Ho hum..........again....

Well, this winter is proving to be very long..........the snow came early and is being regularly topped up, but at least it has given me time to be in the studio working on a piece of art or two.

I was wondering what I was going to write about as I haven't posted for a little while, not because I don't want to, just haven't had too much to ramble about, so, I think we should carry on with restoring our china/ceramics.

Has everybody got them to a point where they are nice and dry? Good, then it's on to the next step. You will need a roll of magic tape, it's not as strong as Sellotape, and will come off easily. Right the next thing to do is to take your plate or cup or whatever it is, is it in several pieces?, if so, then you will need to just try placing the pieces back together to see how they fit. The reason for doing this is that you will work out the correct order when you come to glue them back together, nothing worse than finding you've locked a piece out.

This rather lovely plate came from the Maling factory and was in two pieces. "Easy!" you cry, but not necessarily. China has a memory and when it breaks it relaxes, so it is possible that the edges wouldn't meet exactly. It was not unknown for one end to be a perfect fit, and the other end to be stepped, that is, one end higher than the other, but there were ways of dealing with this which will be discussed further - if I haven't lost you already, I'd hate you all to be comatose.

So I think we will leave it at that for now, I will let you just tape the pieces together with no adhesive and then we will come back to it and see where we go from there.

This lovely teapot was interesting as I had to get the husband to help open the large area up so that I could get the piece back in as it refused to slide in and wouldn't fit. Heart in mouth moment I can assure you!!

It's actually quite fun to go through these processes again in theory, I'm amazed at how much I remember, but, I don't think I want to do it as a career anymore, although people still hand me things as they think it will take me five minutes to repair it. I really should look at what I have in the studio and clear it out. 

I have a total of four airbrushes and books of gold leaf. For those items that were gilded, gold leaf was supposed to be used to finish them, the only problem was that it didn't matter which colour you bought, it was never the right one and never matched, always to shiny compared to the gilding you were trying to match, and trying to use it was difficult. You didn't breathe as the gold leaf was likely to fold in half and it was a beast to cut pieces, then you had to create static by rubbing the paintbrush on your hair and then gently attracting the gold leaf to it, it practically leapt onto the hairs of the brush. In the meantime, you had put a very thin layer of glaze on the area of repair and then you would have to coax the gold leaf to leave the brush and sit exactly as needed. Don't try this at home, it's very frustrating and using gold leaf took years and years and years of practice to do properly. The usual way of gilding was to use Bronze powders, but we'll get there later.

I was working in the studio on a piece the other day, fabric that is, when I had the brilliant idea that I would use some of the gold leaf on my work, it's just sitting there doing nothing so why not? It took me three days to do not too much and I kept breathing at the wrong moment but at least it is on there. I will keep the finished piece for another post complete with gold leaf.............

Watching paint dry........

So... how is your china? Oh, still in soak? Well it should be ok by now, let's have a look. Yes the dirt has drifted off the break, just give it a gentle rub with an old toothbrush and then leave it to dry on a towel. No, don't wipe it, leave it to air dry. How long for? Well, I usually leave it for up to a week, that way I know it will be dry, and you see how the water has soaked in the break line on that earthenware piece? Well, that has to dry before you can re glue the piece otherwise you will lock in the water and it probably won't stick.

Oh you can't get that stain out? then we need to mix up a solution of Peroxide and Ammonia, just a few drops of ammonia, be careful not to get it on you, then take strips of cotton wool in tweezers and dip it in and then lay it across the break, leave for about 20 minutes and then remove it, make sure to rinse the plate well to stop the process, then leave it to dry for a week or so.

Well, what shall we talk about now? How long does it take to restore a piece?, can be 6 months to a year depending what's in the studio, yes, I know it seems a long time, but there are other things going on as well and I could have up to a dozen pieces on the go.

