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.