Here we are

My red shoes and I are in Prague for a few days, tagging along with my hero, who is involved in an interesting project.  We took a (very) early flight this morning and were here well before lunch, ready to rediscover a city we last explored 17 years ago, in 2000.  We weren’t really planning on sightseeing as such, but thought we’d simply get our bearings and orient ourselves until our room was ready this afternoon.

Well, from the minute we turned the corner from the hotel entrance, there was one aspect of the city that we did not anticipate.

Tourists!

Hundreds, no, thousands of them!  Young and old, in large groups and small groups and speaking every language imaginable.

Since we were last here, the river cruise business has soared and many of these groups were following guides bearing the names of companies we recognised.

Had we imagined Prague to be as busy as this?  Not at all!  Though we travel quite a lot, we tend to avoid honeypots in high season and simply had not considered a Monday in early May to fall into that category.  We felt pleased that we had not come here with a list of things we wanted to see and do, because after a while, it would surely become irritating!

I know, you’d be surprised how irritated I can be by the simplest of things

I mean, in that one moment above, there are three of my bêtes noires: selfie sticks, ipad photography and those blooming locks on a bridge!  Oh dear, Prague, is this how things will be?

We stood there on the Charles Bridge and watched people for a while.  Busier that Skegness on a summer weekend, we were just going to have to go with the flow.  Take it how it is and deal with it!

So we made our way into the old town square, where we had thoughts of sitting with a cold beer and maybe a bite to eat.  After all, we’d been up since 4.15am this morning.

A rather lovely distraction presented itself in the form of Manufaktura, a sweet-smelling shop with a charming range of toiletries and hand made items such as these Easter eggs.

We browsed a while, noting that although there were crowded streets, the sightseeing groups passed right on by.  We enjoyed this little haven of peace, then!

As we left and continued walking, we tried to recall the name of another, similar shop we remembered from here – or was it Budapest?  Was it called Botanicus?

There was also the distraction of someone’s shoes.  Worn by a Chinese girl, for some reason the style and proportions of this pair made me think of bound feet.   I must say, they didn’t look at all comfortable!

 

On the way to our planned lunchtime stop, we passed the Astronomical clock and, thinking there was an even larger than expected crowd standing, looking up at it, we noted it was 12 noon.

So we joined the crowd, ever aware that this must be prime pickpocket territory.

We watched as the little men popped out and popped back in again, as hundreds of pictures were taken on a variety of devices – my own included – and shuffled off in the direction of the square itself.

Don’t you love it?   (No, we don’t, either)

Our reward came in a cafe in the square; another place the groups just walk on by.  Not only was the beer good but the people watching was pretty entertaining too!

Until the heavens opened…

Thankfully, it didn’t last long, but two or three really heavy downpours sent everyone running for shelter, including the gold-painted men, the various buskers, postcard sellers and yes, even Death himself.

 

Because one of the “living statues”  (irritant #4 !) had been dressed as Death, in black and holding a scythe.  When the rain began, he packed up sharpish and carrying his scythe across the square, off he went.

We sat and watched for an hour or so, as the rain cleared and people came back out.  Three gold men returned and stood on their boxes (Grrrrr) , one blue man did the same and

the bubble man came back!  Who doesn’t love a bubble?!

We carried on a little further too, giving ourselves a pat on the back for timing that cafe stop so well (neither of us had a coat nor an umbrella to hand) and thought we’d just go a little further before turning back towards the hotel, by which time our room would be ready.

So, that’s what we did.  Walk and admire.

Coming back, we chose to use the smaller streets which were quieter and less touristy.

We walked through a small square and the name painted on the building seemed familiar: Botanicus.  Well, how strange was that?

Turning the corner, there was the sign of another Czech favourite brand: Koh i Noor pencils.  I’ll explore Botanicus first, I said.

Oooh.  a huge group of Chinese tourists (I think) were inside, creating a real racket and filling the shop, making it difficult to look around.

They were buying huge numbers of goods too.

Those who were not in Botanicus were in  Koh i Noor…

Or in the shop next door to that, a glass workshop

with some very interesting pieces

There was some serious shopping going on all around here and if these groups are typical, then these shopkeepers are onto a winner, that’s for sure.