That's the first step, if you like, in the long process of repairing a damaged item. So we will come back to that at some point in the future, by the end of it you will all be beavering away repairing your own pieces, and I will have taught you all via my blog! I did teach this at an Adult Education Centre and really enjoyed it, I had almost 30 students - not all at once I hasten to add, but I had a steady class of stalwarts and continued this for almost 10 years.  One class was taught at a centre not far from Gatwick airport, and the other two classes were held in the village of Lingfield. I know that some of them still get together once a week to work on china, it was a very social thing, my oldest student was 90 and an absolute sweetheart, Martin was always very dapper in his dress, cravat, sweater and jacket and an absolute Gentleman. I have to admit that I really loved the Lingfield classes, for no other reason than we would all take it in turns to go to the local bakery for the mid morning coffee snack and they would all sit and work away and chat about the daily goings on.

I, on the other hand, never got time to sit down.

From the time the first person walked through the door and said,"I was working on this piece the other day........", that would be it. My time was spent sorting out their queries and walking around the room checking on what they were doing, they would insist I stopped for coffee otherwise I didn't get it.  I was once told that my epitaph would be, "it needs a bit more filling.......", as that was what I normally said.

When the husband retired, I said he could come with me. He was always surprised when I said how tired I was at the end of the day, and what was I doing? I couldn't be that busy, I obviously wasn't using the time wisely.

I soon put paid to that notion when he came to the lesson and said, oh, I didn't realize that you were that busy! Yes, I am. He would sit quietly working on some china that we had at home of our own with a view to repairing it and chatting to the others. One day, he was despatched to the local newsagents store for packets of Smarties. Discussion had taken place on the fact that the orange coloured Smarties tasted of Orange, there was some dissent from this, so hence the husband's errand, a pack for each person and then we all opened them and started the great Taste Test. Yes, there was a definite orange flavour.

It was with this group that I took them on a trip to Stoke on Trent. I always felt, and still do, that to understand how to repair it, you need to know how to make it. I used to love going to Stoke, or rather the five towns, Stoke, Hanley, Fenton, Longton and Burslem. So much history was in those towns although, even then, the Pottery industry was pretty much dead and buried.

One of my favourite places was the Gladstone Pottery Museum. An original pottery with bottle kilns, a paint shop and it was here I learnt about a saggar makers bottom knocker. Saggars are clay containers that they would pack the china in to fire in the kiln, they would then be carried into the kiln and stacked carefully until the kiln was full. The most important job in the pottery was the fireman, he had to know when the kiln reached temperature and the timing of the firing etc., a lot rode on his shoulders. I used to try and imagine what Stoke must have looked like at the turn of the 19th century and in the 20's and 30's, there was virtually a kiln in the back garden of some houses as there were some very small family potteries, which didn't survive, but it must have been such hard work competing with the bigger factories.

It should also be remembered that the paints contained lead so death from lead poisoning want unusual, just a hazard of the job. I met somebody who used to work at the Minton factory, and we were talking about the paints and colours. There was a particular blue that was used by Minton's, and he said to me, "It were a lovely blue, but it killed a lot of people". (As an aside, now that production has moved to the far east, one wonders about the working conditions in these factories in the present day, are they any better than they were in the UK in the early 20th century? After all, we are berated for buying clothes from certain stores which use labour in India, and then suffer because of bad work practices such as the collapse of buildings etc,etc,. I'm afraid it won't stop me buying Joe clothing though).

I thought you might like to see some of the work I did, not too bad even if I do say so. I was thought to be quite talented, but I am one of those annoying people who can see things in their head and how it should look, so I am never satisfied!

Capo di Monte figure, one half of his eyeglass was missing, so I made it and replaced it.

This was another project I could really get my teeth into! Jobs like this always made it worthwhile, You can see what is missing from the first photo, and what I had to work with from the second.

The poor horse was legless!

Photos slightly out of order but you get the idea.

Gouda Pottery, a real favourite to restore, this is a candle holder and shows the repair started around the centre and on one of the smoke outlets

The start of the painting!

Well, I think you are all doing very well and we will continue this lesson. Once the ceramic has dried, we will look at the different adhesives and how to approach the re glueing of the object.... that is, if you haven't fallen asleep...............

A OK

Today was a fun day.

