margaret-cooter: February 2018

28 February 2018

Snow day!

This morning, a quilted roof greeted me - and a clear sky at sunrise -

The garden plants, some still maintaining autumnal blossom, were transformed -

During woodblock printing class this morning, at times the snow swirled thick and fast -

followed by quiet times and even a return of the blue skies -

During the sunny times, some stained glass lying around the classroom made for a wonderful sight -

Transport was in chaos. Oh dear. And Storm Emma on its way... we're not done with quixotic weather just yet.

Did I mention - it's cold? That easterly wind is flinging the polar air mass in our faces.

27 February 2018

Drawing Tuesday - St Martin in the Fields

Having set the meeting place, I went first to the National Gallery and got no further than the mosaics in the entrance - perhaps it was the lure of the empty bench, and the conveniently placed "Christmas Pudding" (not the sort of thing you expect to find on an art gallery floor) -

My view was upside down, so I turned the sketchbook around to draw, and it all worked out somehow -

The colours were what I happened to have with me; the perspectival distortion is "curious" ... and it took close inspection to realise that the missing letters were there - olive green on grey - tonally too similar to spot from a distance.

A couple more of the mosaics - most commissioned from Boris Anrep in 1928, and more in 1952 -

Across the road to St Martins crypt - lovely arches -

As we waited for everyone to get their lunch, Janet K quickly drew this view, having spent the morning on a more conventional "straight on" view -

Najlaa treated herself to a session of brass rubbing -

Carol was upstairs in the church, looking at the architecture, including the window by Shirazeh Houshiary -

Jo observed a quiet(?) drama taking place nearby -

Sue persevered with the bricks, and was rewarded by someone coming to sit just in time for her to put him in the empty corner -

Joyce got some cafe customers in perspective -

Extracurricular activities
Najlaa brought along some experiments with bleach and different types of paint -

26 February 2018

Thames21 litter survey

Down to the Hammersmith riverside on Sunday to check how much litter has been washed up in the past month.

A cold day, but sunny, and thank goodness there wasn't much wind. Lots of people were out walking along the river, and two people acted as "ambassadors" to answer their questions, eg, "What are they doing".

Setting up the transect - 1 metre squares

The survey starts at the top of the old dock and each team did two squares.

Finding non-organic material

Recording the items in the categories on the sheet was quite a job - and someone will be tallying them all up, for the record. Here are some of the "miscellaneous plastics" we found -

The survey took all the allotted time (two hours) so there wasn't time for a general cleanup, which is the bit I enjoy - getting that rubbish out of circulation. Making room for more, some would say....

25 February 2018

Starting at the middle and working upwards

The first thing I learned yesterday - really, this is something we're told time and time again - roll with the face of the quilt on the outside. As you can see, I didn't - when unrolled, the bottom half was very creased; it'll be ok, it was rolled only for a few hours, and the quilting will sort it.

A view of the back, after a bit of tidying up. Still lots of dangling threads!

In a tangle

Late-afternoon sunlight

Evening - and under the needle again - must get to the top, time is running out -

It does seem to have gone more quickly later in the day, after hours of practice. It helped to be able to stitch a few rows, then deal with the threads, then go back to stitching. I listened to a lot of History of English podcasts, and a new one, Naked Genetics.

This little heap gathered, over the course of the day -

Next step - go back to the middle and work downwards. It's taking rather longer than I thought, isn't that sometimes the way?

Today's dilemma - to keep on with tying the threads, or to start gluing in hopes that will be faster? But is it the tying that takes the time - the threads still have to be pulled through to the back, and those that have been sewn over have to be released. Trouble is, my fingertips are very sore. Should have used tweezers ...

So that's another thing I've learnt: have the right tools, avoid sore fingers. Also - use handcream, it helps with the tying not to have rough fingertips.

24 February 2018

Ogling the objects

So many gorgeous objects at Collect ("the international art fair for contemporary objects"), this year as in previous years.

Apologies for the blurry pix, there seems to be an issue with uploading from camera (pix taken on usual phone) to computer (google photos, where they are sharp) to Blogger (which has had "enhancement" problems in the past). I'm investigating...