Lost in Lace

We've been in Birmingham, to hear the CBSO, but went early so we could take a look at Lost in Lace, the new exhibition in the Gas Hall of the Birmingham Museum.

What a terrific show! Fairly small but in both our opinions, perfectly formed. The definition of lace is stretched, for sure and in the Gas Hall gallery there isn't really anything at all conventional - but there's structure and holes and in most – but not all - cases, thread.

How’s this for starters?  Michael Brennand-Wood’s “Lace, the Final Frontier”

Or this, “juxtaposition” by Suzumi Noda, created from the cards used on a Jacquard loom.

We were so lucky to have the gallery almost to ourselves, so could stand back and admire this beautiful panel by Piper Shepard, made using hand tools and created especially for this space, I learned from the catalogue.  Breathtakingly beautiful and a stunning creative response to one of the exhibits in “the other” exhibition, over in the main part of the Museum.

This piece of point de gaze lace from the permanent collection here in Birmingham was once owned by Mrs W A Cadbury and it’s clear to see how it could inspire – well, anything!

We’d just walked past the new library construction and had commented on the decorative finish already in place on the lower floors,so seeing the display here in the exhibition brought the lace connection home. 

We especially enjoyed reading the background notes, which were concise and explained the artist’s thinking so clearly, in terms that we could understand and appreciate – no PCT here!  In particular, we liked the notes which accompanied the piece above by Katharina Hinsberg

(we loved the work, too!)

An afternoon well spent, we both felt (because although my Hero doesn’t normally go in for lace, he enjoyed the exhibition as much as I did.  His favourite was Nils Voelker’s “Forty Eight”, and if we install a living, breathing wall in our house, you’ll know where the inspiration came from!

Of course, we had to go and look at the original lace too, where beautiful pieces of exquisite hand-made lace from Mrs Cadbury’s collection were displayed alongside other treasures of similarly breathtaking quality. 

 

This exhibition has been so carefully thought through and so cleverly put together, that it’s hard to see how anyone couldn’t find something of interest.  There are lace trails for families to follow through the picture galleries and a space at the rear of the Gas Hall with resources and things to do.  Best of all, there’s an iphone app!

No, best of all, the exhibition is totally free of charge.  How lucky are we?

(the concert was pretty good, too)

Learn something new

“Prumnopitys is a genus of conifers belonging to the podocarp family Podocarpaceae.”

Having taken a photo of the nameplate beneath the tree, I simply had to look it up.  With such a magnificent name, it had to be something special, didn’t it? 

In spite of its exotic heritage, it looked perfectly happy in deepest, darkest Buckinghamshire, too.

An extra hour to spend

A weekend in London to enjoy a night out with friends meant that extra hour came in very handy!

(photograph from the gallery to be found on the WarHorse website)

We’d heard a great deal about WarHorse.  I’d even read the book, though that was rather more years ago than I might admit to ;-)  But though we’d muttered about going to see the play in the theatre it took the initiative of some good friends for us to actually make it to a performance.

Oh, how ingenious those set designers are!  Set on a wide, very open space of a stage, somehow they evoke the settings which make up the story with the absolute minimum of props, backdrops or anything else to get in the way of the main feature – the horses.  There’s a “torn piece of paper” across the top of the stage, where the proscenium arch would be if there were one in that theatre – and on that space are projected drawings taken from a sketchbook (you can see it here)  This was a really clever device with a real link into the story – it’ll be fascinating to see how this is translated into the Steven Spielberg film – a rather different sketchbook makes an appearance on the trailer to be found on the website, btw.

Whilst I’m sure the film will be an enormous success, the comparison between the sketchbook in the trailer and the one in the stage production is emblematic of the (necessarily) different approaches.  In the film, it appears the story is spelled out in far greater detail and like the drawing in the trailer, little is left to the imagination.  On stage, the sketches are exactly that – brief outlines, hurriedly drawn shapes which nonetheless provide sufficient information for the viewer to work out the bigger picture for themselves.  The stars of the show – those two large “horses” are clearly not the real thing – and yet, somehow their movements, mannerisms and behaviour are so very well observed and recreated that for a while, they cease to be a framework with three men inside.  What’s even more clever is how, with a few simple changes, they age and become battle scarred too.

For me, the simpler, more artful stage show will more than suffice.  Every award which has come the National Theatre’s way as a result of this production is well deserved and I’m delighted we got to see it at last!

Today, on the way home, we enjoyed some of the wonderful Autumn colours whilst visiting Hughenden Manor, home of Benjamin Disraeli.  Friends had recommended the place to us and though a fine half term Sunday afternoon might not have been the best day to choose to visit, we don’t often find ourselves in that neck of the woods and it was too good an opportunity to miss.

The house is lovely and on very much a human scale.  Of course, being Victorian, it’s also rather dark.

And oh my, didn’t they love “stuff”?!

Of course, The Queen herself played more than a walk-on part in the story of this house, having paid the first Royal visit to a private home when she came here to see Disraeli, we were told.  Her portrait hangs alongside that of Prince Albert in the Disraelis’ bedroom, each with an authenticated original signature beneath it, too.

I liked the way some of his quotations were shown on the window blinds.

We couldn’t help but smile at this one, paired with the second part in the window opposite.

I also took advantage of one of the National Trust’s new initiatives to remove some of the barriers and involve visitors, by shuffling the cards a little.  No time to sit and have a round of whist, sadly.

And no space in that photo for some bon mots from the man himself.  It was only when I arrived home and reviewed my photographs that I realised that I have completely missed the quotation.

Ooops!

Later

Just as I’d downloaded and printed out this the doorbell rang.  We had visitors!

Soon, small hands were busy cutting out scary-cute rabbits.

Felt pens were found to make the most of the “design your own” rabbit and a reel of sellotape kept handy for speedy repairs to accidentally snipped off ears.

In no time, we had a string of Halloween bunting for our porch.

The hand-coloured rabbits are our favourites, of course.

We also have a little gang of scary-cute figures to adorn the hall table and a bunch which might find their way onto the tops of some buns on Monday.

What fun!

What a difference a day makes

A different soundtrack altogether this morning.  Anyway, a bit of Hugh Jackman can’t be a bad thing on a Friday morning, can it?

It’s one of those days when we find ourselves looking upwards and referring to flightradar24. The plane in the picture is a Singapore Airlines flight from Changi Airport to JFK via Frankfurt, by the way!

I couldn’t stop taking photos this morning, though.  The mist in the valley and that bright blue sky above was captivating.  Chilly, for sure.  Damp underfoot too, with dripping leaves and slippery paths.  But absolute heaven to stand and stare.

As the sun rose in the sky, the landscape changed, minute by minute.  Who needs to travel further afield to see autumn colours?

I took another photograph.  And one more, just in case.

Then, came in for a hot drink and some (late) breakfast, taking a look at the polar bears on the way (all my own work, made a few years ago on a stone cutting course at Denman College, by the way)

Now?  time to go out again and take some more photographs!