I got up late, which is very unlike me, I'm very much an early riser, and I was supposed to be in Ailsa Craig for 9 am.

Well, that was never going to work, so in the end I was there a little after 10 am. (So what? This really is of absolutely no interest,  but I suppose you have a tale to tell. Well, yes I do actually.)

I had an email from my friend Jane last week asking if I would be free for her annual AOK day. (Gosh, I'm beginning to switch off here, could you get on with it??)

Jane is one of those lovely people who attracts fabric and other things, just because people think she might be able to use it, and so she developed the AOK day. It stands for Acts Of Kindness and she rents Ye Olde Town Hall for a couple of days and then invites several fellow sewers to join her in making items to go in gift boxes which are then given out at Christmas time by the local Food Bank. Over 200 gift bags were given out last year, stuffed with goodies made by Jane and her merry band.

Got your interest now haven't I?

When I was first invited to join this intrepid band, I was making a trash bag for a quilter gift, it was for the quilts of Denmark show, and I gamely threw myself into it until I, just as gamely, threw it across the floor in frustration. I was trying to get a piece of plastic tube through a hole and join the two ends, It wasn't until Jane looked at it and told me the reason it wasn't working was because the plastic tube was too short, that we both decided I would be better making pin cushions, which I did perfectly, stuffing them and hand sewing the enclosure.

When it came to last years Christmas AOK project, I went along and she asked me to make a cute little bunny which was stuffed and had a little fabric circle for its hat, and was stitched in such a way to make it stand up....... only when I did mine, its ears were decidedly odd, its hat didn't quite sit right and it didn't stand up but rolled gently onto its back much to everyones amusement. That's when Jane gently pointed out that I hadn't quite stitched it correctly.

Neck pillows stitched by yours truly

A beautiful bath tote made by Jane

I swear she must go and breathe deep into a paper bag when I gaily reply that I would love to come and help her. This year though, I said if it involved straight stitching, then I was her girl. And so it was today that I made a total of nine neck pillows. I was quite pleased with myself, but humbled when I saw what others were tackling, but I know it causes great amusement amongst the others when they watch the pickle I get into!

Aprons

Bag

More bags

Sideways picture of Jane's jewellery hanger

Another of our intrepid band had knitted 50 pairs of slippers in different sizes

I am always impressed with the set up for this day. Everything is pre-cut, all we have to do is pick it up and stitch it, it is all laid out on the table in neat little piles with a plastic folder containing the pattern, just take one and leave them for someone else. I am always amazed by how she puts this together. A large tray of threads in different colours, buttons, ribbons, batting, you name it its there, all we need are our sewing machines and basic sewing stuff.

The filler used for the neck cushions

Reels and reels of ribbon in every colour

I asked Jane if she would mind if I took photos and post them on my blog and she had no problem with it. I think I have a bigger problem with the fact that we have to do this because there is such a need.

I love Christmas, its one of my favourite times of the year, but it is always sad to see others who don't have such a happy time. Another very good friend has had a lovely idea for next Christmas. She thinks it would be lovely to hire the Church Hall and cook Christmas dinner there and have her family and me and the husband there too. 

She then wants to invite others who may be alone on Christmas Day to join us.

I think it's a wonderful idea but certain family members are totally against it. As she says it's not an open house for any wandering minstrel, but if they turned up, she wouldn't turn them away. There are so many people who have family Christmases prior to the big day, that, when it comes, they are totally alone, she just felt it would be nice to include them, they may not even come, but wouldn't it be nice to know that there was somewhere you would be welcome if you wanted company?

I leave you with that thought.

Quilting's Cool: Go Big or go Home.................

Quilting's Cool: Go Big or go Home.................: I was thinking the other day, as you do, about our friends in Northern Ireland, Jim and Heather. We still keep in touch on a fairly regula...

Go Big or go Home.................

I was thinking the other day, as you do, about our friends in Northern Ireland, Jim and Heather.

We still keep in touch on a fairly regular basis by phone, and we have seen them since we moved out here. I can't tell you why the following story popped into my head, except to say that it involves them, and it had to be the silliest time we ever spent together.