For us though, enough.  The cool, calm serenity of our hotel beckoned and a text alerted us to the fact that our room was ready.

I can vouch for the comfort of this little chair!

I love my machines

With one exception, perhaps, because printers are the devil’s work!

Do you remember this?  I’d made a knock-off of a Moleskine Message following a few days in Stockholm and yesterday, whilst mulling over how to capture a few memories from St Petersburg, I decided to do something similar.

Except I’d forgotten how I’d done it and my blog post was a little sketchy on the detail.

I looked closely at those cut edges and knew they hadn’t been cut by hand but using my Silhouette, for sure.  If that was the case, that cut file must be on my computer somewhere then, but it was proving elusive.  Where might I have saved that file?  Not in my ‘Silhouette Cut Files” folder, sadly.

I resorted to the search programs and files facility, but was unsure what to search for.  After a few no files of that name were found reports, I hit gold!  There it was, <moleskine envelope book.studio> in my photo folder for May 2013.  In no time at all, I’d cut out the cover and six pages.  Love my Silhouette!

My next step was to create a few photo collages in Picasa.  At this stage, I didn’t know how many, but simply found a few themes to work on and ended up with nine.  I opened them in Photoshop and resized them all so they’d fit in the book.

It was about now I realised that printing them wasn’t going to be easy.  I took another close look at the Stockholm book and knew I’d printed directly onto the pages and not simply glued in photo collage pages.  Hmm.  Now, how did I do that?

I created a file in Photoshop with the size of the double-page spread and placed a piece of double sided tape at one end.  I set up a print file with the collage sheet in the right place, lightly adhered the cut page on the sheet of paper and fed the whole thing through the printer.

The first one worked fine.  The second one didn’t.  Never mind.  Try again.

I managed to print three or four pages, doing my best to work out where each collage page would fit in the finished book (not easy!) sometimes needing to turn a page to get it in the right orientation.

And then I tried to print on the reverse of an already-printed sheet.  The double sided tape pulled away part of the print.  Better do that one again.

And then the printer began to add a stripe all on its own.  It does things like that from time to time, just to annoy me, I think.

I decided it was time for tea and switched everything off and thought I’d had enough for one day.

I’m not quite sure how I achieved the next step and can only think it was the inspiration fairy who visited me in my sleep!  When I went downstairs to my studio the following morning, the obvious answer to my challenge was staring me in the face.

Print and cut using my Silhouette!

In no time at all, I’d imported each page of photographs into the cut file I’d already designed and sent it to our pesky printer which purred and printed the pages perfectly.  After printing, I fed the sheet of card through the Silhouette for cutting and, amazing machine that it is, achieved a perfectly accurate result.

I love it when everything comes together like that, when the seamless process works perfectly and I can get a great workflow going.

But it was time for the intermediate technology.  A sharp pencil and ruler was the best way to measure and mark the centre fold of the little book.  I clipped all the pages together and, before folding, I switched on my sewing machine and took a deep breath.

I threaded my machine with heavy thread, fitted a jeans needle and lowered the speed.  Slowly, carefully, my lovely machine stitched a beautifully sewn spine.  I wanted the needle to pierce the paper from the right side in, which meant I was working “blind”.

I hardly dare turn it over and look at where the line of stitching had worked out on the other side.  (At this stage, I hadn’t quite noticed that I’d sewn the pages into the book cover the wrong way round!)

Look!   (I couldn’t quite believe it how neat that sewing turned out)

I carefully scored the foldlines to complete the assembly of the book but as I did, I realised my mistake.  Would it matter?  I opened and closed it, flicked through and showed it to my hero, who agreed with me.

It mattered.  It just didn’t “work” with the flap going the wrong way.

So I treated that one as a practice effort and started over again.  I’d saved all the files and it took no time at all to print and cut them all out once more.

I stitched the spine more confidently, for after all, I’d had practice!  When it came to that part though, I double checked it was the right way up, needless to say.

The book was soon finished and ready to have all the bits of ephemera stuck inside.

Yes, of course the Turkish Map Fold features!

