The Discoveries of Christopher Song

Sometimes strange objects turn up in the archive- this is one of the strangest yet. It appears to be a lump of stone with two seed pods growing out of it. There is no obvious means of attachment and it would seem that they are breaking through the structure of the stone itself. We believe this to be the result of one of Christopher Song's early experiments into time travel- where he hadn't begun to take into account the continual rotation of the Earth in his calculations.

Song had almost mastered the art of sending objects through time, but had not accounted for the fact that they would also be travelling in space. Due to this we start to find a selection of strange objects embedded in the masonry of buildings in the Falmouth area, obnjects that only come to light again when buildings are rennovated or demolished.

 This stone comes from a typical Cornish Hedge, and was found outside of Falmouth, in Redruth. Who knows how far other objects from Christopher Song's experiments have travelled? Maybe this holds the clue to what happened to Song himself?

The Christopher Song Archive

While i've been away from the world of blogging, I have been busy working in the Christopher Song Archive. Christopher Song was a resident of Falmouth in the late 1800's, who was last seen in public in 1914 following the crash of Henri Selmet's plane on the beach at Gyllyngvase.

Working with Tony Johns we have started to make parts of the archive available to the public, some on display in Falmouth town library and other, more valuble items, housed behind glass in the Falmouth Art Gallery.

Today I am working in the library, talking to people about the discoveries and continuing in our important research. Last week I was helping to run a workshop for children in the art gallery, getting them to dress up as Victorian explorers while we filmed them. There is a rumour that Christopher Song is going to make a dramatic reppearence during Splash festival...but I couldn't possibly tell you if that were true or not.

27 May 2012

27 May 2012, a photo by Camilla Stacey on Flickr.

I have started drawing again! It feels so good to be regularly drawing with 'Drawing Club' (ten out of ten for originality) and to FINALLY get to spend some time in my studio space.

This is a drawing I did this afternoon, based on a crazy photo I found at the car boot sale. Ever since I moved to Cornwall I have avoided going to car boot sales because I had a bad habit of spending too much money at them in the past. Today was my first one in nearly 2 years. I was feeling pretty chuffed that the only thing i'd spent money on were some runner bean plants, then I spotted the next table and the two massive old photo/postcard albums on it. I ended up spending £20 on postcards and worrying that it was the start of a slippery slope.

After the boot sale I stopped in at The Little Yellow House studios, where for a month I have been renting the most expensive pencil case going- in other words i've got a studio space that i've barely been to- no excuse at all really as it's just up the road from my house. I ended up getting engrossed in drawing and spending over three hours there before I realised I had to get back to a Skype date with my friend Becky.

I'm really hoping I can act of the momentum of all the amazing things that have happened this weekend and a)get drawing and b) get blogging in a more structured and considered way.

Watch this (empty) space...

Day one at jewellery school- what I actually made

Mosaic of photos taken during workshop

I signed up for this 4 week silver charm making course as i'd previously seen Sarah Hyam's work in her studio at Jubilee Wharf and was really charmed (no pun intended) by her work featuring mermaids and birds. A few weeks ago I saw a poster advertising the course and I decided that if I could get the time off work I would sign myself up for it. So this week was week one and in one morning I learnt how to cut, bend, heat, solder, and lots of other things in between. I started the morning knowing nothing about making jewellery and came away at lunchtime with a copper wire bracelet sparkling on my wrist and a set of hoops to possibly turn into earings.

The studio was full of really inspiring things to look at- out front is a small shop area with work from the artists who share the space, and in the workshop part of the studio there are all kinds of pots full of strange tools, boards covered in pliers and jars of multicoloured glass. As I have a bit of a obsession with hardware shops I was immediately off taking photos of the pliers and punches and things like that- not sure that was what Sarah meant by saying 'take a look around and see what's inspiring'.

In the photo (above) you can see my morning from start to finish- from the excitement of the pliers to the finished bracelet. Sarah showed us some of her work as examples and inspiration- I especially like the mermaid necklace. She took the small group of us through the process of working with copper wire (before we are let loose on the silver) to make S links to create a bracelet. We  hammered some of our links flat, and added 'blobs' to the ends of others by heating them. After joining them all together we put them in the 'pickle' to clean them up and then tumbled them for half an hour to make them all shiny.

Day one at jewellery school- tools of the trade

 

Today was the first morning of my 4 week Charm/Amulet making course with Sarah Hyams. I took lots of photos (hopefully didn't irritate the others too much) and i'll update with what we actually got up to today later, but in the meantime here's a few photos of some of the tools of the trade. Pliers, copper wire, masking tape, reverse action tweezers, gas torches and piercing saws. I can let you in on the news that for the first time in years I am writing this with a bracelet around my wrist, so the update tomorrow won't be a photo of me sitting crying because I can't work out how to do it!

