on the BBC History of the World in 100 Objects

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/5mtwLXKHSi-vx6-rENLiFA

Hazel

New Kiln

Not quite what I hoped for.

…I chose the hottest day this year to switch on my new kiln for the first time, and the workshop became VERY hot. I wanted to show you all my first awful attempt at enamelling as it can only get better..I really hope it doesn’t get worse.  I hope to add dashes of colour to my work. Although I am unsure how I can do this, you can not enamel work once it is soldered..or solder work once it has been enamelled…so I need to find ways to get around that…but first I need to learn how to get the coating even…and work out how hot the kiln needs to be..and how long it should be in there..this is harder than cake making.

Hazel

Engage Creative Workshop – 21st Century Chatelaine

I delivered a Mary, Mary themed creative workshop for Engage, National Association for Gallery Education, recently.  The stimulating one-day seminar was part of their Professional Development series: Craft, Makers and Making.  Ian Middleton, Ofsted HMI and Specialist Advisor for Art, Craft and Design provided a fantastic overview of current education policy and set the context for the days discussions.  His report “Drawing Together: Art, Craft and Design in Schools” contains some thought-provoking insights into the way the subject is being taught (or not) in schools today.  Essential reading for anyone involved with Craft education whatever the level of delivery.  Other presentations from Stuart Shotton of Craftspace and Katy Bevan from the Crafts Council highlighted some of the great work they are doing to engage young people in the crafts and making, ensuring the subjects’ continued relevance in an ever-changing and increasingly digital world.

My session encouraged seminar participants to engage in some creative activity around the Mary Greg project.  Liz gave an enthusiastic introduction using the display in the Object Memories Showcase, in the Craft and Design Gallery and whetted everyone’s appetite for the session.  The Mary Greg chatelaine was used as a starting point for creative response.

The Mary Greg Chatelaine

A chatelaine is a nineteenth century  item, usually worn by a housekeeper, a wearable ‘tool kit’ containing all sorts of useful objects necessary for going about her everyday business.  Hung from a loop usually attached at the waistband it allowed the wearer easy access to things like scissors, thimbles, needles, notebooks, pens etc.   Workshop participants were asked to choose an everyday object that they had on their person.  Starting with individual questioning, drawing and making, small groups then collaborated to create a ’21st Century Chatelaine’, a contemporary homage not only to the Greg chatelaine but also the objects we use and take for granted on a daily basis.  During the practical activity I tried to unravel, what to me are, the fundamental aspects of craft and making, picking out the key elements and transferable skills embedded in a hands on approach to creative thinking. Some examples follow (sorry I can’t show everything).

Ink Drawing - Pens

Ink Drawing - Vaseline

Ink Drawing - I Phone

Wire working, discussion and decision making

Collaboration and assembly

One of the completed 21st Century Chatelaines

Detail - phone

Detail - Spectacles

Not bad for an hours work I think!  …And I was ‘Ofsteded’ into the bargain (I hope I passed!).

I have added links to some key websites below for those who want to find out more.

Engage – www.engage.org

Ofsted – www.ofsted.gov.uk

Crafts Council – www.craftscouncil.org.uk

Craftspace – www.craftspace.co.uk

Thanks to all participants.  Sharon

Day One, Week One

I’m fortunate to be able to spend a bit more time in the workshop over the next few weeks thanks to some funding from the Craft Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University to release me from some of my teaching.  This should enable me to move my ideas on and develop my creative responses to the project.  So I thought I’d show you what I have been working on today (once I tidied up a bit and cleared the spiders out of the sink!).  Watch out for more over the coming weeks.  Sharon

Day always starts with removing a spider from the sink!

making tests for 'Witness Marks'

Trying out oval bowls for value measuring spoons

Modelling another version of 'Mary's Chatelaine'

List Capsules

List Capsules

Having the deadline for the Glasgow conference encouraged me to finally finish off these list capsules, they have been sitting half done on my workbench for weeks. It took me a while to figure out how to seal in a paper roll…and not need to do anymore soldering afterwards. I was very inspired by the chatelaine lists, the roll of paper in a metal tube that we couldn’t read and the beautifully made tape measure in the sewing box.

List capsule showing printed paper strip.

I plan to make more of these and different versions, the printed numbered strip is only 1 to 0 …I want to make a longer one next…Letterpress room willing . The one I made for Glasgow is on the right and has a list of all the things I needed to prepare for the trip..I have cut off the end and let it get trapped inside like the roll of paper in the metal tube in the bygones collection, no one will ever know now what I did..unless some is patient enough to tease it out.

Hazel

Missing Objects

Whilst reading the letters I came across an interesting discourse between Mary and Batho about some objects that she sent to Manchester that went astray (17th August 1925)

“Dear Mrs Greg….There are a few objects missing, as follows:- Two ivory figures: Cat and Dog, Two wooden figures: Dog and Donkey, Two ivory Ducks, Two Valentines…..I have gone carefully through the packing and fail to find them….I will have another search made of the packing material.”

There is no further mention of them ever being found.  I feel compelled to return these objects to their rightful place in the collection and have been working on a few ideas.  I thought I might take the trays of Noah’s Ark animals as a starting point and have used these as the basis for interpretation through drawing and clay.

Noah's Ark tray. Loved the spotty dog the blue boar and the zebra with the missing head!

Spotty dog

Sketchbook pages

Early clay test - Cat and Dog

Two ducks

A cat and a dog?

Two Valentines

Not sure yet whether the idea will develop into a dish or tray to reference the box, or something else entirely.  I’m still playing!  Sharon

Stories waiting to be told

As part of ongoing work to extend the reach of the Mary Greg collection, students from Manchester Metropolitan University 3Dimensional Design course visited the gallery stores to undertake research for an open ended six week design brief. This video captures the student’s enthusiasm as the wealth of the collection is revealed to them.

Printed Lists

Test print next to type.

18 Point Baskerville Type

As I have said before, this project has allowed/encouraged me to try other things.

The hand printed books in the Mary Greg collection enticed me to try out the letterpress room at MMU. The room was “downsized” recently but there is still a good selection of different sized and styles of letters. A wonderful technician called David has lovingly sorted all the type and keeps it all in order.

Setting type is harder than you imagine, to begin with you have to try and work out which way to set it so it doesn’t come out backwards, and the 18 point type I chose is quite tiny to keep in place..I tried to do the number 10..but it was beyond me in the time I had. The letters are kept in place by strips of metal held in place by long magnets

The trays are all set out, with a plan were each letter and space is, so that bit is easy (Thank you David). I decided to put a gap between each number to make the list easier to write on.

All I need to do now is try and finish the metal cannisters that these lists will be stored in.

Hazel