Second time around went so much more quickly.  Not only had I worked out the process, I’d managed to avoid the pitfalls too. 

I thought I’d better write a few more details down in my blog this time as well, just so that when I next want to make a little book, I have something to refer to!  After all, I’ve got to keep all those machines working.  I even feel a little warmer about the printer, which worked perfectly with the Silhouette software, leaving me to wonder if it’s the Adobe Photoshop software which presents the problem.

But I’ll leave that one to my Hero.  I know my limits

What do you teach?

It’s a question I’m often asked, especially in relation to workshops like the one on Saturday.  I usually fudge some kind of an answer, because really, it’s not always easy to explain in a single word or phrase.  I have been known to teach all kinds of things (including children, who are not things at all!) but of late, most of my work with the WI centres on display skills.

What?

Depending on the scenario, it might be called “visual merchandising”, “window dressing”, “promotion”, “staging”, “exhibition skills” or simply, display.  It broadly involves putting together some kind of visual arrangement to tell a story or convey a message.  On Saturday, the workshop focused on promoting the WI, the Women’s Institute and a large number of enthusiastic women were eager to gather some new ideas to promote their own WI in their community, but also to increase their own skills and maybe feel inspired to learn more.

Because one of the few organisations still offering qualifications in “display skills” (or “Staging and Interpretation” is the WI.  Woohoo!  Last year, I worked with a professional colleague from the British Display Society to deliver a dozen or more workshops around the country, doing our best to inspire WI members to learn more and yesterday was a direct result of one of those days.

So, what is there to learn?

More than you’d think!  But as my WI had been invited to participate in a village event next month, here was a great opportunity to put something together for my demonstration which will be of real use.  So, after showing a few quick and easy ideas and one rather more elaborate design, I worked through my ideas for promoting Avening WI and put a tabletop display together.  This morning, I recreated the display on our kitchen table and photographed it so that my WI colleagues have something to refer to if I’m not there!

I began with our tablecloth.  We made it for a competition to celebrate the centenary of the WI in 2015 and it’s used at every meeting.  It’s just a panel of cloth which drapes over any size table and is the easiest means of identification.  It also gave me a colour palette to work with.

I was going to need some coloured paper for the backdrop so chose a few possibilities in the art shop last week.  Two of them were immediately rejected – the purple is too blue and not red enough, the yellowish green not yellowish enough.  So, I chose the blue-green sheet and used a Pritt stick to adhere it to a piece of foamcore board.

I use foamcore board a lot, because it’s cheap, easy to get from any art shop or Hobbycraft and being lightweight, it makes it simple to work with.  It cuts like butter with a knife, using a cutting mat and ruler and will stand straight and not bend.  What’s not to love!?

This was to be my backdrop then.  My apologies for the “real” backdrop of our kitchen wall which goes some way to illustrating the importance of having a backdrop to any arrangement.  The brain needs a visual clue to know where to stop; a kind of punctuation mark to set the limit of the arrangement and in my example, it’s this green board.

It’s held upright by means of two more pieces of foamcore with slots cut in them.

You know the kind of arrangement where two things slot together like this?  It works well and the whole thing is sturdy and won’t fall over in a breeze.

My next task is to design something to put on that background.  I’d normally choose a photograph; a close-up of something relevant, perhaps.  But on this occasion, I didn’t want to include a picture of someone recognisable and couldn’t quite decide what image would provide the best information about what Avening WI does.

I decided to make a “picture” from some words.  From a long list of words taken from our programme and website.  I decided it needed to be bigger than A4 though, so the challenge to print it began.  Though I could have taken it to the local print shop, time (and budget) was limited, so I decided to see what I could do about printing it in two parts.

Would it be acceptable?

Well, to tell the truth, I’m not sure.  For a quick demonstration/single use for an hour or so, perhaps.  But really, if I were going to use it over and again, I’d get it done properly. 

I printed it out at 50% opacity, so it wasn’t quite so dominant and used blutack to attach it to the backdrop.  I’d actually prefer to use sticky velcro pads to blutack, but knowing this arrangement would be taken down and repositioned, I didn’t want to risk damaging the paper and went for the “gentler” option.  It does need a good, hard press to keep the blutack in place though.

