Monday miscellany

A little local library in London
(see unexpected pix of other London libraries here, and library/archive info here)

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Nadia Myre is a visual artist from Montréal, Québec and a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. She has beaded over all 56 pages of the annotated Indian Act (with the help of more than 200 participants) between 2000 – 2003. (In 2005 she started The Scar Project, an ongoing ‘open lab’ where viewers participate by sewing their scars—real or symbolic—onto stretched canvases and write their ‘scar stories’ on paper.)

A monograph featuring a richly illustrated collection of Nadia’s installation, photography, sculpture, prints, beadwork, drawings and video work from the last fifteen years is available. 

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London by water (via mappinglondon.co.uk)

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Another lovely comment on a blog post - "I just now cannot go away your web site prior to suggesting that we incredibly relished the normal details someone supply in your guests? Shall be back again continually to examine new discussions" ... can't figure it out, can you?

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Agave lace (also called aloe lace) - it's made from fibres taken from this cactus, by Benedictine nuns on the island of Hvar, Croatia. At last report, 13 sisters were still making the lace, each with her individual style. Legend has it that it was based on a sample of lace brought back from the Canary Islands (specifically, Tenerife) in the 19th century - hence the name "tenerifa", the netted variety - the sample above is filet crochet (more info here). The agave in Europe produces a finer fibre than that in the Americas, which is used for rope-making.

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Spineless Classics - pages from the book (perhaps one you've not read) are now available as an evocative poster.

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Braided rivers are, says New Scientist (pp 39-41; photo via NASA Visible Earth), "a tell-tale sign of a landscape with little or no life". Here's how it works: deep-banked, meandering rivers depend on plant roots to slow the erosion of their banks and keep them from spreading. Without those roots, rivers cut through their banks and become a network of braided streams. These are seen at the foot of glaciers or in deserts. During the Permian mass extinction, aout 250 million years ago, rivers abruptly changed from meandering to braided.

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Is there a Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Fabric? (via)