Monday 1st February, the builders arrived and spent the day, shoving the furniture about. The Megado they did not move but wrapped up in plastic sheeting. By the end of the day, all the cracks in the ceiling had been repaired and there had been a lot of making good. I spent Tuesday in London and got back late to find all the electrics had been done in the bathroom and the new light installed in the kitchen. The first coat of paint is on so it begins to look civilised.
The trip to London with Rosie Price went off very well. Train to London, coffee in Paddington, Rosie arrived from Reading only a few minutes after me, Tube to Handweavers Studio. This is the first time I have visited the new shop and have to report that it is light and airy and full of desirable goodies some of which I had to bring home. The largest white kops are tencel (30/2 and 16/2) which I am going to dye and then, at long last, weave up some of the lovely yarn bought from Just Our Yarns. The difficult bit is going to be selecting a colour to dye the yarn and dyeing with Procion MX dyes. My sister, Dorothy, says she will help when she comes down to help with Michael's coming home. On the right is some more 2/10 cotton (green and yellow) which I need for Margaret Roach Wheeler's course in May. The spools on the left are (from left to right), blue filament silk, ecru Z-twist tencel, blue and aqua Como silk (for binding Japanese books), black high twist wool (52/2). The two fat spools at the front are fancy glitter yarns. I bought some of these years ago when they were at Alexandra Palace and have used it all up weaving fabric for Christmas cards. I have always wanted to try out Z-twist/S-twist weaving. They did not have any matching S-twist but I remembered that I have some 120/2 silk which will do. We spoke to Wendy Morris there who said she had hopes of sourcing some Z and S twist of the same weight from Japan. So the whole exercise has added several projects to my lengthy list!! Rosie spent a lot of time trying to match yarns and found some really nice yarn.
After an hour (or two) there, we got on a bus, sat in the front seats upstairs and admired London. unrolling before us. What a higgledy-piggledy collection of architecture! Got off at St Pauls and walked across the Millenium Bridge to Tate Modern. I had not realised that Rosie was a member so we got into the members Lounge on the 6th floor and ate lunch while looking at the view
The building on the left is the one at the extreme right of St Paul's photo.
After rest and recuperation, we viewed some of the galleries. I had not realised just how much there was in Tate Modern, Braques, Picassos, a Dufy (very cheering up), a room full of Andy Warhol, a room full of one oversized table and two chairs. The chair seats were about six foot off the floor. We saw the Thirty Pieces of Silver which is 30 circular collections each of 30 pieces of silver which have been steam rollered flat and then suspended from the ceiling. It is well-lit from above and so casts very clear shadows on the floor. The silver is cutlery (forks cast nice shadows, teapots, a trombone, silver cake plates, a toast rack. They had trouble flattened a candle stick and clearly abandoned the idea. Each circle is suspended so it is plane. Must have taken a lot of time to get everything suspended just so.
Rosie realised that we were cutting things fine for me to catch the 1722 home so we scuttled back across the Millenium Bridge - doesn't sway - what a pity. I will admit to sleeping on the train. Got home at 2000 hours.
Today I must try to get through some odd jobs but I have bookbinding this afternoon and the first job is to sort out what endpapers I am going to use and back a piece of my woven silk with fusible lining ready to use as a book cover.
There has been an interesting discussion on Cally Booker's blog about what constitutes publication and whether a blog is publication. I disagree with the HGA ruling that blogging is not publication.
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