I don’t often have cause to travel across Het IJ to North Amsterdam. For the people who use the (free!) ferry boats as part of their daily commute between home in North Amsterdam and work in South Amsterdam (or vice versa) it is perhaps a very prosaic experience. But when I step onto the deck I always feel like I’m embarking on some great adventure… a nineteen minute adventure, which is roughly how long the journey takes.

There is a winged escort…

And on the other side lots of lovely shapes, colours and textures…

It has been absolutely sweltering here in Amsterdam this past week.

The basil is loving it!

While everything else is melting…

I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to really hot, humid weather (crisp cold blue-sky winter days get my vote) so I wouldn’t complain if the temperature dropped a notch or two… but I am hoping the sun will stick around for the weekend. Hope it makes an appearance where you are too – have a good one!

I’m a sucker for old-school machines (like this beauty – here, here and here – made by Jezze & co), so when I saw the one above in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem recently I was mesmerised. I don’t need to know what they do or how they work to find them fascinating, especially when they’re this finely crafted!

That said, I did read the exhibit’s label (although didn’t necessarily understand it all), and can tell you that it’s an Electrostatic Generator. It was made in 1784 by John Cuthbertson (an English instrument maker who settled in Amsterdam) after a design by Dutch scientist and teacher Martinus Van Marum. Van Marum used the machine for over a decade in his various electro-chemical and electro-physical research experiments.

Apparently, with its 1.65 meter diameter discs, it is the largest plate generator ever built and could produce a spark with a record-length of 61 cm, which implies a voltage of
330 000 volts. Smokin’!

“Each disk is rubbed by four friction pads of waxed taffeta pressed to the glass by leaf springs. The central portions of the disks are coated with resinous material to absorb the vibrations when they are in motion”

“The disks are rotated by a double crank in a frame fixed to the top of a table, on which two men stood to work the machine”
(woodwork designed by architect Leendert Viervant)

“Combs ‘transport’ the charge to the conductors”

“The arrangement contains a battery of Leiden jars, the earliest type of condenser”

(text in italics is quoted from the exhibit’s label)

The Teylers Museum is filled to the brim with other intriguing and exquisitely crafted scientific instruments, and also houses (in what appear to be the original 18th Century wooden cabinets!) a huge collection of fossils, bones, crystals, rocks, paintings, drawings and prints.

They also serve a mean chocolate cake in their cafe. You should go… you’d like it :)

My mum has been visiting for the past few weeks… from 9675 km away so it was a rare and special occurrence! Sadly she left on Friday evening, but I consoled myself over the weekend by looking through and enjoying the gazillion-and-one photos we took of all the fun stuff we did :)

Last weekend was Open Tuinen Dagen (Open Garden Days) in Amsterdam. A once yearly opportunity to gain access to some of the beautiful green spaces hidden behind the tall brick gables of Amsterdam’s grachtenpanden… and to experience (and snoop around!) other people’s gardens.

I had no idea there was so much green space hidden away behind and between the buildings in the city’s centre. I suppose a quick look at Amsterdam via Google Earth might’ve told me that but it really was quite a revelation! There are some incredibly beautiful gardens out there…

[top: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (English version) translated into morse code. Sculpture by Maarten Versteeg, in Amnesty International's garden at Keizersgracht 77]

[top: Bat, by ceramicist Dorine de Gruyter]

These slightly scary women, most of them wielding sharp pointy things, appeared on many a street corner in Barcelona. I don’t know exactly what it is that I find so appealing about them but I like them a great deal! Perhaps it’s that they appear to be on an important mission (although what that mission is… I’m not sure?).

[Edit: by kid acne, thanks to wazzuki for the heads-up]

Other Barcelona street art encountered and enjoyed…

doilies, not just for high-tea

knotted and woven

tourist

l. pez… still smiling  |  r. kenor?

 

More Barcelona street art…

Back in Barcelona this past weekend for the Primavera Sound music festival, and once again finding so many things to love about it!

