Love This #96: Pencil art

We’re heading to the Derwent Pencil Museum in Kendal for today’s post, and yes, a museum for pencils. It was the most fascinating place, but it turns out that I’d been there before, many years before though I had no recollection of it. When our cottage host told us there was a pencil museum, it definitely piqued my interest and while it was a little further away from the trips we had planned, it was a great one to add into our itinerary.

I’ll share more about the museum, its stories and the vintage pencil sets on show another day but first something else that you’re probably not expecting - and that’s miniature sculptures on the tip of a pencil.

Yes.

They’re by sculptor and artist Jasenko Dordevic from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He’s self taught and tried many pencils before finding the right one - if you’re interested it’s the pencil with the highest ‘H’ grade. It definitely requires way more patience, and skill, than I have - but I’m very happy to admire them. The short stubs of the pencils below have the letters DERWENT on their tips, aren’t they amazing?

And if letters weren’t enough, there are miniature sculptures too - I can’t quite work out the middle one though (I’m no good at those picture puzzles either), but the acorn and the weightlifter on the first and third pencils respectively, are more than amazing.

I can’t even imagine how he came up with the idea, let alone had the patience to perfect these. Truly a skill.

These alone would make a great ‘Love This’ post, but there’s more. I’ve decided that I must be a bit of a pencil geek, as I could have spent much longer in the museum and I already left with many photos - and it took me a fair while to choose which set I’d purchase too. It’s a shame that the cafe wasn’t open (because of Covid restrictions) as I think MOH would have happily have sat there with a coffee waiting for me!

I think he’s worried that I might try and replicate the display below - and he’s right, I like it, but I have no plans to do so (yet) - but I can admire it. I think I’d prefer to use my pencils, though I’ve not used the ones I bought a huge amount, but I’m hoping to make more time for that soon.

The final pencil art I’m sharing is also from the museum, and this has an older feel to it - but is no less beautiful. While I like the rainbow circle above, this one really captured my imagination. To me it has a more prairie feel, and reminds me of many patchwork star designs too. Though to be honest I’m happy just looking and enjoying and not giving it much more thought.

But then again, when I peered closer and saw the detail of the pencils pinned int its place I was smitten all over again.

Post Comment Love 11-13 March

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

It’s been so good to see the lighter evenings - and dare I say it - some sun this week, it really does make all the difference doesn’t it? From a covid perspective, last weekend felt one of our most normal weekends since it all began, with visits to restaurants and to a concert - and it was good to be out, albeit more cautiously than ever before.

This week I’ve spent some time in my photo archives, and my posts this week reflect that. I’ve a lot more photos to edit though, and it’s great to relive the memories from our trips. My photo this week is from our trip to the Lake District last June, and while it may not be the best photo I love how the town is reflected in the gallery window and the modern painting of the mountains which I’d happily own.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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40 years and two loos

Last weekend felt the most ‘normal’ in a long while. We ate dinner out on Friday evening in one of our favourite local restaurants, which somehow we hadn’t managed to get along to since last autumn. The food was as glorious as ever, and it was great to see it so busy and to be warmly welcomed back. Then after an impromptu booking after seeing something on Facebook of all places, we found ourselves at the Barbican on Saturday night.

I hadn’t realised that the Barbican is celebrating 40 years, which doesn’t seem possible. Nor did I know that MOH hadn’t been to a concert in the hall there. We’ve been to away days with work, visited the conservatory and exhibitions and even been to the cinema there - and well, it seemed a good opportunity to set that straight. Checking out the seating plan we could book end of aisle seats in the circle and so we booked.

The event - Songs in the Key of London - was curated by Chris Difford (of Squeeze) and DJ and presenter Nihal Arthanayake, with guests who were familiar to us and a good few that weren’t. However, it didn’t matter that we didn’t know their names, every single performer was brilliant.

Marc Almond topped the names of those I was keen to see - I was, and still am, a huge fan of Tainted Love from back in the early eighties. Other names we recognised were Harry Enfield, Ruby Turner and Brett Anderson (from Suede). Harry Enfield’s name stood out among the list, and so did his performance as an ‘audience member’ recalling a ditty or two about London, with a predictable but still amusing rude ending.

With a run time of 150 minutes, it was no mean feat for the band who were also excellent. The other thing we noticed, that even for London, people were talking to each other much more than we remembered from pre-Covid days. And that was a really nice thing too. The hall wasn’t as full as the seating plan had made out, and the people sitting next to us apologised for moving into some of the empty seats, hoping we weren’t offended. We really weren’t offended at all.

Unsure when the interval would be, and knowing that any interval means a long queue for the loo, I decided to make an early move while the performance continued - though when I got back MOH said I’d missed a great song. But when you’ve got to go, you know…

What I wasn’t expecting was the multi-coloured doors in the loos, the concrete yes - but not the colour. And it was great. As was mostly having the very large ladies to myself (it being large still didn’t avoid a queue later on though - there are never enough loos are there?)

I’ve no idea what these are, or if they have a purpose other than for people to wonder about them:

It was a wet and blowy night and I’d pulled on a hat, but that hadn’t really saved the ends of my hair - so I ended up looking more windswept than I would have liked. I’m sharing this picture though as the night was also memorable for losing an earring - and not the one you can see. The pair to the half moon you can see is a full moon, which I lost somewhere along the way.

I noticed in the restaurant we went to before the show - Cote just outside the Barbican - and that prompted searching through hats, scarves, bags and all sorts to no avail. And even though the replacement pair I’ve ordered have arrived, I still just went to check my hat again. That’s the thing about losing things isn’t it, you just don’t know where - and yes, I know if I knew where then it wouldn’t be lost!

While we were in our second restaurant of the weekend, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of checking out the loos. So here you go, some quite plain but elegantly understated snaps of the loos at Cote - the colour of the wall tiles was gorgeous. For this visit to Cote I ventured off my normal safe, tried and tested menu choices, and wished I hadn’t! We’ll have to go back to our local restaurant or get another ‘at home’ delivery to check that this was just a one-off.

Losing things is never great, and it unsettles our minds doesn’t it?

The strange thing though was that I had felt something cold against my cheek as we were walking, which now I suspect was my earring making its way free, as those hook through type earrings do. But which I’d forgotten. MOH suggested retracing our steps, but we’d walked a fair way and even if we did walk exactly the way we’d come then it was no guarantee, and there was a show to see, and despite the earring loss it was so good to be out and experiencing more normal things along with everyone else.

It was much needed, and as we know, a long time coming.