PhD-Ness Part 2 in weekly series - Thinking, Reading, Writing and Doing and sentences that make you stop and think

things I've been working on this week - pictures are two of the images I was working on last week. One has been  put into a larger hoop and finished with black bias binding  and felt on the back - looks neater but also doesn't allow any light through, the second has had the excess material at the back of the hoop sewn and pulled together the same way as you do when making a 'suffolk puff'* which lets light through but on this example isn't very neat as I didn't start out with a piece of muslin at least twice the diameter of the finished piece. The third hoop (not pictured) I finished with grey bias binding and just trimmed the excess material at the back - lets light through beautifully, looks neat BUT makes it extremely difficult to re-tighten the material in the hoop to make the image flat as possible. Also pictured are my new highlighter pens cunningly disguised as nail varnishes, my note pad (packed to the drawstrings with handy comments**)  my trusty reading glasses (none of your modern varifocals for me) and a copy of Sebalds Rings Of Saturn which has been on my 'books to read list' for months but which as yet remains unread -  one of my goals for this week is to have at least read the first chapter by Friday. I am properly back at 'study/work' even though it still seems like the summer holidays in lots of ways...... Programmes/Films Watched I've been to the ever lovely Hyde Park Picture House twice this past week - to see the restored 4 k (whatever that means) version of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Vertigo was in colour - in fact colour plays an important part in the film - the vivid green highlighting characters jealousy in places and the costumes designed by Edith Head are utterly wonderful. I've not seen Vertigo as many times as I've seen other Hitchcock films and in places as in all his films it's an uncomfortable watch. I know his films are meant to be - murder, obsessive jealousy and tension aren't  meant to be fun but I mean uncomfortable to watch by my feminist standards as Hitchcocks treatment of female characters can be especially horrible and so uncomfortable and difficult to watch. The way Scotty (played so wonderfully by the incomparable James Stewart) pressures Judy Barton (played so excellently by the wonderful Kim Novak) into looking like the woman of his obsession is horrible, they way the worker at the beauty salon reassures him that they can make her look exactly the way he wants and her desperate asking if he will love her if she does makes me squirm.  Those misgivings aside I absolutely loved it and it was a real treat to see it on the big screen. The Hitch-Hiker was also uncomfortable to watch - it tells a fictionalised and slightly less grim version of the true story of Billy Cook who murdered six people whilst hitch-hiking in 1950-1951. The character based on him - Emmet Myers only(!) killed three, as films made in America at the time were still subject to the Production Code and the number of deaths had to be reduced or else it wouldn't be released. This film was in monochrome and was made by Ida Lupino who started life as an actress but also worked as a writer and a director. There aren't many female directors today and there were even less in Lupino's day. She was a groundbreaker both in terms of the work she did and the subject matter she made films about. The film is strangely claustrophobic given that much of it is set in the vast outdoors though this is always out of reach of the two kidnapped men, visible only through the cars windows or around them as Myers keeps them under constant watch and has a gun. They have lied to their wives about where they are going for the weekend and so it takes time for the combined police forces of North and South America to catch up with them thanks to a tip from cousin of a bar owner and rescue them from Myer's clutches. In spite of Myer's laughing at them and pointing out that one of them could get away leaving the other to his fate, they continue to support one another.  Flowers C Kendall T (producers) 2018, 11 August  Sylvia Plath - Inside The Bell Jar [television broadcast] BBC LondonA mix of vox pops from some of her surviving high school and college friends as well as her daughter Freida and readings from poems and passages of The Bell Jar. A book I re-read recently. It was powerful and moving and the photos of her holding a flower - the prop she was given when she said she wanted to be a writer were especially poignant and beautiful. As you can probably tell I'm still finding this reference malarkey difficult, partly because it's still not second nature but also because I find it difficult deciding sometimes between what is a reference and what is an in text citation when it comes to films/programmes as I'm not quoting them like I am a book but just describing them. Anyway here's hoping that at some point it will become second nature and stops making my brain hurt and put off doing things.... Books Read Maybe I need to split these into two categories - books read for study purposes and those read purely for pleasure - though often the two categories overlap considerably.  Entirely for pleasure I've just started reading Gaudy Nights by  Dorothy L Sayers - my edition dates from 1939 (it was first published in 1935)  and it was bought from a charity shop in Carnforth and is delightfully aged spotted and the red cloth binding has cracked. It smells of 'old' and I am 35 pages in and I have enjoyed her descriptions of formal academia for women so far. Also entirely for pleasure I read 'How Not To Be A Boy' by Robert Webb (2018) - bought from a charity shop in Barnsley. I read this over a couple of days as I found it bittersweet, poignant and laugh out loud funny in places. I enjoyed it so much I've made my husband read it too - he's up to the not taking clothing advice from Mr Shitty Legs section and also laughing out loud as well as feeling lots of empathetic recognition. I finished The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris and then read the introduction, the opening chapter and chapter 'Vile Bodies' from 'Dirty Old London, The Victorian Fight Against Filth' by Lee Jackson which was very interesting indeed. I am reading books like this to get a more rounded kind of every day knowledge of what conditions were like in Victorian Britain.  