Broadcast mix

Excellent new mix by James Cargill for The Outer Church:



New soundtrack by Broadcast for the film Berberian Sound Studio coming soon!

Subterranean

My chair is finished and can be seen at the Subterranean exhibition in Hackney! Octagon Gallery. St John at Hackney, London, E5 OPD

Private View Aug 1st 6.30-9pm Opening times Sat 4th / Sun 5th 12-6pm. The London Underground transport network is the oldest and busiest underground system in the world. Steeped in history, its walls are adorned with echoes of art and design spanning back over a hundred years. The iconic branding of the tube map and London underground memorabilia has penetrated the cultural subconscious of Londoners and beyond. However there are many factors that make a tube ride such a remarkable experience. The work in Subterranean focuses on the elements which make the tube unique. The carriages and tunnels are an ever-changing platform for ideas and imagery. Voyeuristic literary snippets, ripped advertising hoardings and the iconic tube seat covers are some of the subject matter discussed within the show.

Isle of Arran

My birthday coincided nicely with our trip to Scotland (for Jane & Myles wedding in Edinburgh). Two days after the wedding we set off to the stunning Isle of Arran, just off the west coast of Scotland and very easy to get to from Glasgow.

On my birthday itself we cycled across the island - from Brodick to Blackwaterfoot, and visited the standing stones of Machrie Moor. It was a pretty long and tiring journey across the hills, but well worth it in the end!

Jane & Myles

What lies beneath....

So far, I've had a few little surprises whilst exploring this little chair. Bought for only a couple of quid on Ebay, I should have realised it was to good to be true!

I knew it had a bit of a crack at the back which led to a bit of a wobbly movement, but this could be fixable - what I didn't know was that the wobble was something more.

Firstly though, I had fun ripping out the old nails of the nasty black leather that someone in more recent times had slapped on, and low and behold, underneath was the original Edwardian work. Under the black leather was the original stuffing (a mixture of straw and paper - pic 1) as well as the hessian base and hand-sewn edges. This was quite an exciting find as I'd just assumed this would have already been stripped by the last upholsterer, but luckily enough they had left it there, and completely intact!

These won't be re-used though, it seems the last owner had left the poor chair in the garden and in wet conditions, so it had totally lost its oomft... and was not a comfortable thing to sit on in its current state!

After stripping everything off, I then had to take the chair legs apart and fix where the crack was at the back. It was at this point I discovered one leg was longer than the other. No joke. This was an error that would have happened when the chair was manufactured - there was absolutely no sign that the leg had been cut shorter, and everything else on the frame was completely straight and at the correct angles.

So now I am going to have to do a bit of woodwork to get the little chair sorted out... which will take me more time than I was expecting! But it all adds to the project, and I have a feeling this will be something I will feel very proud of at the end of the day.

Chair of the Underground

I am starting another course tomorrow, and have purchased this little (rather dirty and dusty) Edwardian chair to refurbish and design the cover for. I have an idea to create a tube seat like our everyday edwardian London Underground, and I need your help to choose which design I will be embroidering in wool! I have done plenty of research and sifled it down to two ideas (as in the link).

At the moment this is the current favourite design.... but let's see!

William Morris footstool

This was a belated birthday present for my Nan (her birthday was in March) but I had trouble finishing it in time alongside working on the chair, and I also thought it was nicer to give it to her face-to-face when I went to Yorkshire for Easter. She absolutely loved it. My Nan has inspired me from a very young age to take up needlework, as well as more recently - upholstery. She has made so many things that we still have today - sewing boxes, piano chair, dressing table pouffe.... as well as clothing (my mother's wedding dress, my old dance dresses - all my Dad's clothing growing up!- see post here) It was nice to finally give something back to her as she was always making things for others. Now she is unable to sew because of her eyesight and fingers from diabetes, but she gets very excited to talk about her sewing days.

The bird was a William Morris design and the footstool itself is Victorian. It had a horrible cover from the 80s on it and underneath the original upholstery had been removed. One of my (not too distant) future projects is to re-upholster the sewing box she made my Mum in 70s - which was used as a scratching post by my cat (RIP) when I was growing up, and definitely needs re-covering!!

Edwardian chair

So happy to have finished this, this week! My little Edwardian chair was refurbished with a Jacobean hand embroidered cover (by me) and stuffed with fine horse hair. I used a beautiful blue and green trimming from VV Rouleaux to frame it nicely on the seat.
I've enjoyed this course so so much, I'll be sad to finish it!