Dream House

Museum Collection at Kelvingrove

While delivering a workshop at Kelvingrove Museum today, I got the chance to get some close up photos of animals and animal bits from the teaching collections within the education department.

The skull to the left belonged to a rook. The bottom one is a humming bird.. it was tiny, the head is actually pea size, its mental.

Charity shop curtains

There are loads of fabrics and products in general, out there at the moment, doing the whole shabby chic thing. The trend is kind of coming to its end now, but I'm still seeing faded toile prints everywhere, annoying - only so, because it means I have to fight so much harder to make my textiles special.
These anyway, are a pair of curtains purely aged and worn with time.. which is such a lovely thing. They're covered in sun spots and watermarks and in areas the colour has been almost completely bleached out. Honestly though, these aging affects can be created, so I had to sneakily unpick the seam to compare the unexposed fabric to confirm the aging was indeed natural and not man made! The curtain hooks were all scuffed and ancient looking, so thats another clue.
While I find all of this interested and perfectly normal to ponder over with myself... I can't help but cringe a bit as I write this!

Botanical Treasures

I spent an afternoon rummaging around the Old Town book shop on Victoria Street in Edinburgh. I could spent days on end in places like that, but couldn't really afford to spend an afternoon there at all, let alone spending money on books and prints. And I did walk away with a print, but did so begrudgingly, as I had to walk away from the most amazing book, of which the above print formed part of. I can't remember the name of it now, but its a very rare thing... a heavy leather bound book about 8" thick, catauloging all variety of botanicals, and including a mass of hand drawn and painted plates. The guy in the shop got all excited when I explained what I was looking for initially (pre 20th c prints of plants and animals), so spent ages looking out books for me, all of which I couldn't afford, including this one. This book was stacked up high out of reach in one of the cabinets, and I felt all special having it bought out to view. Before he opened it I told him I knew it would be way out of my price range, but he insisted I see it. He said he knew how much I would appreciate it though, so really wanted to show me this one in particular. He was right, I was beside myself knowing I would have to leave it, it was gutting.<p>
Very kindly, he let me take photos before I left. I took more, but these are the best.

Helena Bonham Carter

I'm a big Tim Burton fan anyway, but I have always seen Helena as my style icon, even before these two got together. I just adore her image...  Also, this is a great photo, so its here for that reason too