So far so good.

Oh yes, I’ve got a bit of spare foamcore to put over those supports to create a kind of shelf, which will also give me somewhere to add a bit of weight to hold the whole thing together.  I’ll cover it up later.

So, what story do I want to tell?  What important information about my WI might inspire women to come along and find out more?  Well, one thing about which we are very proud is that Avening WI was formed in 1930.  We have the minutes of the first meeting, too.  I decided that the minute book would prove a bit of a talking point and since there would be someone standing there the whole time, taking care of it, something precious like that was fine to include.  I added an old pair of specs as an accessory, but also as a visual clue to stop people turning the pages!

It fits nicely together and provides a bit of a starting point for the rest of the display.

What next?  A pink scarf not only covers up the foamcore “shelf”, but also draws the eye and links the backdrop to the front design on the tablecloth.

Maybe that’s where to continue the story and place a copy of our programme for the year? 

But how much information to include?  Should I add something about Gloucestershire Federation?  The many campaigns and opportunities for learning offered by our National Federation?  Something about Denman College?  At this point, I knew there was not room for everything, but perhaps there was a way around that?

All of that information is on our website of course, so I’ll simply include the address of that and print out an image of our header.

I was sure I could persuade our printer to print a long image if it was no wider than A4 but sadly, it resisted my efforts.  So, another join was needed.  Aaagh!  In my defence, I think it looked better in situ than it did in isolation.

Now, we were getting somewhere.  A bunch of pink tulips brought life to the arrangement and linked the colour, drawing the eye up from the tabletop to the web header image.  I added a WI centenary mug on the “shelf” and placed the programme alongside, thinking that it had obscured some of the label in the previous position.  I also added a small label backed with foamcore (of course) with the details of our next meeting, which provided a visual balance to the web header which was flying out to the left.

But I wanted something to tell of the 21st century WI, of capable and IT-literate women who embrace modern technology in style.  I also knew from my own experience that a “live” screen, however small, is a real eye catcher.  I retrieved an old mobile phone from the cupboard, accessed my WI website and took a screenshot of the most recent page.  I switched off the screensaver and, to make sure the battery would hold out, I plugged the phone into my little battery clutch bag.

Another change of plan with the mug and programme then, and the phone/battery bag were given centre stage on the shelf – actually the darkest spot of the arrangement, so a great place to put a light source.

Just a couple of finishing touches then – our national logo, an easy identifier and something we’d been chatting about the whole day.  I found the perfect place up there in the top corner.

The other thing was the usual invitation – important to include and a good means of balancing the arrangement too.

I didn’t include a copy of our monthly magazine (sent to members as part of the annual subscription) nor did I include our Avening WI newsheet (because that’s online to read, too).  I’m assuming that whoever stands by the table will have a ready supply of programmes to hand out and hope that any woman who visits the village tea party will feel tempted to find out more and maybe come along to a meeting.

Next one, “From Lamb to Loom” on June 8th at 7.30pm.   87 years later, the women of the village are still getting together on the second Thursday of the month in the Memorial Hall to enjoy an evening of fun and friendship!

Over it

I had a date in my calendar.  You know the kind of thing?  The sort of date which looms large and for which deep breaths are needed.

Not the kind of thing I normally blog about, so really, there’s nothing to see here except for the excellent bear who agreed to come with me.  Suffice to say I’m over all of that now, ready to move on and say thank you for the kind thoughts and good wishes from those who read between the lines here.

Not that there were any lines to read between.

Anyway, it’s been a fun weekend and I loved the small (v-e-r-y small!) chair that had my name on it yesterday, not that I stood any chance of being able to sit on it.   It did, however, make an excellent car park sign .   I was working in the company of Warwickshire WI friends for the day and was very well looked after!

Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow though – I really MUST sort out my studio.  No excuses left.

Close to home

I know from experience that it’s possible to see the wonders of the world and yet miss equally interesting things rather closer to home.  But normal, not on holiday, life involves responsible grown up activity like supermarket shopping, laundry, cooking and cleaning and the idea of a morning “out” needs to be scheduled for some reason, however easy it might be to drop in somewhere on the way home from somewhere else.

