My Latest Obsession

Remains of the Day Journals

2010-08-15T13:45:06Z

Well, long time no see. I've been a bit neglectful of this blog over the past few months; mainly due to having a lot of other things going on in my life like, oh, publishing my first book and walking the Coast to Coast foothpath.

Anyhow, I thought it was about time I blogged about one of my latest obsessions: handmade journals!

I bought an online class called Remains of the Day from Mary Ann Moss, having spotted the most beautiful, scrumptious journals on someone else's blog.

The class was fantastic, and I am so in love with these things. I've only made two journals so far, one for my Mum and one for a friend. But I've enjoyed every minute of it and really hope to make more.

I find making these so satisfying for several reasons.

I love the combination of fabric and paper.

I love the inclusion of sewing, and the way that sewing onto paper makes it look and feel special.

I can use up all those little things I hadn't found a home for.

I absolutely love the satisfying feeling of using up scraps of paper, like business envelopes and so on.

I like how the sewing part is easy and care free, the more the better. In fact it's meant to be scrappy, not perfect.

I simply adore the look of the journals.

I think I would make these all day long if I could.

And I want to make one for me as well when I have time!

How long does it take to write a book?

2009-12-31T14:23:36Z

As you may know I've been co-writing a book called Reclaiming The F Word: The New Feminist Movement (to be published by Zed Books in June 2010), with Kristin Aune.

I've been thinking about how long this book has taken. This is only my experience, but it has been going on for absolutely ages! I know that others have a much faster time of it.

Here's the timetable so far:

2001: Set up The F Word website.

Sometime in 2003 (I think): Kristin and I discuss writing a book together. Originally going to be a collection of third wave feminist writings, highlighting the new feminists that we saw active in the UK. Proposal was drafted, but didn't go ahead as we were both too busy.

2003-2007 Running The F Word

Jan 2007: Handed over The F Word to Jess McCabe. Now had more time to spend on book idea!

Feb 2007: Out of the blue, contacted by Margaret Hanbury agency asking if I'd be interested in writing a book. Weird coincidence, but a promising sign. (It amused Kristin that I am next to Katie Price in their listings!)

Mar-April 2007: Draft proposal, speak to various feminists about ideas for book to make sure we're on the right lines.

May 2007: Finish proposal, send to agent.

June-July 2007: Write first draft Chapter, send to agent. Sign contract with agent.

August - December 2007: Agent sent proposals to various publishers: get rejections

January-March 2008: Re-write proposal and new draft chapter in response to feedback received. Agent starts sending out again.

May 2008: Start working on questionnaire survey and taking it to events.

July 2008: Get interest from Zed Books.

September 2008: Sign contract with Zed Books. Work out writing plan with Kristin, and off we go.

June-September 2009: Take a career break to concentrate better on the book (and also do other stuff too). I'm very lucky to work for an NHS Trust which has great flexible working policies, and that I had enough savings to enable me to support myself during the break. Alongside writing, we also have to do data entry and coding for around 1265 survey responses, and analyse the data (with help from student Rose Holyoak). Meanwhile, Zed are developing the book cover and publicity material for 2010.

October 2009: Handed in first draft to Zed. Back to full-time work.

November 2009: Collapse and go on holiday. Rest a bit, wait for feedback from Editor and from expert peer reviewers.

December 2009: Re-writes of manuscript based on all feedback. Having to make lots of cuts as went over the word limit a bit. Meeting with Zed staff to discuss marketing and publicity - a bit overwhelming but they are all lovely and have lots of great ideas.

January - May 2010: Attending conferences, events etc, writing articles, developing website www.reclaimingthefword.net which will host some of the survey data.

June 2010: Estimated publishing date.

July 2010 -> Probably other events, conferences, journal articles etc.

If you're tired reading that, think how we feel - maybe in 2011 I'll finally give myself a break!

Jill Magid, 'Authority to Remove' at Tate Modern

2009-09-10T16:39:54Z

Today I happened to be at Tate Modern of the first day of Jill Magid's exhibition, Authority to Remove.

This is a very minimalist, sparse exhibition with little actually on show, but it is totally fascinating.