The husband used to go to Northern Ireland on a fairly regular basis, if it was Tuesday, it must be Northern Ireland sort of thing. Jim was the husbands agent there, so they would go off and see customers together, talk business etc,etc,. On many occasions I would fly out on a Friday and then we would all enjoy the weekend together. We also used to go over every New Year, as they would always have a New Year's Party to which we were invited, and it became quite the joke as Heather used to be smitten with a stress migraine on the day of the party, and I would invariably end up doing most of the cooking. The evenings were very jolly and Heather usually perked up as it went on. It was always the joke that "the caterer's were coming from London" for new year.

A couple of times a year, they would come and stay with us, and for some reason I was thinking about one particular occasion when they came over, and we went to France for the weekend.

Heather was in the process of having her kitchen remodelled. Some of the work had been quite major, and every time we spoke there was a new tale to tell, usually quite hilarious. The work had more or less come to an end at this point, and so it was that we decided it would be nice to go to France. I had at some time, bought a useful little book on "Factory Shopping in France", and the husband and I had been over at some point, and found our way to the Le Crueset factory. We told Heather what deals we had found there, and this was partly the intention of our trip in that we would go to the factory shop whilst there.

We went on the Chunnel so we were able to take the car, and had booked a really lovely Chateau Hotel through a club that we had signed up for which got really good deals on hotels and travel, so it wasn't in the same league as Relais et Chateau, but not bad. The Hotel was lovely and we had a very pleasant room and it was maybe an hours drive from Boulogne. Details of where it was have faded from my memory now annoyingly, (why does that happen when you leave somewhere you lived most of your life? There is so much I have forgotten), but I can see this huge Chateau in my minds eye and discreet and pleasant staff.

So there we are. We awoke the next morning and had planned our day around visiting Le Creuset. I do remember that it was quite a drive to get there, maybe a couple of hours, and the area the factory was in seemed to be around the back of a small town, with an uneven car park, and a small low building which was the factory shop. In we troop. On our previous visit, the husband and I had bought a couple of pieces to go with what I already had at home. I love Le Creuset, and had a full set of pans, and a couple of casseroles, if you know it you will know how heavy it is, but it lasts for ever. Although I now have new pots I still have my original set which must be thirty years old now. We had also discovered that they spoke not one word of English, but we managed to make ourselves understood to each other, and worked out from what she was saying that different countries went for different colours, e.g., the Brits loved the Flambe Orange whereas another country would prefer the deep red and so on. Very interesting to know what the nations psyche was up to.

Anyway, Heather was looking at pots, and had decided that she would go with a deep bottle green to match her kitchen, so she picked up a pan here, a pan there, when Jim said, "Sweetheart, have whatever your little heart desires! Get the casseroles as well!" So we are now in a flurry of activity as she is choosing all sorts of pots, frying pans, casseroles, my head was spinning. Jim looked at the husband and asked if we could get this home to which the reply was yes, of course. So the transaction was done, one very happy friend got what she wanted and the husband and Jim were left to load the purchases into the car.

It was at this point that the husband said to Jim, "When we get this home, how are you going to get it back to Northern Ireland?" It was at this point the blood drained from Jim's face and then they both started laughing hysterically because he had absolutely no clue!!!!! Oh well, we'll work something out.

Once back in the car, this fact was relayed to Heather who was then, through her laughter, worrying that she had bought so much. Don't worry, says Jim, we need a new ski bag and that should be big enough to put it all in,and with that thought, we continued our journey back to the hotel.

We duly met in the Restaurant of the Hotel for dinner, and were a little subdued as we were all so tired. The restaurant was quite large and there were a few other diners quietly having their meal, and we sat there quietly when all of a sudden, we got the giggles.

 It's bad enough when one person does it, but when four of you start laughing hysterically, it's even worse. The service was very good, and they were infected by our good humour. When the main course was brought to the table, the plates were covered with big silver lids, and then a great show was made of removing all the lids, voila!! There was your meal sitting on the plate. For some reason, that set us off again, and by this time the repartee was flowing thick and fast.