Fifty Fifty Films- highlights so far

 January:  I walked with a Zombie,  Mongol and The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

You can see the whole list of films and books i'm watching and reading for this challenge on the fiftyfiftyme2012 page.

Tofino Eagle Necklace by Sarah Hyams available at Two Red Trees

Hand and Stone pendant by Sarah Hyams available at Two Red Trees

I'm starting a 4 week course with Sarah Hyams in making silver charms in a few days time. It's just 4 mornings and then it will all be over, but i've never tried to make jewellery before (perhaps because I don't often wear it). Since i've started working full time I find that I have more energy and inclination to do something creative with my time outside of work, i've also recently made some new friends who are talented artists and makers, and that's got my creative bones itching again. I deliberately took the year off from making when I went to do my MA, but now i'm back in the world of work I think I need to factor some creativity into my routine.

 At the moment one of my pieces of work is on exhibition in America. The ever wonderful Susan Schwake included a piece I did several years ago in her new book 'Art Lab for Kids' for which I am very grateful.

 

fiftyfiftyme 2012

Well things seem to be speeding along with my #fiftyfiftyme challenge, at least as far as the film side of things goes. So far i've watched 10 films this year that i'd never seen before- i'm off to London for work tomorrow so I don't think i'm going to be able to keep up the high intensity movie viewing i've been doing for the last nine days, but maybe that's a good thing- I don't want to run out of films to watch too soon!

Films for my 52 films challenge

The new listings for films at The Poly have just been put online and i've got some to put in my diary to help me meet my film a week at the cinema challenge.

First up:
The Deep Blue Sea 9-10th Jan
Tyrannosaur 16-17th Jan
Another Earth 23-24th Jan
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 28th Jan
Black Pond 30-31st Jan
A Separation 6-7th Feb
Snowtown 13-14 Feb
The First Grader 20-21st Feb
Wreckers 27-28 Feb
Shame 5-6th March
Sound it out  12-13th March
Carnage 26-27th March

Other films out this year that I know I want to see:


The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hunger Games (? I think I do)
Muppets movie
The Hobbit

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#52films and #fiftyfiftyme

Last year my friend (the very talented Jeanette Leech) watched a film a week at the cinema, something that has inspired me to up my game and see if I can do the same. I watched a lot more films over the last year at the cinema than I have done in a long while, thanks to the fact that i've spent a lot of time volunteering at The Poly, which shows a new film pretty much each week, and I even found myself at the 'mainstream' cinema once when my friends made me go to watch Harry Potter. By challenging myself to watch a film a week i'm going to be forced into watching some films that I perhaps might not have chosen to see (next week my only real option is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at The Phoenix because i'm not sure I can force myself to watch The Iron Lady (anti-Thatch feelings die hard)) but I hope this encourages me to watch things I might otherwise miss and I certainly hope it means I see every single film that's shown at The Poly this year.

Unfortunately due to bad timing i'm going to miss watching Waltz with Bashir and Restrepo at The Poly- both of which are showing as part of an exhibition of photos by Guy Martin- a photojournalist based in Falmouth who was seriously injured in an attack in Libya in which 2 other photographers died last year. Instead of watching films in Falmouth I shall be in London attending a 2 day training course in Social Media and then hanging around for a couple of days to visit some exhibitions and see friends.

So...the first film in my #52films...Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, watched at Odeon Weston-super-Mare on New Years Day. I'm not good at writing reviews so my Twitter review will have to do:

Sherlock: Odeon WsM Screen 3 large popcorn very uncomfy seat slow-mo explosions Robert D-J in drag naked national treasure 1-1-2012 #52films

I'm also attempting to read 50 new books in 2012 as part of the #fiftyfiftyme challenge- 50 new books and 50 new films read/watched in 2012. I've joined the fiftyfiftyme group on Goodreads and will be interested to see how far I get with this. Last year I read 41 books that I recorded on Goodreads, this year i'm hoping to make it to 50. Ending last year and starting this year reading the Game of Thrones might put me at a disadvantage but i'm enjoying it so far.

Still here

A very quick update to say i'm still here- just got back from a very enjoyable two days at the Poly Xmas Bazaar, where I dusted off some Spooky Doll face brooches, hung up the vintage aprons, and pinned out my Dirty Hankies. As well as selling my wares again, for the first time in over a year, I had a great time meeting fellow stall holders and shoppers. The whole of the Poly was buzzing with crafty types as all the gallery spaces were filled with stalls thanks to Lulubees Handmade Faire being on for the last four days too.

