Techniques – Coffee Table TV

Cord for macrame

I am learning macrame and I’ve been looking for cord that would work well for a macrame plant holder project. It needs to be fairly thick, flexible and not too resistant to being knotted and flexed, and strong enough to hold a pot of earth which may be watered. A plant holder project requires eight strands ofContinue reading “Cord for macrame”

Knots and lashings, from survivalist to macrame.

Survivalist skills and ancient Japanese lashings, all the way through to 1970s macrame skills.

Borax

I have used this white rocky substance recently in the making of two things; home made base cream and silver jewellery. Here it is on display in the Natural History Museum. For the cosmetic, a teaspoon of powdered borax, dissolved in water, turns a melted mixture of cocoa butter, bees wax, almond oil and wheatContinue reading “Borax”

One point perspective in Singing In The Rain

And Fred Astaire dances on the ceiling.

Black and white and yellow

Director J.Lee Thompson chose to rely on our imaginations in his 1953 black and white film, The Yellow Balloon. In the setting of bombed post war London, a boy loses his pocket money and the chance of buying a balloon. Upset, he steals his friend’s yellow balloon, an incident which leads to tragedy and blackmail.Continue reading “Black and white and yellow”

Snuff bottles

A selection of Chinese Qing Dynasty snuff bottles caught my eye. They are made of a variety of natural materials; turquoise, glass, clay, jade, silver, pearl and the blue one is decorated with kingfisher feathers set in silver. They look like they would be a pleasure to hold. The imagery comes from nature; dragons,Continue reading “Snuff bottles”

Slow quilting

I now have a Museum Association pass, and wishing to exploit it, I found myself paying a speedy visit to the Quilts exhibition at the V&A. This was coincidently the same week that I had a go at quilting myself, using the cut off ends of brown trousers and a Singer sewing machine from Lidl.Continue reading “Slow quilting”

Matlock Thermal Spring

[FAG id=4537] The mill in the photos is the Cromford Cotton Mill of Richard Arkwright. As we toured the mill, I was struck with the way Arkwright worked things out. He worked out how to process cotton using a machine; he designed the mill as a fortress, with good defences as the machinery was unpopularContinue reading “Matlock Thermal Spring”

Paint by numbers

The inside of a Paint by Numbers kit.

Camera Obscura

Rebekah Cameron built a camera obscura and devised these experimental shots. Pearls, rich colours, fruit and silver objects come out particularly well on the camera obscura lens. The lighting is instantly reminds us an old master portrait.