Sunday, May 11, 2008

Excellent day!
Good weather followed by an excellent thunderstorm.
Went out with Clive in the morning and met up with David Webster to deliver some 18ct to him. Me and Clive wandered about as usual and ended up at the Barras, where I found a doll in a bucket modelling the Amy Winehouse junkie look:





(This was not to be the only horrible doll find of the day!)

We also saw this bit of dreadfully mawkish street "art":





Now, I could be very wrong, but I have a horrible idea that the two children portrayed in this could well be dead. Something tells me that this is one of these sickeningly banal "tributes" which seem to happen whenever anyone from a very certain type of background dies. Of course, they could be very much alive and just be dying of shame and embarrassment at being thus portrayed.
The most annoying thing about this is not that it exists but that it is technically excellent; the creator has great skill in the handling of pastels. One can only hope that he has a studio somewhere else where he exercises his imagination.

On the way home, I diverted to avoid people and take a quieter route through some old bits of town where industry used to happen but property developers haven't, yet. There is an old gap-site I've been meaning to explore for years and I finally did:





And it was a treasure trove of rusty metal:





Loads of things to set me thinking about new stuff to make. As you can see, I found loads of washers, which is excellent as I use those in chains and things and used the last of the ones I had in the "Omaggio a Staglieno Genovese" earrings last week. The wire also made me think about making a cheaper range of jewellery for sale on Etsy.
In amongst the rust was this gem of an enamelled sign:





And this is where I also saw the second horrible doll:





Why is it that discarded dolls are SO creepy?

Most annoyed: the hard drive in my media player has broken and I need to replace it. Well, that is tomorrow's job.