Magid was asked by the Dutch secret service in 2005 to develop an exhibition for their new building, as the Dutch government required part of the money to be spent on a new art installation.

She set out interviewing members of the secret service over a period of time, gradually developing art works and documenting the interviews in a manuscript which eventually became a sort of long, fascinating novel of her experiences that she obviously was very proud of and attached to. She became increasingly involved in 'The Organisation' to the extent of being vetted and undergoing some training in order to better understand the humanity of the individual people involved.

When her final piece was shown in 2008, agents confiscated some pieces of work after the exhibition had opened, and heavily redacted her manuscript which by then she had hoped to publish as her first novel, called Becoming Tarden.

They told her they wanted the manuscript to be returned to secret service ownership.

'We want you to think of the book as an object of art. We will redact it and put it inside the vitrine with your notebooks where it will remain, permanently.'
You want me to put it under glass so that it will no longer function as a book but as a sculpture?

'Yes.' He blinks his eyes rapidly. 'It becomes an object of art.' The Director follows this in a soft, imploring voice. 'Will you consider that, Jill?'
Epilogue p.187

The redacted manuscript is allowed to go on show only once, as a one-off exhibit.

This is that exhibit.

What you see when you go in is some letters between the artist and the secret service as they negotiate the agreement. There are some neon installations showing phrases that she gathered during her research, such as (I can't remember them exactly so these are paraphrased) 'The man on stage with the trumpet is the spider in the web' or 'I can burn your face' (which in secret service parlance means to expose the spy's secret identity).

There is a single copy of the manuscript. Once you've absorbed the full story, it becomes like a magnet. It's a hefty manuscript, and the white space where paragraphs and words have been redacted give it a poetic aesthetic. A single white page with a few sentences left in the middle; or a page where the words scatter downwards.

As I deal with the Freedom of Information Act in my day job this had an extra element of interest to me. Redaction is fascinating. It obviously makes you wonder what was taken out, so in some sense perhaps you are focusing on the gaps rather than what's actually there.

You know you'll never, ever get chance to read the manuscript ever again. But there's no chance you'll ever read it here either. It's really long. There's only one copy in the exhibition. And you can't sit down and read it. So you stand, flicking through the pages, catching a phrase here and there, as if to try to absorb something from it. It seemed really well written and probably would have been a really fascinating book.

Inside the exhibition space is a small room filled with large posters on which the artist has inscribed short sentences, all to do with secrets, spies, etc., such as:

Prove the white raven does not exist

...it sends a shiver down the spine.

So - definitely recommended. But then I would always recommend a trip to any of the Tates.

Other exhibitions I popped into today were Scale on Level 3 which includes a giant table and chairs (everyone in the room was smiling) and No Ghost Just a Shell, which was an exploration of a Japanese manga character - but I found that a bit too weird for me and it didn't really inspire me or convince me.

Here's a picture of a previous trip to the Tate:

Photo of Tate Turbine Hall from bods used under Creative Commons

A story about hiking boots

2009-08-28T16:45:00Z

I want to post about how great Berghaus hiking boots are. I love them!

First of all, a bit of background.

These are my old boots (before and after being cleaned!). They're Brasher ones. I must have had them for about, ooh, fifteen years or something like that. I've done a lot in them. See, here they are on the South Downs:

Obviously other people liked them too, because for some unknown reason, the photo below is the 21st most viewed photo of mine on Flickr (and a long time it was higher up in the list). Goodness knows why.

But they've been old and cracked and worn for a few years, but I've struggled along because:

a) new boots are VERY EXPENSIVE.

b) every pair of new shoes or boots I have EVER had in my life has caused my feet to rub, blister, or even bleed. Maybe I just have funny shaped feet or something, but basically, it's not a case of breaking the shoe in, it's my foot that has to be broken in. After a while, the shoe feels okay. So I've resigned myself to this as a natural process of wearing new shoes.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I decided to take the plunge and I bought these Meindl boots which cost over £100:

I had tried them in the shop and a bit around the house, and they seemed okay. I had a walk in them and they seemed a tad uncomfortable, but due to my past experiences I just assumed this was 'breaking in'.