We managed to get through the meal, and were then asked if we would like dessert? Oooh, yes please, may we look at the menu? We duly ordered from it, and sat there waiting. By this time we had managed to clear the entire restaurant, so we were the only patrons left. Would you really want to have your meal with four maniacal idiots? No, I thought not.

As we awaited this wondrous delight to appear from the kitchen, we suddenly heard the most enormous sneeze. This set us off again and I jokingly said that it was probably my dessert that was sneezed over, all we could hear from the kitchen was laughter. Eventually one waiter and the maitre d' came out and with due aplomb, removed the silver lids while trying very, very hard not to laugh. By this time we were almost puddles on the floor, with the kitchen staff peering round the door enjoying the joke too.

The next morning we were due to go home and we had the car loaded and ready to go. The husband was busy paying the bill, and mentioned to the maitre d' who was putting the transaction through, that he would love to know what they were laughing at the previous evening, he was swiftly told, "No, you would not", which almost set us off again.

The journey home continued uneventfully, and we stopped in Boulogne at the Carrefour supermarket where Jim purchased a very large ski bag, and then we continued the journey back to London. The next morning the husband went to work and left me to sort Jim and Heather out as I was taking them back to the airport.

Jim had packed the Le Creuset in the ski bag, and was standing there practicing how to pick it up without breaking into a sweat. We loaded everything into the car and off we went to Gatwick. We found a cart for the luggage and wheeled it to the check in desk for their flight back to Belfast. There was a short queue with a very irate passenger at the front of it who was arguing with the check in desk about her overweight luggage. Eventually she went off to pay her excess baggage and the girl looked across at us and said she could help.

Here was the big test.

Jim gamely lifted their suitcase on and then the ski bag. "I'm sorry sir, but your luggage is overweight".

"Oh! I didn't think there was a weight limit on domestic flights". (Try that one now and see if you get away with it).

"Hang on, I'll ask my supervisor", whisper, whisper. "No that's fine sir, it won't be a problem".

You have never seen three people walk away from checking in baggage holding each other up as their sides ache from laughing so hard....................

The Musings of a China Restorer..............

I have just been going back over past posts. Not something I do, but I just thought it would be interesting to see what I had written, the title really doesn't give away too much.

One post I wrote said that this would be MY last year as Workshop Director of ACCQF. How dumb was that!? I can reassure you that it won't be, as I'm having way too much fun, and things will be easier as I now have an International Consulting Committee, so our title will be ACCQFICC, (or if it's easier, "aquafik" as opposed to Aquavit which is a Danish Schnapps).

I had a lovely day yesterday, which sort of led me back to my older posts as I had friends visiting for lunch. They were interested in seeing my studio. Lunch was wonderful, and we had great food, conversation and even let the husband join us for a little while, then we all trooped downstairs, minus the husband. I showed them some of my work, and then we started talking about china /ceramic repairs, did I have any I could show them? Well only those I did for my diploma about 20 years ago, but like most restorers, you never did your own work, bit like the shoemaker's children.

I thought I might bore you to death with this post and explain in a little more detail the finer points of Ceramic Conservation.

I sort of fell into it almost by accident. At the time, I was trying to make a living as a dealer in 1930's china. The only thing was I wasn't very good at it and didn't always buy the things that people really wanted to buy, but on the other hand, as a collector, I collected some pretty choice pieces. I had high hopes for the pieces I did buy, and some good items came my way but were damaged. Well, that was a shame, and they were not as easy to sell because of that, so...........oh look, The local Adult Education brochure has landed on the mat. I wonder if there is anything interesting? English, French, computers.... now lets have a look at the Arts section.,oh, dance, watercolour Acrylic, well I can't paint so no point, oh, what's this? China Restoration? A one day class on a Saturday to let people try it out with a view to them signing up for a full course, well, what do you think husband, shall we give it a try?

