Gold Bag

I've completed two projects in recent weeks. The 'discipline' of putting them on this blog has helped quite a bit. It makes me hold myself to finishing one thing before beginning another. I can't help but wonder how would my life have been different had I established this habit when I was younger. Still, I'm younger than I will be next year...




Anyhow. I took advantage of some brief morning sunshine to photograph the bag I just finished. It still needs threads trimmed and a final press, but the sun waits for no one. 





I tried attaching the handles between the shell and the lining and put a contrasting, divided pocket inside. The lining is hand stitched to the shell. I'm undecided about whether this is an improvement. On one hand, finishing the ends of the handles is unnecessary; on the other I'm not confident about only having one row of hand stitch attaching the lining. Will have to think about this some more.







This finishes off the green and gold project that started off as a notebook cover. It didn't work because the fabric was too stiff to wrap nicely around a notebook. On the other hand it might make a pretty good cover...something else to consider! 

Oops - 'scuse my camera strap - Picmonkey can't save me from that!

I liked the effect well enough to do a similar piece in gold with bright green thread for the other side. I've plenty more of those strips of fabric. A few more of these bags and my scrap stash might be a bit more manageable.

Can you tell I was in a hurry!?

Another project was this peach coloured jumper. I'd intended to have to finish all my projects before starting ANY others, but this isn't entirely practical. For one, I go to a knitting group twice a month and it wouldn't do to be sewing there. For two, knitting is much more portable and practicable on the move. When I turned this in to the knitting group I was told I'd just doubled my output for last year: this is the second jumper I've given them. She said it with a laugh and I replied that no one could accuse me of being fast. 




This is the same pattern as the purple one, but for some reason I struggled to get the neckline right. I worked on our Budapest-Vienna trip. My sister-in-law, Jane, watched me rip it out and study the instructions repeatedly. When I got home I had more quiet time and inner calm to look at it again and the solution became obvious. I can see my knitting has improved a great deal over the last year or two, in that I can now spot and correct most of my mistakes. It doesn't seem like much, but to me it is huge: an alternative to starting over (again).





Well, now I'm off for a day in the kitchen. I got a great deal on soon-to-spoil mushrooms and red peppers at 30p a bag. I washed and dried the peppers when I got home. Now I'm going to do the same for mushrooms and spend the day roasting veg for the freezer!

History of Jewellery - Part XVI

Chanel Picture

I thought bib necklaces were a recent innovation, but turns out they were big in the 1950s because of Dior's New Look with its open collars. 

Yet another piece belonging to the Duchess of Windsor.

Dior was fast taking over the fashion world from Chanel, who went into semi-retirement at the Ritz Hotel.  Poor thing, eh?

I expect by now there is no one who doesn't know she had an affair with a Nazi soldier and according to our lecturer was a spy for the Germans with the code name of Westminster. This latter is new information to me, but apparently a book was published a few years ago based on some declassified archival information. I'm aware that a lot of the upper classes in both Europe and America had Nazi sympathies, ranging from simply liking those ideals better than those of communism to thinking Hitler would sweep the world clean and start a new order, putting things 'right'.

Anyhow, Chanel has been dead for over 40 years now. Our jewellery history lecturer mentioned a painting that hung in Chanel's Ritz apartment that had been 'overlooked'.  You probably know all about this already,  but this was news to me. If you missed that news story (back in 2013), the story goes that the inventory the Ritz took of Chanel's apartment when she died did not include this painting that hung on the wall. 

I can't see how it could have been overlooked, it's pretty garish - and it's about 6' tall, but that's the story. It is described as 'rustic, of Byzantine and Renaissance period' and is by Charles Le Brun, a 17th Century French painter. I'm not sure it can technically be referred to as 'lost'; no one knew it ever existed.

How it came to be in Coco Chanel's possession is unknown, but her Nazi connections are suspected to be the potential route, looted either from a museum or from a private home.

