Monday 29 September 2008

Attic Finds




Yesterday my son went into the attic to remove some suitcases and boxes that were up there behind the water tank. We are hoping to have some insulation put up there sometime, so new it would have to come out. We did not know who it belonged to or what it was. There were two suitcases one was full of rubbish - empty chocolate boxes bits of tinsel. It had made a nice nest for the mice which had lived up there. When I opened the next one it looked more interesting. A collection of items which were probably used in pantomimes but the items had a lot of work in them and looked very old and interesting. There were several jig saws and an Alfa Romeo car which my grandson Alfie decided he was keeping. It was still in its original box. Then there was an old carrier bag which looked like the contents of a drawer. It had pens and pennies,smelling salts all sorts of rubbish then I opened a little box and out came the beautiful watch. I also found a ring and some chains. I was really enjoying this now. Another box was full of dress patterns from possibly the 40's and 50's and yet another box full of fabric but it was all nylon and crimpline.
I did not recognise the name of the person who owned all this but we are the third family to live here since them. They are sadly no longer around. Next time my son comes over I might send him up there again to see what else he finds.

Saturday 13 September 2008

Cornwall


Tin mine


View through an arch at the derelict tin mine


The remains of lunch


View through the resturant window


A posing seagull

Well we are back from our creative travels. The weather was on the whole kind most of the time. Sarah's converted dairy is fantastic and I can thoroughly recommend it. There are some pictures here
On the first day we visited a couple of local churches, a tin mine and a tropical garden centre then the other three walked up a Tor/hill to admire the view. I stayed in the car as I have a dodgy knee. They tell me that you can see both coast lines from there. We then spent the afternoon working on various projects. In the evening we prepared some screens and fabric with flour.
The next day we spent in St Ives visiting the shops, the Barbara Hepworth Gallery and The Tate Gallery. We even managed to have lunch outside overlooking the beach. In the evening after our meal we did a bit of felt making, some sketch book work and some printing using the previously prepared screen.
On the final day we stayed in and did projects including photoshop, sketckbooks, fabric transfer crayons and paint and embellishing on the Pfaff embellisher. We rounded the trip of by going out for a lovely meal in St Ives. It was absolutely pouring down but thanks to Sarah's daughter Helen we were dropped of and collected from the door.
I was not as productive as the others because I was in constant pain. I will post some pictures of the work I did when I have taken pictures of it. Until then here are some pictures that I had taken