I spent a bit of time running around collecting bits for the class, broken ceramics were not a problem,  it was the materials needed, and off we went. There were quite a lot of people there, and our tutor was a lovely elegant Dutch lady called Blanche. She explained what we would be covering during that day, which wasn't much really, but just gave a taste of what it was all about. I obviously enjoyed it very much as I signed up for her class which ran every week for a school year.

Blanche was fun to be with, and had a class of about 12 eager students.  She explained how to take old repairs apart, clean them  etc,. etc., but, if I explain how she did it, it negates my post, I want to tell you how I did it. Anyway, I was with Blanche for about a year, at the end of which she said to me, "I have taught you everything I know, you can go off and restore for other people". Well, that left me a little scared and nervous to say the least.

I had a subscription to the Antiques Trade Gazette which arrived faithfully every Tuesday morning without fail, and was something I read avidly. It listed upcoming Auctions, Antique Shows, viewings at Auction houses nationally and in London and Auction reports.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would visit Auction houses in London just to be able to see things I could never afford, and to handle them. My area of interest as mentioned was Art Deco, and I also liked Art Nouveau, but Deco ceramics were my thing. I could generally be found at a specialist sale in Christies South Kensington viewing Clarice Cliff,  Susie Cooper and any other number of bits and pieces, silver, jewellery and anything else that was on offer. I had some very good buys for our own collection, a Susie Cooper plate painted with a Scottie dog which had been bought by a friend on behalf of someone else who didn't come through with the money, so I was able to take that off his hands, another time, I was able to purchase a Wilhelm Wagenfeld glass tea set after the sale as it wasn't sold during the auction. I still have it, and the surprise is that it is as light as a feather, there is no weight in the cups or saucers and they are so delicate. Anyway, I digress, it was through the Antiques Trade Gazette that I stumbled across an advert for a China Restoration Diploma course to be held at Burton Manor College on the Wirral. If your wondering where the Wirral is, it is that piece of land that sticks out between Liverpool and North Wales and looks a bit like an arm on the map of Great Britain.

It was a two year part time Diploma, and would mean me travelling up every six weeks from Friday to Sunday and a week long Summer School. So off I went.  I was very nervous the first time, and found my way -pre GPS- and checked in, the college was residential and quite old fashioned as a building, it had been the home of the son of William Ewart Gladstone.

Burton Manor College  photo by Nigel Cox

The main building housed the students and we sometimes had our classroom in there too, there was a dining room and we were fed well. 

My tutor was the lovely Helen Potter. Helen was a wonderful restorer and worked for Museums as well as doing private work. She also taught Botanical painting which I did a couple of times with her. We became very good friends and I would often go up and stay with Helen, who lived in a delightful cottage behind a Hotel in Wallasey with her Mother and her daughter. The cottage was just lovely but small and had originally been part of the coach house of the Hotel, it was down a very narrow lane with a very sharp L turn and enough parking for one car only. I used to sit with my eyes closed if we went out anywhere, as Helen and her Mother were no taller than four feet nine inches, and they would reverse the car out into the street around this L turn, (it wasn't even a curve but a definite L). As I am five feet nine inches tall, I felt like a giant in this cottage. Helen's father had renovated the cottage and it was lovely, the stairs were open plan wooden planks and no hand rail, both Helen and her Mother, because they were short would come down in stilettos, I would crab walk sideways and I wore flat shoes.

But back to restoration. The weekends at Burton Manor were  also very social, there were a couple of ladies who came down from Scotland, so it was a bit of a competition to see who had travelled the furthest. Helen stayed over too, so the evenings after class finished were quite riotous with laughter and one evening, we stacked all the furniture in the sitting room along the walls while a couple of them got their accordions out and Helen and the teacher of Massage, who was Scottish, taught us Scottish Country dancing, it was hilarious as we had no clue what we were doing, but we gamely threw ourselves into it.

Now Helen and the husband share the same birthday, albeit some years apart, but she always referred to him as her "bruv". One weekend, the husband came up to Burton and took part in the class. He and Helen were standing in the queue for lunch, and Helen said to the chef, "have you met my twin brother?" The husband was standing right next to her. It is worth bearing in mind that the husband is over six feet tall and dark haired, and as mentioned Helen was 4 feet nine at a push and blonde. Chef looked at the husband and said he didn't know how he lived with her!! We thought it was very funny.

