Arting about in Bermondsey

"The glassblowing place" always has yummy things to look at - this time among them was this "Dragon Boy" by David Reekie -

 which has much to do with Norwich Snap Dragons -

 At White Cube, the cause celebre was Marc Quinn, with painted, taped, and printed canvases mounted on aluminium sheets and then crumpled and tossed about (but look at the reflections in the smoooooth cement floor) -

and cast metal, beautifully polished ... one piece was an enormous wave and the straight lines on the floor reflected in interestingly wiggly ways ... but could I be bothered to get out my camera? (oh dear...)

 Walking briskly, we dropped in to the Bankside Gallery, which has a biographical exhibition about Agatha Christie (till 6 Sept) ... including her typewriter ... on the way to tea on the Dazzle Ship, where a stiff breeze kept almost all the wasps away -

And on the way to Fleet Street to find a No.4 bus, came across a good display of the history of that famous centre of printing and publishing -

Sad to hear that St Brides Library is about to shut down - what will happen to the books? Ah, it says here that there are no plans to sell or give them away...

Blast from the past - a table runner

Sometimes the samples made in workshops turn into "something". This strip was printed in a masterclass with Els van Baarle in 2007 at Festival of Quilts. The flowers are shapes made of wire and dipped into wax; the squares were once a foam brush, cut into "teeth" - one dipping gives a lot of wax prints -

 Pink, red, and purple were added, with more waxing between each -

When as much wax as possible was ironed out, I liked the stiffness and didn't bother getting it drycleaned to get the rest of the wax out, but added wadding and backing, then put it under the machine and finished with a few french knots.

Friday Late at the V&A

We were at the V&A for "Shoes: Pleasure and Pain", late in the day, and on emerging from the exhibition found that the bar was open!

So we sat a while and took in the scene - the museum transformed by lighting, music, and people (many people!) doing non-museum things -

Having seen the exhibition, we found the shoes of considerable interest -

"... and pain"

As well as the characters -

"Free Hugs", he offers

 Red, or rather vermillion, seemed to be omnipresent -

... flashing past

...on the special programme cover

... and in this group of posers with their photographer

Gravestones

Back and front,  Escomb Saxon Church -

"Here lieth the body of Ralph Simpson, who departed this life September the 19 Anno Domini 1729"

These two are near each other at Dryburgh Abbey -

"Folly" - art at Fountains Abbey

Overlooking the Georgian water garden, at tree-top level, in a "grecian temple", the Temple of Fame, is theatrical designer Gary McCann's "Lost Property" - collected from visitors, the lost items provide sustenance to fantastical creatures which have taken up residence in spaces previously controlled by man (or so the "Folly" leaflet says!)

Further along is the Octagon Tower -

Inside, Irene Brown (curator of the Gallery of Wonder) has installed a Hall of Mirrors - infinite views and the illusion of endless perspective - it feels like you're in a kaleidoscope -

We didn't have time to see Simon Costin's "Curious Tale of the Professor & the Temple", but it's intriguing to see that he's launched the Museum of British Folklore.

A short video giving a taste of the Follies is here, and the exhibition continues till 29 November.

(Poetry Thursday is having a brief holiday!)

Medieval tiled floors, Fountains Abbey

And elsewhere:

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

Before starting to draw A45 I had a long close look, and read the description in the catalogue of armour -

The vocabulary! - helmet, yes, but what's a buffe, or for that matter a cuisse and greave, pauldron, gorget ... the poleyn wings and couter wings of the visor? This is a specialised world, another sort of universe...

Here's the outcome of a morning's work. He's looking a bit grumpy because not only is he more asymmetrical than he should be (especially that withered right leg!), but his feet have been cut off and he's lost a hand. I did love adding in the little rivet heads -

When it got too daunting, I noted down some shapes from across the room, especially the chain-mail sleeve and the sallet with its interesting buffe (A189)

or else tried to decipher the swirls of the rapier handle from a distance -

All distraction... but eventually A45 was complete, if asymmetrical, and it was time for coffee and seeing what the others had found.

Jo focussed on some non-armour and then "in the spirit of the thing" delineated this fellow in mere moments -

whereas among Mags' studies of rapiers - including a page of their blades - was this exploration of various drawing materials -

Cathy caught the gleam of metal and the interesting armour for a horse -

 and Janet worked on a companion piece to the back-end-of-a-horse done at a previous session here -

At home, curious about the names of the various bits, I found a relevant book -

part of the British Museum's "Medieval Craftsmen" series, published in 1992, at which time it was selling for £6.95 - now it can be had for £23 or more online, whew!

I added a couple of sets of armour from the book to my page of diversionary sketches, including one that didn't have arms because of being shielded during jousting.

Sorry about the dull photo - between them, the camera and the computer are on all sorts of last legs, desperately needing replacement.