The Map as Art

I've just this minute come across a review of this book by Katherine Harmon all about artists who use maps in their work. I already have her previous book called 'You are Here'. I'll give you three guesses what that's about... I'm off to Amazon (other online booksellers are available) to get my copy. Be still my beating heart....

I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with J...

Sometime towards the end of last year I bought these three papier mache letters in a Hobbycraft store, intending to customise them as presents for the three friends, Vickie, Joan and Lynda, who work with me in a textile group of our own making. We are meant to push each other to try out new things but I lost all track of time before Christmas so this idea fell by the wayside. Then in January I set a challenge for Vickie, Joan and myself to take an initial and turn it into a personal record of the person whose name began with it. As Lynda lives quite a distance away we don't see her as often as we'd like so I thought I'd stand in for the letter L.

Well, I got the J for Joan and I went blank. I had no ideas. My brain hurt from thinking about it too much! Then I picked up a map in a second hand bookshop that was closing down. For 20p I had a map of South Wales. It covered the village and area in Brecon where Joan used to live and the Pembrokeshire village of Manorbier where she is now. I had one of those lightbulb moments and decided to merge the two areas of the map and collage them on to the front of the letter.

This is what I came up with. Having painted the whole letter I then placed the maps on and merged them together. All the relevant areas that are important to Joan are on this map so I was away. What next? Well, Joan is a great natural dyer and a fabulous knitter, so I found some little spools I bought yonks ago and wound some naturally dyed threads around them. They are dyed with indigo, madder and weld. How to represent knitting provided a challenge but I made a little pair of needles from some cocktail sticks and stuck some beads on the end. I then cast on with the indigo thread and knitted a small amount. My husband thought I had lost the plot as I sat there kntting with cocktail sticks! I told another friend about it the other day and she described it as 'micro knitting' - exactly!! It was fiddly in the extreme - but necessary for what I wanted to achieve.

Next I had to think of other things that sum Joan up. Well, for a kick-off she is ALWAYS on the phone and I had a little telephone from a dolls-house supplier that I've also had for more years than I care to remember. I knew it would come in handy one day! She has just bought a laptop and is trying to become more computer savvy so I found a mini laptop via another dolls house shop and I was in business. Finally I added some handmade felt in the shape of the boat. Not because Joan sails but because she is a feltmaker and lives by the sea - hence the shell as well.

I have only placed the things on the letter at present and I'm going to superglue it all into place later in the week. I have no worries that she will see this. She can just about switch on the laptop and send an occasional e mail. Blogging is a mystery to her so this will never spoil her surprise. Overall I am very pleased with how it has come together but I can't say the same for my monoprinting this week. All my plans went astray as I was sidetracked into completing this whilst also finishing my map book (more of that again). I was also sidetracked (it's easily done...)by playing around with bleach and Quink ink on paper. Then today I made some printing plates instead of sticking to my original plan. Thanks for all the comments asking if I'll show my monoprints. I promise that if I ever get around to doing some I will post the pictures no matter what - but don't hold your breath.....

More paper and maps.... how unusual....

Spent a few hours in my little shed this afternoon inspired to get on with a few things that have been chipping away at my thoughts. Got on with a book using a map as the base and cut some stencils for some monoprints I'm going to print tomorrow and Wednesday. No surprise then that I started looking at map related things tonight and came across this stop motion papercut animation with the apt title ' A Map comes to Life'. I was intrigued and had to watch it. It's a bit surreal but it works for me!

Spring is just around the corner....

Virtually every blog I've read in the last week has mentioned the 'S' word. We all have Spring fever and cannot wait for it to come. I think the weekend sunshine has lifted everyone's spirits and I got out into the garden today to take a photo of the only crocuses left in our garden. These are the only few that the badgers did not eat! They are a treat and I'm so glad they did not find them. Those orange stamens just sing out and make you think those other bloggers are right.

I also took advantage of the warm weather to bleach some fabric. I bought this 100% linen shirt for a couple of pounds in a charity shop the other day, thinking I might use it in some stitching project maybe. Then I thought about resist bleaching it as it was warm enough to do it outside today , giving me the ventilation I needed. So I cut off one of the front pieces and folded it....

..and then put pegs all around it. (If you're wondering about the writing, I used them to hang up some samples at a workshop I ran last year about felting the fleeces of rare breed sheep.) Then I put the package in a bowl and poured on some thick bleach. I was wearing my gloves so I was able to squeeze the package, but with no discernable effect. After about five minutes I thought perhaps the fabric was just not going to bleach so took the pegs off...

I was amazed at the result. There was no way I expected this. Trouble is, now I want to do it to the other side but have no real idea what I'll use the fabric for yet. Any thoughts?

The Ostrich

Handcrafted paper marionette. Short animated film. Loved it.

The Ostrich from Lucas Zanotto on Vimeo.

Postman's Park

A few years ago I was completing a City and Guilds Sketchbook Studies course and we had to work on our final book using architecture as our inspiration. I'd read about Mary Seton Watts and the work she'd done with local people at Compton in Surrey to build Watts Chapel during the Arts and Crafts period so went to have a look. I was blown away and if you've never heard of it do a search and have a look at the images online. I mention it because Mary was the second wife of the painter George Frederick Watts. I did not know much about him until a chance TV programme last week told the story of Postman's Park and his involvement with it. Of course, since then, I've been intrigued and obsessed with the story and have already read as much as I can find about it. It's a great story - and a very British one!



In September 1887, G F Watts wrote a letter to the Times with a suggestion for commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He suggested erecting a monument to commemorate 'heroism in everyday life'. Thirteen years later this was realised with the unveiling of the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in a small public park in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral. Because of its proximity to the General Post Office it was used by postmen during their breaks and hence it became known as Postman's Park.

The monument consists of a wooden cloister, tiled with plaques commemorating those unsung heroes of civilian life. Orignally they were made by William de Morgan but after his business failed they were fired by Doultons in Lambeth. They are not as good as the originals but it is the memorials themselves that tug at my heart strings. Watts chose the people and wrote the first memorials himself, sadly dying when only a handful had been erected.

Mary took up the project after his death but she eventually phased out her involvement. Today there are sixty one plaques in Postman's Park, the last one being put up in 1931, even though it commemorated the death of Herbert Maconoghu in 1882. The site is now Grade 2 listed so it is unlikely there will ever be any other names added . Those that are there are a mix of men, women and children, each of whom gave up their life to save another. The descriptions on the plaques refer to terrible events like fires, boating accidents, drownings and fatalities on the railways.

These simple statements tell of great sacrifice; of brothers and sisters rescuing siblings, parents saving children and doctors saving lives but it's mainly strangers giving their life to save someone unknown to them. It is hard to read these plaques without a sense of loss. Perhaps it is also because they are 'of their time'. They are so poignant and just make me want to know more about the people they commemorate. My husband and I have now planned a week in London this Spring as I have to go and see Postman's Park for myself. I also have to revisit Watts Chapel and then go to the Watts Gallery nearby and find out more about this philanthropic man.

I've said before that I have a fascination for memorials and the way we mark remembrance but it's not everyone's cup of tea so I've only included a few of the plaques found via Google images.The one that touched me the most though was the only one that included a spoken word:

Solomon Galaman, aged 11, died of injuries, September 6 1901, after saving his little brother from being run over in Commercial Street. 'Mother, I saved him but I could not save myself '.

Heartrending.

Keeping up with the fashions....

This is another little gem from the British Film Archive. I was keeping it up my sleeve for an appropriate occasion but it is so funny I just wanted to share it today. I love the hat with the headlamp. I want one!!