So I’ll admit, it was earlier in the week that I made the suggestion to visit the local museum, prompted by a conversation I’d had with a friend at WI and reinforced by an email newsletter of local events I get every week (and normally just skim through before moving to the recycle bin).  That it took all of that nudging to persuade me to even consider a visit says it all, and my Hero’s response said the rest.

“too late to go Wednesday, not good on Thursday but I suppose we could go after doing the shopping on Friday”.   He didn’t actually add the phrase “if you really want to”, but it was implied.

OK.  I know, I could have gone alone but it’s better when there’s someone to mutter to, don’t you find, and it was too late to organise something with a friend.  Friday morning it was then.

Our local museum is in the park, which this morning was filled with families having fun, people playing tennis, a fun fair getting ready to open at lunchtime, a group of people on a day out and some extraordinary flowers.  The exhibition which my WI friend had recommended finishes this weekend, after which the space will be prepared and made ready for a rather larger annual event, the Select Festival.

The Scarlett Red Hare was sitting proudly outside the entrance.

Inside, we headed straight for the textile exhibition.  The work of Anglia Textile Works, celebrating their 20th birthday with work inspired by Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie and other pieces reflecting the red cloth made in and around Stroud. Why have textile artists from East Anglia created work on a theme based on Gloucestershire?  No idea!

 

Not everything was in tune with the theme, however, and as a result the whole exhibition lacked a bit of coherence.  For example, these panels hung side by side.  Some included clear references to the uniforms, having a line of immaculately stitched buttonholes, trims or graphical references to the process of creating the fabric with teasel motifs.  But others were on the Cider with Rosie theme and we couldn’t help but think they could have been hung to reflect this more effectively?

Pieces such as this one, by Sarah Impey and hung adjacent to those panels were a bit out on a limb, having no link with either Laurie Lee’s work nor the fabric of soldier’s uniforms.  that’s not to say we didn’t like it – it just didn’t seem to flow.

Actually, we have both seen Sarah Impey’s work before and have admired her ability to create such even lettering with a sewing machine.  All free-motion machine embroidery too – no computerised letters here (demonstrated by the slight variation in letter shapes – you knew we’d look closely, didn’t you?)

This morning, it was her work which stood out from the rest for us, including this “quilt”

which, on closer inspection, reveals more lettering.  Clearly, Sarah gets plenty of practice in using her sewing machine in this way.

For her work is instantly recognisable.

I’m glad my friend Di gave me the nudge to drop in here though.  There was some fine stitching, some really interesting pieces and whilst we were at the museum, well, we had to look around the rest, didn’t we?

The next room held a small exhibition about Halas and Batchelor, “the largest and most influential animation studio in Western Europe”.  Who knew they were in Stroud?  Not me!

Fascinating.  The best of local history, with a place to share memories too, for many people with a local connection had left their memories of working for the company and recollections of the people and their creations.

Elsewhere in the permanent exhibition, there were the familiar things we’d seen before, if some time ago.  Just as my hero commented “Wasn’t the lawn mower invented in Stroud?”, we stepped inside the room with the story of…you’ve guessed, accompanied by the unmistakeable soundtrack of the summer days of our childhood.  Whilst we were there, we witnessed one of those peculiar scenes of such places though: two women settled into a corner of one of the rooms, discussing their feet!  One of them had taken off her shoes and was describing the treatment offered by her chiropodist in detail, pointing out the variety of challenges the professional had faced.  Wonderful inspiration for the short story writer!

We carried on regardless into the next room, where we looked at one another and asked, what was that?!

Latest developments at the museum include redevelopment of the Walled Garden, which was looking beautiful.

Lovely planting, interesting walkways and beautifully sheltered too.

At the top of the steps there’s a new studio for hands-on activity and to one side, a traditional Auricula Theatre, with a small sign “the plants are not for sale and are here just for your enjoyment”

Walking back to the car park, past beautiful collections of tulips, we decided that we had enjoyed our visit very much indeed and asked ourselves the inevitable question.

“Why haven’t we been here for so long?”