I ♥ you Barca…

… for your marvellous mosaics

… for your architectural abstraction [l. CCCB building, r. MACBA building],

and fantasy! [l&r. Parc Guell, designed by Antoni Gaudi]

… for your crazy creatures [l. The Cat, by Fernando Botero, r. doll in shop window (I would've liked to have found out more about the doll's maker but the shop was unfortunately closed. The label read "Las Chatikas de Lusesita")],

… for your kick-ass music festival next to the sea, and l-o-n-g balmy summer evenings in which to enjoy it,

… for your outrageous wall-coverings,

… for your beautiful and quirky light-fittings,

… for your magnificent stained glass [l&r. Casa Amatller],

… and for the way you look so darn purdy at sunrise.

I have long had an interest in the Mexican folk art, and in particular the nichos / shadow boxes, produced for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival. Although the festival and the associated art and craft may appear morbid to some I’ve always understood them as a celebration of life rather than a dwelling on death, and as a humorous nod to the inevitability of death – it’s gonna happen so let’s not waste our time fretting about it. Many nichos I’ve come across include dancing skeletons, making music, falling in love - what’s not to like!

So, when an important birthday approached in April, and I was a bit stuck for a gift idea, I decided to construct a Mexican nichos-inspired diorama / mixed media assemblage as a gift. The recipient is also a fan of Dia de los Muertos folk art, a dedicated lover of music (sometimes, but not necessarily, of the diabolical kind), and has a burgeoning collection of skull related artworks (by the likes of Femke Hiemstra, William Schaff, Huck Gee, Banksy, Brian Morris et al)… so a music-themed skully nichos it had to be.

I had originally thought I’d make the musician figures myself, but soon realised that if I wanted them to have an authentically Mexican feel I’d be better off finding figures made by a Mexican craftsperson… someone who knows what they’re doing! Luckily there’s a shop in Amsterdam that caters to all one’s Mexican folk arts ‘n crafts needs (details of said wonderful shop included below). I was able to hand pick my mariachi band from their great collection of Dia de los Muertos figures – two Spanish guitarists, a trumpeter, a violinist, and both a male and a female vocalist. This was going to be some party!

My Mariachi band needed a hellfire and brimstone set on which to play their diabolical tunes. I wanted to create a kind of cavernous, fiery underworld while still keeping it colourful and densely patterned like the Mexican nichos are. I also wanted an excuse to include plenty of cut paper – I love the papercutting process but don’t do enough of it, so needing layers and layers of flames gave me plenty of opportunity to immerse myself in the process.

flame cutting

devilish skull drawing

watercolour and gouache background painting

putting the layers together

layered

and the final assemblage

I had so much fun constructing this thing and have plans to make more shadow boxes, less overtly (or not at all) Dia de los Muertos-themed but incorporating the techniques I learnt while making this one. The possibilities are endless!

Should you have a hankering to make your own shadow box then these are the materials you’ll need:

• a box frame – I used Ikea’s 23×23cm Ribba, which is about 4.5cm deep. I think it would be better to work with a deeper box frame, so if you’re good with wood you could custom-make your own!
• scalpel with swivel blade - I find the swivelling blade makes it easier to cut fluid shapes, but any sharp blade would do.
• A variety of papers - I used Daler Rowney’s smooth Canford papers (150gsm) in a range of fiery hues for the flames, and slightly textured Canson pastel papers for the background painting and foreground papercuts. The furthest layer of flames is a translucent orange paper (brand unknown) allowing the background painting to show through and increasing the sense of depth.
• Drawing and/or painting materials – I used water-soluble pencil crayons, watercolour and gouache for the background image.
• Spray glue, and possibly a glue pen if fiddly, pin-point sticking is required (this is one of the best I’ve used… and I’m not just saying that because of its name :)
  Although the layers of flames are stuck one on top of the other I left the upper parts of their ‘tongues’ glue-free and loose, to increase a sense of depth and movement as the light changes and shadows shift. 
• Things/objects (figures, or whatever takes your fancy) to put inside the box.

The shop mentioned above is Santa Jet, Prinsenstraat 7, Amsterdam. Their website is currently ‘under construction’ but here’s the URL anyway: http://www.santajet.com/ (in case a more detailed website makes an appearance in the future). And here’s a pic of the shop’s colourful interior. I’d highly recommend a visit to Santa Jet if you’re passing through Amsterdam.