I've left my pocketful of business cards downstairs while I cuddle up under the covers with the cat, but I shall be posting links to all the talented people I met just as soon as I thaw out again.

Mainly i'm posting this because I gave my cards out to lots of people and it reminded me I really need to sort out my website (not online at the moment) and update this blog...do say hello if we met this weekend!

Another year without my birthday twin

It's been too long since I was able to share a birthday with my special birthday twin Miss_Jen. She died very soon after I started blogging here and each year around our birthday and her death day I find myself looking back and reading what I wrote at the time. Once again I realise that I was trying so hard to keep my personal and professional life separate, whilst this catastrophic event had happened in my life I barely mentioned it in this blog. Elsewhere on the internet I shared more, but here I felt like I had to keep things moving along nicely. I'd set this blog up to represent Made by Milla, the artsy crafty business i'd been running (?) and I used livejournal as a place to rant and spill my guts out. Now i'm using a million and one places on the internet to share a billion different sides to me, but I think if you add them all together you pretty much get the whole picture.

I have another special birthday twin. She is a roller girl. She is super tough and super sweet and lives with a million cats, she's pretty much my oldest friend- we met each other on our birthday when I was turning 18 and she was turning 19. Or was it 19 and 20? Either way we've known each other for 20 years give or take a year. Us September 11th girls have to stick together.

Master Milla

Today I discovered I was a Master. I found out just after noon, when my friend Eugenia handed me a print out with the word PASS on it. My year of study has culminated in me being elevated to the same ranks as Yoda, or is having an MA not the same thing as being a Jedi?

It was my sister who first asked me if Yoda had done an MA to become Master Yoda, and I told her to ask her son who would set the record straight. I then told her that if I passed she would be forced to call me Master Camilla at all times, in the seven hours since she found out she has pretty much failed to do this. Sisters huh?!

I am in a very weird state at the moment, not really being able to take it in that all that fundraising I did, all the reading and writing and putting on exhibitions, all the lack of blogging, it's all been worth it because I now am the proud owner of an MA in Curatorial Practice. When I was younger I was convinced i'd do a PhD, now i'm pretty certain I won't ever do that- the academic writing for this MA nearly broke me at times, and the option I picked wasn't even that academic. If an institution does want to fund me to spend years looking at artists and doodling about knitting then i'd be more than happy to take them up on the offer, however i'm not sure that happens very often.

So...back to the real world. I am hoping to stay in Cornwall for a while and have been applying for jobs that I hope will fit in with the work I do at The Poly and at Here and Now. I filled in my first job application form in 8 years earlier in the week and got invited for an interview today. Fingers crossed that the interview goes well next week and I might re-enter the world of paid work soon. 

It's over!

My prolonged absence from the world of blogging may finally be coming to an end as i've just finished my MA in Curatorial Practice. Well...when I say finished there's still the final show to go, but all the written work has been handed in and my display is mounted on the wall. I am pleased with my display, not so pleased with my final project, and at the moment and waiting to find out how I did. The examiners are in this week and I think i'll find out if i've passed by the end of next week. Either way I am impressed that I have DONE an MA, I may not have got the distinction I was once aiming for, I may not even pass, but I have completed the hardest thing i've ever done and i'm proud of that. I'm cross with myself for not doing as well with my MA project as I could have, a combination of factors, most of them being me, meant that I found it very hard to get my project finished to my satisfaction, and in the end I turned in something I wasn't that happy with. But...it's over now and we shall wait and see what the result is.

In the meantime i'm working at The Poly, in Falmouth as a volunteer on the box office, which is something I love (rather strangely) and i'm curating shows here in the gallery space. At the moment there's an exhibition on by local artist Melanie Young- lovely colourful paintings with layers of gold leaf and scratched in details. Lovely stuff to sit and look at while i'm selling tickets to French films.

Next week is the MA show at Uni and i'll finally get a chance to see what all the other students have been up to with their time!

Anyone There?

little bundles of different types of telegraph tape
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy

Hello hello?

I've been sat reading back over my blog for the last few hours, searching for artists to use in my MA Project, and i've realised I really should give you some indication that i'm still alive.

At the moment i'm 3 weeks away from the deadline for the first draft of my MA final project and work is going...slowly. I am creating an exhibition proposal for a show that features visual artists who use traditional craft techniques and skills to create their work. I have really battled with this part of my MA, it was a huge struggle to come up with a project that would be suitable for the course and i'm not 100% convinced i'm there yet.