So, I set off on the last two days on the South Downs Way.

It was a disaster! By the end of the weekend I was literally hobbling in agony. My ankles had swollen up like balloons and my big toe had turned black. It was really bad.

There was nothing wrong with the boots themselves and I'm sure they were fine, but they were obviously too small for me.

I was very fed up, it was such a lot of money to waste.

They've been sitting in my wardrobe for ages waiting for me to finally get around to putting them on Ebay.

So, for a while it was back to the old, leaky and sponge-like but comfortable stalwarts.

Then, this year we walked the West Highland Way, and as we prepared for the trip, I knew I couldn't go walking in boots that seemed to suck up water.

So with trepidation I went shopping.

Andrew had bought some Berghaus boots a few years ago and had had no problems with them. They had been great. Also, he had a really brilliant BBC discount which we could take advantage of... so off we went to the Covent Garden store.

The man in the store was very helpful, but I was nervous. I basically had about a week until we were going, and all I could do was wear them around the house a lot more than I did last time. If there was a problem, I'd have no choice but to revert to old-leaky boots.

My new Berghaus boots are the ones in the middle in the picture above (photo by Bods).

So how were they?

I couldn't believe it.

They were PERFECT.

In fact, they were probably the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever worn (in other words, not needing to be broken in at all).

The man in the shop had told me that Berghaus now prides themselves on customers not having to break in boots, and that you can basically wear them 'out of the box'.

It was true!

Berghaus boots are great.

And my old boots? I'm hoping to turn them into flowerpots. They have some good memories.

They can be retired, and grow flowers. They'd like that.

Snoopers Paradise

2009-08-22T14:21:50Z

Yesterday I went to Brighton. It's a lovely place and I just love all the really interesting shops around the North Laine section.

I ended up stumbling absent-mindedly into a shop called Snoopers Paradise, a massive antiques place / flea shop. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

Oh my gosh. It was HUGE.

It was perfect for people who like rummaging around in antique/second-hand junk. Like me.

I must have spent an hour in there at least. Every time I turned a corner there'd be more stuff to browse through.

Boxes of old photographs and postcards. Old books. Old clothes. Vintage magazines and jewellery. Scraps of old lace, ribbons and buttons. Wow.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with.

Vintage linen tablecloths! Yeah yeah, I know they're not ironed. £6 the pair! We didn't have any tablecloths but we do now!

Vintage lace bits and a pretty hankerchief (actually I got that from a different shop nearby, truth be told). The lace thingumibob on the right is a bit oddly shaped, but I thought I could use it for some art/quilt/sewing project of some kind.

A book called 'Jane'. I have plans for this...

Some vintage french silver embroidery thread.

Bits and bobs I'm going to use for gifts:

An old needlepoint picture, slightly bedraggled. £5! I like the colours. I'm sure I could do something with this. Maybe make it into a cushion or something like that.

Another linen tablecloth. This one is a bit rust stained and not in as good condition, but I like it anyway. I might try to see if the stains will come out - if not, I could use it as a furoshiki cloth or something like that.

As a laid the table for the photos, I finally realised what the funny shaped lace thing was for:

I love Snooper's Paradise!

My first ever items for sale!

2009-08-16T10:40:16Z

I'm selling some stuff on Folksy!

It's very exciting. I've always wanted to sell my crafts, there's something that really appeals to me about it. So, I finally got around to setting up a folksy shop and putting some lovely things on there.

I've started with these card holder wallets. They're quilted, embroidered, and embellished with ribbon, buttons and vintage lace. I really enjoyed making them.

Pricing was a nightmare. I read up on various formulas, worked out how long it took to make each item, and it was a lot longer than I expected, due to the slow and detailed hand embroidery on each one.

I feel the price is realistic and fair considering the materials, how long it took me to make not to mention the amount of time it takes to photograph, uploaded details, package nicely and post.

It's definitely not a business plan though... these are way too time consuming. Next time I might make something simple!

And you know... if no-one buys them, I don't really mind actually because these are so lovely that if they're left over at Christmas some very lucky people will be getting these as presents...

