The House of Marbles

Recently, a problem has arisen between Windows LiveWriter, my preferred blogging software, and Google Blogger, and I have been unable to publish any new blog posts since then. Now, thanks to the valiant efforts of a team of volunteers, Windows LiveWriter (which Microsoft is no longer supporting) has been launched in an open source format as Open LiveWriter. The team has been working hard to iron out the various glitches over the past week or so. This is my first post using the new software, and is also by way of a test to make sure everything is functioning as it should. So far, there is no facility for adding categories, but we are hoping for this to be available soon, after which I shall edit this and subsequent posts to include these.

It has been a long time since I posted to my blog. My creative mojo is still distinctly absent, and my health remains about the same – still feeling pretty fatigued and the peripheral neuropathy and other neurological symptoms from my chemo still around, but I live in hope that all this will soon be diminished.

We have had a busy couple of weeks with several meals out and meeting up with family and friends, in the run-up to Christmas. Hoping for a fresh start in the New Year, getting my life back to some sort of normality!

On Monday, my hubby thought we needed an outing, just the two of us, for a treat, so he took me to the House of Marbles at Bovey Tracey.

I do not feel as if my Christmas is complete unless I go and see their wonderfully tasteful (not!) Singing Christmas Tree:

 

The House of Marbles has a glass-blowing workshop, a shop, gallery, museum and restaurant. Plenty to see, and excellent food.

We began our visit by going to the gallery and museum. The gallery has a beautiful collection of art glass pieces which are all for sale.

I love these organic forms.

In the museum they have glass from many periods. Here is some Lalique glass, which I adore – one day I would love to own a piece of genuine Lalique!

Glass eyes!

Some beautiful lead crystal.

On the outside of the building is a series of murals. I love how the little girl in this one is peeping in at all the customers in the shop, and the other girl is pressing her nose against the glass.

In the restaurant is an animated jungle assembly, and this mural depicts that. I am very intrigued by trompe l’oeil (literally “deceiving the eye”) and have done a bit of this myself on the murals I created in our old house. Particularly intriguing in this picture is the way the edges of the bricks are painted to capture the perspective, with the tops of the lower bricks being visible, and the bottoms of the bricks at the top.

This mural depicting a hole in the wall crammed full of marbles on the left, shows that to get the proper effect of trompe l’oeil, one has to stand in one particular place to view it, because although the picture represents something in three dimensions, the drawing itself is flat. You can see that the edges of the bricks, photographed from this oblique angle, do not work, and it looks all wrong! The mural on the other side of the corner shows a real mastery of perspective with the brickwork receding towards the vanishing point somewhere in the clouds. I love how the artist has incorporated the opening times sign into the picture. Unfortunately the Christmas lights in front of this mural are obscuring it somewhat.

Mural depicting the glass blowing workshop. Great perspective again.

Finally, another fun “hole in the wall” mural showing children playing with marbles. I love the kid on the right, wearing the sweatshirt of a local school, and the pair of feet disappearing over the wall in the background!

On the roof of the building is an animated Santa who moves his arm, waving at the customers below.

We had a great lunch in the restaurant (which is part of the old pottery) and I was very unadventurous and had yet another Christmas dinner – turkey and all the trimmings followed by Christmas pudding! (About my third or fourth this year… I am not cooking a Christmas dinner this year and didn’t want to feel deprived.)

My hubby had booked a table because we knew the place would be very crowded this close to Christmas, and we were seated at a table for four. He said to the waitress that if another couple wanted to join us to avoid waiting in the queue for a free table, we would be more than happy to accommodate them, and a delightful couple came to join us and we chatted together throughout the meal. They ended up by giving us their address and contact details and inviting us around to their house on the evening of Christmas day!

When they left and my hubby went to pay the bill, another family came to occupy our place. They were an older couple with their daughter and her baby. The man was a wheelchair user and we got talking about our disabilities and wheelchairs, and I told him I’d had quite a year of it with bowel cancer, and now had a stoma, and he said, “I’ve got one too!” so we ended up talking about that, too! They were a delightful family.

I am always amazed at how many great people one can end up meeting while out and about. Having flowers and decorated spoke guards on my wheelchair has brought so many people over to me, full of smiles and nice comments, and it’s made my day, and theirs. Without decorations on my wheelchair I am overlooked and feel quite invisible.