In my previous post I mentioned our having visited the Balcombe / Ouse Valley viaduct on our recent wanderings in the UK and I threatened promised more photos of this very appealing structure. So, here they are…

It was designed by engineer John Urpeth Rastrick (in association with architect David Mocatta for the London-Brighton Railway) and was completed in 1842. The viaduct is 450 metres (±1,476 feet) long, almost 30 metres (±96 feet) high and is carried on 37 elegant arches with pierced piers. Apparently the 11 million bricks used in its construction were imported from Holland and were transported to the site by barge on the then navigable river Ouse, via Newhaven and Lewes.

Balcombe is still a working viaduct and carries over 100 trains a day between London and Brighton. In the short time we were there several passed overhead, at what felt and sounded like ferocious speeds. The fact that this almost 170 year old structure is still doing its job with such finesse is a testament to the skill of early Victorian engineering (and Dutch bricks, of course :)

Its obvious aesthetic appeal is in the amazing patterns created by the perspective of the receding brick piers and arches, these patterns morphing and changing as you shift your angle of view and alter your sightlines. But the other very appealing thing about the structure is the mottled brickwork – many years of patching & restoration have resulted in a wonderfully mellow, russety, abstract patchwork.

And if that abstract patchwork isn’t enough to get your pattern-buds a’tingling then what about these super-stripes, created by the piers’ long late-afternoon shadows draped across the surrounding fields.

As an added bonus it frames the landscape beautifully…

Thank you, Mr Rastrick!

We returned home from our trip to the UK with, predictably, hundreds of photos. I’ve had to be very strict with myself to distil the week and a half long trip into just two (or in some cases, where I failed to be sufficiently strict, four) pictures a day. Pictures that somehow encapsulate the essence of each day for me…

friday – heading west (amsterdam to london)
1. rijksmuseum ‘annexe’ at schiphol airport, detail from ’seascape with a herring fleet’ by cornelis boumeester, c.1700, majolica  |  2. clouds and yellow rapeseed fields, snapped from grubby aeroplane window

saturday - sussex
1. seagull, brighton pier  |  2. ouse valley viaduct (more pics of this amazing structure next time!)

sunday - london
1. complementary colours, snapped en route to the alexandra palace farmers’ market  |  2. digby! one of the coolest cats i know

monday - highgate cemetery, london
1. tomb of thomas sayers, bearing a statue of his dog ‘lion’, 1865  |  2. domino II, the cemetery’s resident black cat, accompanied us on our ramble  |  3 & 4. tombstone typography

tuesday - london
1. detail from ‘octopus games’ by utagawa kuniyoshi, 1840 – 42, colour woodblock. it’s hard to believe this work was made 170 years ago! (go and see the ‘kuniyoshi’ exhibition at the royal academy if you can. ends 7 june)  |  2, 3 & 4. derelict london – parkland walk: a 7.2 km / 4.5 m linear green walkway in north london. it follows the course of the former great northern railway suburban branch line between finsbury park and alexandra palace, and is now a local nature reserve (and favourite haunt of graffiti-ists).

wednesday - london
1. ancient oak tree, richmond park  |  2. algernon (a.k.a. cat), another favourite feline friend (it certainly was good to hook up with all these old friends again :)

thursday – braunton, devon
1. stand-off between agnes and taunting ducks (ducks out of frame)  |  2. our shadows

friday – somerset
1. exmoor, grass cropped to a perfect lawn by the ‘wild’ exmoor ponies?  |  2. hand shadow against perforated metal barrier, waiting for first gig (grouper) of the festival to begin…

saturday – all tomorrow’s parties music festival, minehead, somerset
1. poppy in pub garden  |  2. alan sparhawk of retribution gospel choir  |  3. music festivals are thirsty work!  |  4.  derek fudesco of the cave singers, one of the (new to me) great musical discoveries of the festival!

sunday – all tomorrow’s parties music festival, minehead, somerset
1. hush arbors  |  2. grails

monday – heading back east (towards london)
1. door hinge detail, dunster, somerset  |  2.badger chow, whitchurch-on-thames

Holidays are fantastic… but wouldn’t they be doubly-so if there was a little gang of holiday-sprites furiously working away at all the stuff you’re neglecting while you’re away? So you wouldn’t return to an overflowing email inbox and mountains of work. Not wanting to ask too much, but it would be great if they hung around after your return to do the holiday laundry as well. I’ll be scaling that mountain this weekend – hope you’re up to something less prosaic :)