I though it was a fascinating story.

Sun Court

One of the most astonishing things (I'm trying to quit my 'amazing' habit - sick of the word!) we saw in Scarborough was the Sun Court. It is sort of a topless green house, with chairs - and a bandstand. 







I gather various musical entertainments happen there, including 'coffee dances'. (I wonder how those differ; possibly something about the time of day, but I can't seem to nail it down.) I do worry about that checked flooring, though. I would think it could make dancers dizzy!






The Sun Court is part of Scarborough Spa. We had lunch in the cafe, overlooking the beach. I hated to be indoors out of the sun, then again it was nice to be sheltered from the wind. I knew there was a theatre there, but hadn't realised the number of venues attached to the same building.  













Scarborough's history as a "Spaw" (as it was first spelled) town began in 1620, when a Mrs. Ferrer discovered natural mineral waters on the site. By 1690, Scarborough was famous as a 'spaw' and as a seaside resort for bathing. The trick was to get clients down the cliff to the beach. I think we found their solution for that.

I think this is the 'cliff lift' mentioned on the Scarborough Spa website.

Cliff-falls, sea storms and fire have all devastated the buildings at this site, though the present day buildings, built in the 1880's seem sturdy enough.

The higher we climbed up the stairs, the better the view!

I saw a poster that said both Tom Jones and Jessie J would be in concert (separately) in Scarborough in July. Turns out there is yet another music venue north of there, call the Open Air Arena.  Bet either of those shows will be great, but if I had to choose, you know I'd go see Tom.

Joanne's Creamy Pumpkin Pie

You know what? I've never yet made any of Joanne's pies; it's entirely possible I never will. But I still think of her often, and particularly on this day, which would have been her 71st birthday.

Creamy Pumpkin Pie

½ C cold milk

1 pkg (6-serving size) vanilla instant pudding & pie filling

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 C Pumpkin

2 ½ C Cool Whip

Graham Cracker Crust Pie Shell

Beat milk, pudding mix spice with whisk for 1 minute (very thick).  Whisk in pumpkin.  Stir in whipped topping.  Spread in crust.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until set.

The Grand at Scarborough

As part of our wanderings around Scarborough we explored a bit of The Grand Hotel. There was some story about Bill's ex having stayed there as a youngster and met the Beatles who were also guests. This was, I gather, by way of explaining that a few decades ago it was quite the place, his former in-laws having been fairly well off. 

The hotel rather dominates the 'skyline' (if you could call it that) perhaps second only to the castle on the hill. It still had some 'grand' features, and the overall design is still impressive, but it seemed a bit sad inside. 





Particularly when we found the neon signs advertising the bingo hall. I decided I'd seen enough by then.




Besides having been graced by the Beatles and Bill's ex, the place played a part in both world wars, having been damaged by the German Navy in WWI and serving as a training base for the RAF during WWII. It is also the place where Anne Bronte died in 1849 - just three days after she arrived. The hotel's real heyday was in Victorian times and Wikipedia reveals that its design is even more fun than I'd realised.

I'm afraid Picmonkey can't help me rid this of the lights reflecting on the glass.

The building is designed around the theme of time: four towers to represent the seasons, 12 floors for the months of the year, 52 chimneys symbolise the weeks, and originally there were 365 bedrooms, one for each day of the year. The hotel itself is in the shape of a 'V' in honour of Queen Victoria. 

It's tough these days for the old seaside resorts, like Whitley Bay and Scarborough, to flourish in this day when cheap package holidays to Spanish sun replace the former trips to the iffy weather of British seaside. 

I'm no interior designer, but there is something horrid about the decor here.

I'm thinking the old and the new aren't liking each other much.

My guess is that finding their way in the local market is as important as attracting holiday-makers. So let's hope their bingo hall thrives.

