Busy Weekend

[The Justified Sinner]

Wow!
I am completely done in: it has been non-stop since Friday and the stupid clock-change thing happened, which always makes my sleeping patterns go wrong...
Friday night was a night out with one of my friends of longest-standing, John. Through to Edinburgh to chat about things and see some sights, which mostly includes the inside of our favourite bar, The Regent. Didn't get home until 2am but had to be on the 10am train to Perth to go and see the Scottish Glass Society show in the Museum and Art Gallery there, "Trove". This is a superb show, in which my friends Jeff Zimmer and Carrie Fertig had some pieces:

The Wake Of The Hero - Jeff Zimmer

Alchemic Object: Rejection/Muse - Carrie Fertig

I also really, really liked some of the work by others in the show, especially Alxander Galloway's "Prometheus":

And Fiona McGarva's "Earth Free":

There are some other brilliant pieces in the show too...



Clicking on the photographs will take you to the Flickr page, where there are more details.

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Today I went back to Edinburgh to meet with the lovely and exceptionally talented Melissa Cameron who is on a whistlestop tour of Europe, including a residency with Elizabeth Turrell in Bristol, a visit to Schmuck in Germany and a visit to Edinburgh College of Art to speak to the students. (I have no right to moan about being busy!)
It was great to just spend four or five hours talking about work, influences, inspirations and just a little bit of gossip. We went to the car-boot sale, Joey D's shop, had lunch in my favourite Syrian cafe and went to the National Museum of Scotland, where I was absolutely struck by the new displays for the ancient jewellery, which are just phenomenally good. Not only do they display the jewellery in an exciting way, but they also show how the pieces would have been worn. Inspired and inspiring:

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I've spent a lot of time on trains this weekend. Overall, it has been quite amusing, though the journey home from Edinburgh took twice as long as it should have done. Yesterday, on the train to Perth, I was wearing my "The Use of Ashes" pig earring, which was getting some odd looks, so I welcomed the enquiry from the bold little girl (aged about 6) who asked me "Why have you got a pig in your ear", to which I replied, "Why have you not got a pig in your ear?".
She paused for a moment before replying "Because it's silly". Well, no arguing with that... I admire her honesty and bold confidence!
Her dad didn't, though: he was very uncomfortable with the whole exchange, which I don't really understand.

Also, it is not wise to laugh out loud on trains when you are travelling on your own. Thus it follows that reading collections of anecdotes, comments and scripts by Linda Smith in such a public place is also a bad idea... I had to put the book back in my bag and start drawing before I embarrassed myself too much. It didn't help that Dingo also sent me this:

With the comment, which I will quote in full -

"I found an ad in one of the Woman's Weeklies for H Samuel which I thought you may want to have a look at it as it promises 'Fashion Rings to colour every mood.'

'"The pallet is displaying mostly bad moods, with some awkward moods thrown in randomly.
'"The ad is from 1975.

"I'm pleased adverts don't look like this any more."

Sometimes, email on the phone might not be such a good idea either!

[The Justified Sinner]

It was exactly the sort of weekend I like! Art, friends, socialising, making new friends. Love it!

[Catherine Witherell]

Sounds like you had a good one.  Thanks for the photos.  A view into your world is welcome.

[The Justified Sinner]

They are spectacular, aren't they?!

I emailed the gallery to try and find out who created them as they appear to be uncredited in the exhibition.

[Brigitte Martin]

Those jewelry displays at the National Museum of Scotland are really wonderful. Thanks for this blog post!