I tried to do a fair bit of homework in between, and generally went up with items in various stages of repair, but tried hard to keep to the curriculum. The week long Sumer School was great fun, and we did colour charts. I'm sure some of you might be thinking this is so BORING, but trust me, knowing how to paint a colour chart and use it has stood me in good stead.

My first colour chart and colour wheel below

We used 7 colours to create almost 200, and also did a white chart which was even harder. When you look at ceramics,- and I mean REALLY look- you find that white is not white. I think most people who know nothing about restoring think you slap a bit of white paint on and thats it,  so what's the problem? Well white contains more than white, Titanium white is the purest white, so that was always my base colour and then you looked harder and could see other colours in it. The basic recipe was always Titanium white, Raw Umber and Cobalt Blue in varying degrees, try it and see what you come up with. Use the white as the base, and add the other two in small increments, dab a tiny amount on your white china and see if you can match it- I dare you. it's not as easy as it looks, but after 20 years I'm (almost) a dab hand at it.

The white chart

I redid the colour chart a couple of years ago now, but it didn't hurt to go through the exercise again. We all see colour differently which is another good reason to do it, for some reason, my colours are always pale, although I dress in much richer shades  

I seem to remember uproar at painting the charts, there were one or two who felt that it wasn't necessary, but I am so glad I did. Even if I couldn't match a colour from them, it pointed me in the right direction. But, I am jumping way ahead here. The first thing you need to do is to wash you pieces, so hot water with just a dash of soap is in order.....................

Reflections on a show.........

Well, I've been home since Sunday and have had even more time to reflect on Houston. It's interesting how a show can do this to you. By the end of the ACCQF  I am so exhausted, I can't think straight.

I live 30 minutes away from Ailsa Craig, so I clock up around 1,000 k on my car that week, running backwards and forwards every day, taking teachers to the show, running errands if they need things, collecting lunches, bringing everything back, blah, blah,blah, the list goes on. I'm not looking for sympathy, it's just something that I do for the love of the festival.

We have up to 60 volunteers a day at the show, a huge number for a small town and shows the commitment of everyone involved, and makes the Festival the success it is. I was struck by this thought when we were in Houston. Cathy and I had left our bags to be picked up later, they were getting heavy, and when we did, we were  chatting to a lovely young man who had taken our tickets. I say young, he was probably early 30's, and as I'm only 23 (not), it seems young. He told us how he really loved the quilt festival and looked forward to it every year, he helped to hang the quilts as well as doing the bag thing, he just loved talking to us and looking at the quilts. On one of our many trips around the quilts, I was struck by several young men who were working as Quilt Angels and helping people to see the quilts, who, when they were on their own for a little, stopped, and REALLY looked at a quilt that had caught their eye. Not just a cursory glance, but really going in for the detail and soaking in the workmanship, I was very impressed by this.

Cathy and I came across a group of children in the SAQA exhibit, who were filling out a questionnaire on the quilts, why did they like it? what drew their attention? why? etc., again, I was enthralled by the fact that the children had valid reasons and comments to make. We asked them questions, and again, a Quilt Angel, male, came up to them and asked questions and drew their attention to a detail they may not have seen. The kids were about 11 or 12.

Every year we invite schools to come and see our Festival, and every year we are disappointed that none turn up. Some children are brought by their mothers and I think, enjoy it, but would it really hurt for a school to arrange a quick trip, or car pooling to bring them to see something they may never get the opportunity to see again? We are thinking that we will prepare a similar questionnaire this year at Festival, last year we did cards which had views of the quilts in close up and as a whole and sent the kids off to find them, and then they came back to us to claim their Smarties, but we have no idea how many actually did look at them all.

That's my soapbox finished for tonight, but I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the fact that it's not just women looking at and making quilts, there's a whole untapped market out there.................