What else has been keeping me from you?

An exhibition (Down There Among the Roots) that I co-curated with my class at Newlyn Art Gallery was previewed in the Guardian Guide- it runs until July 9th so you have a couple of weeks left to catch it

Living by the sea is great- I went swimming yesterday afternoon when the weather got too hot for me, the water was cold and I was a bit surprised by how big the waves were, but I had a great time swimming out to see and looking back on the beach. A few weeks ago I got the ferry over to St Mawes with Chipfork and we swam there too in calmer, but colder, water. My desire for wild swimming was kick-started again by the lovely Dr Alice Roberts in a programme about wild swimming that I watched on iplayer this week. I have plans to go back to the pool in the quarry that I swam in last summer before I moved down to Cornwall.

Until next time...

Tokens and Totems

I've been doing some volunteering at Here and Now Gallery in Falmouth as part of my placement for Creative Enterprise Cornwall. One of the things i've been doing is organising an exhibition in the gallery space for Elsie Jones, which we are installing today. I've been pretty distracted recently by the MA, and by the fact the exhibition we are putting on at Newlyn Art Gallery opens next week, but I thought I should make an effort and tell you all about Elsie's show.

Elsie says: 'I am influenced by folk art, such as Kachina dolls and simple primitive figures, but also by vintage plastic toys and pop culture. I am interested in the combination and fusion of all these elements, along with other interests and influences, such as textile art and costume, feminine and domestic handicrafts, vintage kitsch and graphics, collections, old toys and comic characters, pattern, decoration, and embellishment.I hoard colourful, decorative, vintage or weird found objects, and combine them with my drawing, crochet, embroidery and collage.'

It's exciting to see what is going to be unwrapped and hung on the walls, one thing i'm very much looking forward to seeing in 'real life' is the tablecloth of good and evil:

Back in Bristol

I've been so busy with my MA Curatorial Practice in Falmouth that i've neglected both this blog, and my friends back in Bristol. It's been really great that this week i've had the chance to catch up with some of my favourite people and spend time in Bristol again.









Yesterday I ate food at Cafe Kino
I had a meeting with  the Kitsch and Curious Elaine
I sort of had a meeting with Michal William
Today I saw Chipfork
then I sat on the sofa for ages in Here
and now i'm sat typing this in Alys Paterson's house.

An art-fair to remember

 

An Art-Fair to remember! Sat 5th March at the WI Hall, Falmouth. We'll be selling all kinds of arty stuff (art cakes, curated bric-a-brac etc) to raise money for our exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery in May. Our exhibition has been extended from 3 weeks to 9, which is all kinds of amazing, but does mean we're going to need to print more posters etc. So we decided to have some fun, do some face painting, eat cakes and hopefully gather some funds for our show. I'm in charge of the Tombola and can assure you that you stand an excellent chance of winning a bottle of cherry Vimto if you buy a ticket. 

If you can't make it to the fair and want to support 7 struggling curators then please feel free to donate some money to our cause!

A very exciting development in my life

After years and years of blogging (well if you count the Diaryland account I had way back when) i've finally been sent something free to try out and review! It's not the reason I blog (if it was the reason i'd have given up by now) but I have always wondered how other people seem to end up getting so much free stuff sent to them. Perhaps it's because other people post more than once a month and have thousands of followers. This does not seem to have bothered the people who sent me a freebie, and the fact that I already love the product I got sent will in NO WAY influence the totally un-biased review I will give of it. I bet you're wondering just what it could possibly be that has made me so excited?

A giant cardboard box arrived on the doorstep

Inside the box was a basket full of treats

A whole family of Vimto products for my delectation!

My standby pop of choice ever since I moved to Cornwall

Look at the riches that have befallen me!

All tucked up again in their lovely basket.

Now so far out of this bounty I have drunk one of the cartons of still Vimto- which was yummy, even if the straw had got smashed up in transit, and i'm half way through a bottle of fizzy Vimto. I normally drink fizzy Vimto out a can so this actually has been a new and exciting experience for me...Sadly there is some Cherry Vimto included in the package and as the world knows I am fussy and do not like Cherry flavoured things, I like cherries, just not the flavouring, so i'm going to donate those two bottles to our grand fundraising tombola at the WI hall soon...

I shall continue to document my love affair with Vimto over on twitter where you are free to join me.

books to buy

I'm very lucky in that several of my friends are super talented in the writing of books department. This year you can buy Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk by Jeanette Leech:

Or what about Graphic USA by Ziggy Hanaor

Both on my wish list...