Mixed Media Calendar Project - March

2009-08-11T12:12:04Z

Right, one more to show today!

Step 1 - Paint a scrap of fabric with blue paint. Stamp with text.

Step 2 - Glue down page with old handwriting on it. Paint over with pink paint. Randomly print white paint with bubble wrap. Make extra piece which will fit over the bottom of the page. Glue fabric to bottom.

Step 3 - Fit paper to bottom to form pocket. Print with stamps then remove.

Step 4 - Print page with same stamp but with white gesso this time.

Step 5 - Glue down image, and glue down pocket.

Step 6 - Attach button to flower, glue on at top.

Step 7 - Glue ribbon onto edge of pocket

Mixed Media Calendar Project - February

2009-08-11T11:34:10Z

Here we go with February's page!

Step 1 - Glue down pages, brush over with a light coating of gesso so writing shows through.

Step 2 - Punch out small tags from paint colour sampler thing.

Step 3 - Assemble bits and pieces. Stamp letters onto tag shapes using ink that will stay on all surfaces (otherwise it will smudge off). You can see the ink I used in the photo.

Step 4 - Glue everything down and attach pre-made tag.

Mixed Media Calendar Project - April

2009-08-11T11:13:21Z

I'm skipping a few months since I have to sort out the photos for the February and March pages, so let's go straight to April!

Step 1 - Glue down torn bits of paper. I had to stick on a lot this time to cover up some overlapping pieces from the other side.

Step 2 - Paint over with gesso.

Step 3 - Scrape acrylic paint over page with old credit card. Stick page on top and rub down, let dry a bit, then pull off. Some of the text will be transferred. Tears bits of blue handmade tissue paper and stick down with gel medium. Rub a light blue pastel around the the edges to colour a bit more.

Step 4 - Stamp bubble wrap pink paint randomly. Rub around edges with lilac colour ink pad.

Step 5 - Make mini envelope from transparent paper. Stick on old stamp. Print with confidential stamp from Cavallini. Cut piece of handmade fancy paper to fit inside envelope. Stamp background with script stamp. Brush over background with a bit more gesso to lighten.

Step 6 - Stamp and glue down letters along side.

Step 7 - Make little note for inside envelope.

Step 8 - Drawn around letters with white pen. Brush over with gesso. Glue down envelope.

Still needs more on that, but I'll come back to that later on to finish properly.

Mixed Media Calendar Project - January

2009-08-07T14:52:00Z

Step 1 - Get watercolour sketchbook. Glue together two pages with gel medium.

Step 2 - Glue on ripped pages from old book randomly.

Step 3 - Paint over with gesso and let dry. Sandpaper a bit.

Step 4 - Paint some scraps of fabric with acrylic paints.

Step 5 - Paint page with acrylics. Paint onto a bit of bubble wrap with co-ordinating colours. Stamp onto page randomly.

Step 6 - Stamp JANUARY onto the scrap of fabric. I used an ink pad called Brilliance in Twilight colour.

Step 7 - Get various bits and bobs and try them out in different positions. Sandpaper the sticker and butterflies to make them more distressed. I cut out the leaf form from a bit of paper - the leaves are a bit fuzzy, like felt.

Step 8 - Stamp randomly over page with script rubber stamp (same ink as before). Smudge the edges of the page with silver drawing ink. Glue down fabric. Glue down other items. Put silver glitter glue onto leaves for added interest.

This will be an ongoing project so is not totally finished. Hopefully I'll try to post more as I go along.

Quilted Card holder

2009-08-03T12:39:57Z

I made a quilted card holder (for credit cards, or in London, maybe an Oyster card).

Here is one side:

I really love this fabric.

I really enjoyed doing the embroidery in particular.

The other side:

A close up of the button closure:

And the inside. Shown with my Oyster card plastic holder inside!

Obsession No. 295 - Mini Art Quilts

2009-07-31T12:10:15Z

Yes indeed, I have a new obsession! Inspired by Sew Somerset magazine and various other lovely sources on Flickr e.g here, here and here... I got the bug and simply HAD to make one myself.

Here's the results:

So do you like it?

It was actually a lot of fun to make.
I whipped this up in about a day in total.

