I hope you all have a great Halloween and get some fabulous little
trick-or-treaters tonight. Last year we did not get a single kid, so
maybe this year, we'll go for a walk in town so we can see them in their
costumes.
On Saturday I got up at about 7:40 to make it to the
paper-making workshop. I managed to get out of the house with plenty of
time to drive to Metchosin. Fortified by coffee, I actually felt pretty
good about being up that early, since I was able to do something, when I
would normally be sleeping. Unfortunately, I pulled the usual silly
scientist trick of merely scanning the instructions from MapQuest, and
assuming I knew where I was going, which I did not. It turns out there
are two different "Burnside" roads within a couple of km. I drove up and
down the wrong one and realized I wasn't going to figure this out on my
own. So I stopped at a 7-11/gas station and asked the woman behind the
counter for help. She looked at me like I was crazy and got out a street
directory which she did not appear to know how to use. She turned to
help the next customer behind me in line and he asked what I was looking
for. I turned around and said, "Sooke Road" and he said "Oh, hey, how
are you?" since he was John the medic on the Tully who sent me off for
stitches this summer and got to take them out gleefully (they rarely get
any interesting injuries to treat apparently) mid-cruise! He drew me a
map.
I got there 20 minutes late, but that was okay. The teacher
was a wonderfully calm, Buddhist artist with a huge studio in the
country. There were 5 other students- a local mother-daughter set, two
students from the international Pearson College (alma mater of our
former housemate Maria), and a women from Brentwood. No one had come as
far as I. We made cotton and abacca paper first. We got to try different
sized frames and deckles. After lunch we could basically try whatever
struck our fancy. I had fun working with a mixture of 7 types of fibres
and found paper inclusions. I even found a Bathurst streetcar transfer
to include to remind me of home. I think the results will be quite
something. Others focused on lamination or combining different types of
pulp in a single sheet. It was interesting to see what attracted
different people and the paper that was made. We cleaned up at 3:00 and
then discussed what we had made. The teacher said I appeared quite
patient and that I knew exactly what I wanted. I'm always surprised when
someone tells me I'm patient since I feel impatient, but I do generally
have a good idea of what I'm trying to create. I can't wait to see the
finished products.
I was hoping to go back to Metchosin to pick
up my dried paper yesterday, but no such luck. I took Di downtown when I
went to tour the drill ship. Luckily Sam reminded us about the time
change, so I wasn't an hour early, like my colleague B. Another
colleague T. admitted that he had arrived a WEEK early, since he mixed
up the dates. This made me feel better about playing the silly
scientist's idiot navigation game the previous day. Unfortunately, the
tour was 1.5 hours, rather than 20 minutes as advertised. So I was quite
late meeting Di. Then I rushed to catch the last minutes of annual
Halloween super arts supply sale. Di had convinced the landgirl to store
the unwanted bed in his mini-studio elsewhere. It blocked much of the
room, but was used as a place to stack vinyl records. Thus to complete
his studio transformation he needed some more furnishings to store
records and stack electronic recording devices of various sorts. Sam and
Di and I braved Value Village in the height of the pre-Halloween buying
frenzy. I spotted a great piece of furniture, clearly designed for
records and record player, for $20. Along with a $12 cabinet, we were
set. Except, of course, it did not fit in the trunk or the backseat, and
it was already dark at 5:00 pm, and of course, it was raining, again.
So after much exertion and discussion, I got the guys to shove it as far
as it would go into the trunk and used my handy rope tying skills to
tie the trunk down. We dropped off Sam and headed carefully back up the
peninsula. I had to explain the concept of the blind spot and enlist
Di's help, but we managed fine and it did not get too wet.
We
went home, moved all the vinyl out yet again (as previously to remove
the bed) so that the furniture could be moved in. Then we had to move
the records back into the room. Then we watched "Grand Hotel" on DVD. We
bought it and you should too. It's awesome. It stars Lionel and John
Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Wallace Stevens, need I go on? I
cried, again.
I put up all the Halloween ornaments I made. Di
said the glow-in-the-dark skeleton hanging from the light fixture in the
kitchen keeps freaking him out. But that's rather the point isn't it?
Overall, quite the weekend.
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