On the way home we called in on some friends at their business, where they and all their staff and some other friends had gathered to sing carols and eat mince pies! After this we called on some friends at home where we had another cup of tea and enjoyed their company (and that of their relatively new kitty who I had not met before) before returning home. It was such a lovely day out.

Yesterday we had another outing when my hubby took me to Sainsbury’s! It may not sound very exciting to most people (grocery shopping just before Christmas isn’t most people’s idea of fun!) but I can’t remember the last time I went in a supermarket – I always do my shopping online, and for most of this year my hubby has been going out shopping for me. As usual just before Christmas, all Tesco’s delivery slots had been taken so we had to go out to do the shopping. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as I’d expected, and I really enjoyed the experience. As well as the normal weekly shop, we stocked up on a few party bites and treats to have as our Christmas dinner. The only thing that blighted the outing was the fact that it was pouring with rain…

All being well, from now on I should be a bit more active in Blogland, and hopefully I will soon be back in the studio with all my creative juices flowing again.

Recycled Mini-Album Pages–Poem, and an Outing to Paignton Sea Front

The first of two posts today.

Making good progress on the recycled mini-album. This page celebrates my Dad’s love for nonsense verse. He committed several Hilaire Belloc verses to memory and loved to recite them at every opportunity!

These are the materials I used to create the background to the page.

Here is the completed page.

As this is such a short post, I am going to add an outing we had to Paignton Sea Front. We had intended to go somewhere else which didn’t work out, and ended up going to have a look at the sea. By this time it was mid-afternoon with the light already beginning to fade, and the weather was quite strange, with sudden brief bursts of sunshine through rather threatening clouds, with occasional brief showers of rain. This made the light (or lack of it!) quite interesting, and I got some lovely photos. I adore the seaside in the winter, when the beaches are deserted apart from a few stalwart dog walkers. The tide was on the ebb, leaving an expanse of wet sand which gave rise to amazing reflections.

I also took photos of some of Paignton’s more unusual and eccentric hotels on the Esplanade. This is the Redcliffe – I just love those turrets! Really OTT Victorian! Somehow you can get away with more OTT at the seaside – perhaps it’s something to do with the free, holiday spirit!

The Marina Villa. I love those Colonial style balconies and the green copper dome over the beautiful round bay window – what great views of the sea!

Finally, the Recliffe Lodge. More Victorian OTT! Love that pinnacle with all the windows, the double gable with the twiddly bits on the roof.

My final photos are looking back along the Esplanade.

Here’s that seagull, with a a bit of photo manipulation to make him stand out.

After this we went to the chocolate-box village of Cockington with its thatched cottages and the complex of art studios and galleries – I didn’t take any photos there because it was getting late and too dark. We didn’t spend long, and we intend going back another day, perhaps when it isn’t quite so cold. I will leave you with details of one artist we visited, Marc Heaton, who knocks my reputation as Recycling Queen into a cocked hat! We had a lovely time in his gallery and were delighted with the eclectic display of his art, which he was only too pleased to show us – he paints, draws, sculpts, upcycles, distresses… you name it! His work is really quirky and fun, and proves that you really can make art out of anything, if you only start looking at the world in a different way. Here’s a link to his website, which covers his work over two decades, and the evolution of his ideas.

Outing to Plymouth Barbican

Yesterday after a friend suggested she take Mum off our hands so we could have a nice day out together, my hubby and I went to Plymouth for a lovely outing to the Barbican, the oldest part of the city, down by the sea. It is a place full of atmosphere, with cobbled streets and tiny narrow winding alleyways, and a rich maritime history. Along the main streets there are plenty of gift shops and art galleries and eating places. There is a small covered arcade of shops called “The House that Jack Built” and it was in here that I discovered a shop entirely devoted to buttons! Here is a decorative tile set into the floor which took my fancy.

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

and more buttons!

We found a shop that specialised in chocolate sculptures and exotic cakes, and I couldn’t resist this glorious wedding cake with a sea theme.

Here’s one of the chocolate sculptures.

It was a bit difficult to photograph things in this shop window because of the reflections.

Here is a view of the main shopping street.

Some art glass in one of the galleries. The artist is called Richard Glass, appropriately.

This is New Street, which has to be one of the oldest streets in Plymouth – not easy to get a good photo, and apologies for the wheelie bins!!