It's possibly going to be a wall hanging, but could be made into a cushion cover, or put onto a bag or even a large book.

Amusement from Wife and Home Magazine

2009-07-27T10:09:16Z

I bought two copies of 1947 Wife and Home magazines from a vintage shop recently. They're very amusing, and a real eye-opener. One the most interesting thing about them are the adverts.

For one thing, the names of the products are so bizarre, it's like they're from a foreign country. Names like Pepsodent, Rinso, Gumtex, Thawpit, Zebo, Swando, Welgar, Natex, Curicones, Cephos, Meltonian, Silvikrin, Bermaline, Bikipegs, Ostermilk, and Horrockses (I could go on...).

I especially like the advert for soap that ends with the slogan "The soap nice people like".

In Sarah Haskins' hilarious Target Women series, she highlights how euphemistic many ads today are about... erm... number twos.... using words like 'fiber' and 'bloating' to cover up what they're really talking about.

Well in 1947, it seems things were VERY different:

Mmm, Fissan Anal Ointment!

Compare to this advert from the same page. Obviously some things need to be couched in more delicate terms.

Terms like: beauty, poise, 'that something', assurance, freedom, peace of mind, serenity....

Oh of course, its a Tampax ad! Shhh.....

Finally, this ad amused me with it's protesting too much headline 'This actually did happen'.

What incredible story actually did happen, you're wondering? What crazy, hard to believe tale is being related here?

Well, it turns out that a boy cut his foot on a beach, it was dressed with TCP, and everything was fine.

Wow! Incredible. I'm glad they told me it actually did happen otherwise that kind of story would just be impossible to believe, I don't think my brain could take it.

More amusing things from these mags to come, probably.

How Can I Tell Which Bits You've Written?

2009-07-26T14:08:52Z

As you may know I'm currently co-writing a book on feminism with my friend Kristin Aune. One of the questions a few people have asked me now is "how do you write with another person?" or as my parents put it, "which chapters will you be writing then? How are we going to know which bits you've written?".

Oh... parents, bless em!

Well.... you won't. It doesn't quite work like that.

So how does it work, and why are we co-writing anyway?

Having a co-writer can be difficult, but it has its benefits. For one thing, I really respect Kristin. She has an amazing amount of knowledge about feminism and the state of women in the world, especially from an academic point of view as teaching it is her day job. She's also written a lot professionally before, which means she's probably a bit more used to all this than I am.

Writing with another person means that our book is (hopefully) not about one individual's point of view but we can keep focussed on what we're trying to do, which is to give as fair a representation of what feminists think as we possibly can.

For example, Kristin has recently sent me through her draft on feminist concerns about women in the sex industry and prostitution. As this is probably one of the most contentious issues we're covering, I know we're going to have to work very carefully and we'll probably end up having a lot of discussions; but in the end, we'll come up with a version that we're both comfortable with.

The other good thing about having a co-writer is motivation. It's easier to actually get stuff done when you know that there's another person waiting for your work. I also find it much easier to write when I have something to work with and react to rather than a blank piece of paper - so when Kristin sends me the bits she's written, it's quite exciting.

So here's how it works.

Kristin and I have sketched out our chapters and structure ages ago. We're working our way through the chapters one by one, and our deadline is the end of October 2009.

First we discuss what main topics each chapter will cover, and then split then roughly between us. We each write a rough draft, and then eventually, with great trepidation and guilt for not having done a better job, swap these over with each other. We'll make amendments and improvements to each other's writing, and add in any extra information.

At this stage, the chapters are all pretty much in draft form. When we have them all in place, we'll look at the book as a whole and try to smooth out the rough edges and make it seamless and smooth.

Kristin and I have noticeably different writing styles. By the end of the process of swapping and tweaking and smoothing, there shouldn't be any strange jumps in style. It should read in one voice.

That's the plan, anyway.

So sorry mum and dad, you won't know which bits I've written!

Hmm...

2009-07-16T13:04:26Z

The robot of productivity seems to have been replaced by the Spherey* of laziness.

*Don't know what Spherey is? It's a knitting phenomenon.