History of Jewellery - Part XV

Susan told us that jewellery design got a bit quirky after WWII. For one thing, during the 1950s, jewellers began rolling gold into thin layers which they could then sculpt and roll. This made pieces look larger without the added expense of using more gold.  This is a style that sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm not finding the examples I had before I deleted all my work. Maybe something like this from Van Cleef and Arpels?

The use of semi-precious stones also become more and more popular, with odd combinations like amethysts and turquoise. 

Cartier - for Duchess of Windsor (again)...

Not just 'quirky' but positively surreal elements - actually called surreal -  also crept in and to my mind it was all pretty creepy. I can't think of anything Salvador Dali did that I can enjoy, but if you like this sort of thing you can see more of his jewellery here.

We were given Elizabeth Taylor's iguana clip as another example of surrealism, but at least she wore this around the time of the film Night of the Iguana...not one of hers, but of Richard Burton's - and it looks a bit of a creepy movie as well-ick.

Clothes, she reminded us, were also fairly surreal in the 1960s and 70s: Paco Rabanne's plastic neon coat; "space clothes" (by Andre Courreges); and she mentioned Emanual Raft (who is apparently still designing) to whom she attributed the gyro bangle, versions of which are still being made - or at least the name is still used.

Another name she mentioned was Andrew Grima, responsible for modern British jewellery design according to Wikipedia. She described his early work with agate, referencing stars and planets. As you will see, his work was plenty exotic - and though he died in 2008, his work goes on (or that of his wife and daughter).

If you know about the history of clothing design, you'll be aware that for many decades fashion had strict dictates: the silhouette, the skirt length, the required accessories all had to be right in order to not look foolish. That is not presently - thank goodness - the case, at least not for most of us ordinary folk. The speed with which new fashions are presented has backfired on the industry and given us all a bit more leeway to choose our own paths. 

Susan made the point that jewellery styles have all been mixed since the time of Art Deco (in the 1920s and 30s), which she says was the last of the true styles. 

Day Out in Scarborough

We took the bus into Scarborough to go exploring. I had a list of streets with charity shops, but was open to whether or not that happened. One can only expect so much of the most patient of husbands. As it turns out we did go into a couple and I came home with a brass candle holder for £5. Three elevated candles at dinner are an improvement but I'm not settled on how much I actually like that brass thing. Perhaps it needs a shine.

First sight off the bus!

The Bathing Belle - celebrating Scarborough as the first sea-bathing resort!

Scarborough seems a place, like many in Britain, that grows and fades with the latest occupation / industry / cultural trend. Its documented history goes back as far as about 370 when the Romans built a signalling station there. The Danes founded the town sometime in the 900's but then died off with the invasion of the Norwegians in 1066. The castle was built in 1136 and part of it still stands.











Fishing, town markets, religious orders of monks*, spa waters, sea bathing, wool and coal export, shipbuilding and the famous annual medieval town fair all aided the growth of Scarborough. Foreign invasions, the Great Plague, Henry the VIII's reformation of the Catholic church, development of gun power, the decline of industries and social fashions and world wars all contributed to its decline.  [Going back to those religious orders, I just learned that the colours they wore signified their order - seems obvious now - black: Dominican; white: Carmelite; grey: Franciscan.]









Many people seemed a bit surprised that we would chose Scarborough as a destination, which sort of tells where it currently stands. However, as usual I found much to please my eye, not least because it was a beautiful sunny day. I could see some of the more prosperous history in the grand architecture. 










The worst we saw on the day was the tattier bits of seaside amusement park and related: shops selling souvenirs, fish and chips, cotton candy, etc. (Not forgetting pubs, of course).  I'll not be sharing much of that here. It was a beautiful sunny day and almost everything looked pretty good!













The castle stood tall on the cliff - taller than I cared to climb. I've seen a ruin or two in the twenty years I've lived here, so was content with distant photographs.

Luna Park! They got everywhere!

There were a few surprises, but I'm keeping those for another post...or two.