This is the site of the old Fish Market, which now houses shops and restaurants. I remember coming down here many years ago, very early in the morning, and witnessing the fishing boats coming in, and managing to get some scraps for the cats! I also picked up a scallop shell which had been thrown aside, and which I still have.

The Dolphin Hotel, with its well-known facade.

Another street view, overlooking the harbour.

This has to be one of the oldest buildings in the city. I love the stone work, and the filled-in arches which show how the building has been changed in the past. The roof is obviously more modern, but the chimneys are old, and boast quite a lot of plant life growing out of them!

One of several snickets, known as “opes” with a view of an old warehouse in the distance. You can make out the crane with the pulley, which was used to lift things in and out through the large doors at the top.

Another ope with the Custom House in the distance.

Interesting street sign.

More art glass.

Our afternoon culminated in a tour of the Plymouth gin factory.

This has a very long and distinguished history dating back to the 1400s. It is a small concern but is still producing Plymouth gin in its distinctive bottles, in both “normal” and the stronger “navy” strength. We saw the single still that produces the gin, and in the tasting room, examined all the “botanicals” which go into the gin to give it its unique flavour – not just juniper berries, but lemon and orange peel, cardamom, angelica and other spices! We had a taste, and were then treated to a gin and tonic before we left via the shop, where I bought a bottle of their gorgeous sloe gin – quite the best commercially produced I’ve ever tasted. A lot of people make their own around here from the sloes which grow abundantly on Dartmoor (which the Plymouth Gin factory also uses) and this always tastes a lot nicer than the normal commercial stuff. It was a very interesting tour.

Years ago we had a French lady staying with us, who went on a tour of the factory, and on her return, when we asked how she’d enjoyed it, she replied, “It was bizarre…” and described how she couldn’t understand what was going on at all, with the large copper vessels and pipes and so on – she’d understood she was going on a tour of the Plymouth Jeans Factory and was mystified by the complete absence of even a shred of denim!

The weather was horrible yesterday and it poured with rain on the way over and on the way back, but we managed to escape getting wet, and were able to sit on a bench overlooking the harbour with all the boats, to eat our sandwiches. You can see from the photos how overcast it was, but we didn’t let the weather spoil our enjoyment. We used to live in Plymouth and have always loved the Barbican, and it was fun to return and be tourists for a day!

Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday Day 8–Cirencester–2nd Post–Art Exhibition

As I mentioned in my last post, at the side of the museum in Cirencester is a small art gallery which hosts temporary exhibitions of work by local artists. The current exhibition is on the theme of William Shakespeare, and I think you will agree with me that these pieces are exceptional, and depict the Bard very well, each in their own way. Many of the pieces have an ancient feel but using modern materials, and in a modern style – in exactly the same way as we interpret Shakespeare today!

A mixed-media scroll, decorated front and back.

“Birds on a Wire,” the wire being a quotation from Richard III: “True hope is swift, and flies with swallows’ wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.”

Coiled pot with printed paper, “Love Potion.”

A display of mini-books.

These were so intriguing and beautiful that I had to take a few detailed shots of them.

It is a shame there was so much reflection from the display case, but I did the best I could to capture them. These little books are so exquisite, and so along the lines that I want my own work to progress; I am very attracted to the idea of making art in books which themselves are little pieces of art, not something to be hung on the wall, but dynamic, to be handled, tactile, with texture to be enjoyed.

This beautiful installation displays a series of mini-books in a cabinet. Gorgeous distressed frame.

Again, my apologies for the reflections.

Ariel, the winged messenger.

Details about the exhibition.

Beautiful backgrounds.

A display of mini-books arranged between a pair of masked bookends.

Gorgeous grungey black and white mini-books.

One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition, a paper sculpture entitled “Will Writes.”

I love how the pages of words flow from the end of the giant quill pen and gradually become part of the structure in which he is sitting – just as his original ink-still-wet words have over the centuries become part of the edifice of our national culture. The words are for us all, but it is up to us to draw aside the curtain and dig more deeply to discover the beauty and meaning of the immortal words which transcend historical period and fashion.

There were many other pieces too, mostly paintings and a few more sculptures and ceramics, but I felt this selection best represented the theme to me. I hope you agree that they are beautiful and inspirational – a modern interpretation of the sublime works of our greatest wordsmith.

As with my previous post, this was composed on the following day, as I was too tired on our arrival home last night to tackle anything on the computer! As before, I have kept the date in sequence to make my holiday record complete.