Yesterday in the studio

After the big push at the weekend, I have nothing substantial to show for the days since. Just a few more "boats" with TravelWriting. And a slightly cleaner, tidier studio ... I've been hunting for a spool of invisible thread, but all I can find is the fusible thread (and dozens of spools of other threads) - at least they're all together now rather than in various project bags.

One of the Travel Blankets is ready, apart from finding a very thin and quite strong rod to hang it on - and it would help if the rod was invisible... Starting the next one is a bit of a hurdle. It's meant to be sail-like - or rather, have sail-like markings on it. Obviously the next step is to find some photos of sails, and check out the rationale for the markings.

Meeting some friends from the art course last night, I tried to talk cogently about the TravelWriting project. You know how it is - "I know what I think when I hear myself talk". People had some great ideas for ways forward, onward, upward with this - thank you! So, part of the studio time today was spent thinking how physical maps might be brought into the project. Over on the TravelWriting blog, you can see my first attempt - the Overground route indicated on a map from nearly 100 years ago. This is a London street atlas that predates the now-ubiqitous A to Z. Even older maps are readily available - but that's something for another time.

One thing that's holding me up at the moment is the realisation of all the finishing touches that really will need to be done before the exhibition opens. Not just gathering and boxing up and transporting everything to the gallery, and hanging up dozens of the Sky Boats, and reconstructing the Journey piece from the foundation show - also writing words about the various pieces, pricing things, getting a card made that has my contact details, mounting the little textile pieces (indeed trying yet again to find canvasses the right size), deciding whether to display any of the long textile pieces. Fortunately Tony "only" has to hang his photos, and he's well ahead with having them ready, so he's started on the list of works - which of course can only be finalised once we've decided what's where. Are labels needed as well? I have a master list but even so there's not guarantee that something important won't be forgotten...