Plus they are easier to read and understand on first reading than some of the more specialist philosophical texts I need to read too. I was particularly taken with this quote from a report on the contents of graveyards from 1838 'mephitical effluvia of death' on page 116 (mephitical means foul smelling) and the concluding paragraph of the chapter Vile Bodies which concentrates upon cemeteries and disposal of the dead for me especially resonated with me 'Yet, despite the ravages of time, changing customs, vicissitudes of fashion, the Victorian garden cemetery still survives in its various forms, one of the great legacies of the nineteenth century.' I also read McQueen - The Illustrated History of a Fashion Icon - written by Tom Rammussen and illustrated by R. Song This was a birthday present to me bought from Magma on Oldham Street in Manchester and it's gorgeous. A big brand new hardback with red edged pages and it smells of new paper. An overview of McQueen's life, education and career in fashion and art, it featured two passages that really stood out for me from page 47 when describing his graduate collection 'Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims' 1992 as 'each piece had a lock of McQueen's hair bonded between two pieces of acrylic on the inside:representing the old tradition of giving hair to a lover as a token, often purchased from prostitutes rather than cut from their own hair' and on page 169 ' McQueen was a master at marrying unlikely references - often the historic with the contemporary' The locks of hair mention made me think I still have lots of research to do on the use of hair in Victorian mourning jewellery and practice in trying to make versions of them using acrylic hair and patterns from 1875. I've just asked a chum if she can send me some horsehair for padding out the hair and making it stiffer and easier to work with. This was one of the tips from that book by Mark Campbell. I don't think I am a master (or a mistress - why are the words we use to denote skill/knowledge gendered at all?) at marrying the historic and contemporary though it is also one of the things I hope to achieve with the work I make. William Henry Fox Talbot Dawn of the Photograph - Russell Roberts and Greg Hobson - (2016) Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers - the exhibition catalogue from the exhibition that I failed to go and see in person. It made me think again of the relationship between art and science in photography and how close and inter-dependant that relationship was in the early days and how a photograph can be both a picture and a document. And the role of light in photography and how it both helps create the image and then causes it to fade too.    Pictures taken/Artwork made or worked onHoops - see above Still haven't taken any pictures - got an almost finished roll of 36 in my lomo fish eye lens camera and am still only halfway through a roll of 36 in my very much not lomo Canon but I've not had much of a picture taking unless it's for straightforward recording purposes mojo. Something I shall have to kickstart and make myself do I think - in the same way that I make myself sit and write this. Exhibitions Attended   None this week - which is a bit shameful really, and something I hope to remedy this week. But I did forget to mention the rather wonderful drawing of a skull I saw in the recreation of David Hockney's studio in Cartwright Hall in Lister Park, Bradford. The other thing I absolutely loved in the Hockney Gallery there were the recreations of his photo albums with pictures of his family - pictured in all their under and over exposed glory in 'snaps' and it was so wonderful to see pictures that had the shape of sent away to be developed snaps ie square-ish with slightly rounded edges or square with white edges all the way round and that hadn't been automatically exposed/image stabilised/taken using a phone. They gave me an almost proustian rush, but alas I have very few old family photographs to meander down memory lane with - I mostly have memories of photographs instead. I also haven't mentioned til now the exhibition launch I went to at Dean Clough a few weeks ago - an exhibition by Charlie Goldthorpe which I am immensely pleased and proud to have been involved with. I was one of the people who supplied her with stories about objects and people and how I remember that person through particular objects. Namely my Nana through a toilet roll holder dolly she made and gave me many years ago. It's one of the few objects I would choose to save if the house were to burn down. I am in awe of the skillful, beautiful and respectful way Charlie used that to make the work on show. You can read about and see some images of it here . Other work/applications/miscellaneous I put together a very last minute application to The Tetley to be one of the artists for their mentoring programme and sent it in a full twelve hours before the deadline. I applied late because I have fallen into a bad habit of not checking the Curator Space site itself regularly instead relying on the email to tell me about opportunities but that only tells me of new ones and ones about to close - as the Tetley one was. It wasn't too difficult to put together as I had already put together things like a CV and that just needed updating but I'm afraid it wasn't as tailored as it could and should have been to ensure success but there's still some time til they said they'd be in touch so you never know. Note to self - check Curator Space at least once a week!! I've also had a book review published and you can read it here and I'm especially chuffed with it as I a)got a copy of the book to review and b) it's a review in a proper peer reviewed academic journal. I have been experimenting with different ways of working too - some days I have switched the computer on in the morning to check email and then switched it back off again so I could read without getting distracted by social media. It worked well until I came across words I didn't understand and which weren't in the Little Oxford Dictionary I was given for my 11th birthday just before I started secondary school and so had to look them up online. I also made more of an effort to move about more during the day rather than being sedentary which was better in terms of feeling less stiff the day after weight-training sessions (I have a new goal of being able to deadlift 80kg by the end of the year and so far I have deadlifted 57kg) but also meant that I got sidetracked from what I was doing and I felt like I hadn't worked all day. Hmm this work and day planning malarkey still needs work.... I also wrote my presentation for PhD In The Pub - fingers crossed it goes okay.... References: Jackson, L (2014) Dirty Old London, The Victorian Fight Against Filth  London Yale University Press  Rammusen, T & Song R (2018) McQueen The Illustrated History of a Fashion Icon Melbourne Australia Smith Street Books  * for instructions on how to make a suffolk puff see here  ** prizes given (well not really) to the person who spots which comedian and sketch I am almost-quoting here - clue she also wrote about an antique shop in Manchesterford

Ma-Ness Week 5 FINAL TERM!!! Tiredness, Excitement, Planning Ahead, Silky Goodness, Steamyness, Reimagining The Monstrous and that kind of thing...

Quite a full post it note this week - a mix of what I've been up to and what I've been buying...

Me posing next to my board at the Gothic Creative Showcase - part of the Reimagining The Monstrous Gothic Conference at Sheffield University on Saturday 8th May

It's been a really busy few days and it's going to be a really busy few days too - one conference down, two to go and one guided walk still to do. Hence this blog being written on a Tuesday instead of my usual Monday as I took an executive decision yesterday to take the afternoon off after a morning of two loads of laundry, tidying round and an intensive physio appointment on my knee...which thankfully though still twingy and sore and leaving me limping a bit is improving.

But I am pleased to report that the work is all on schedule so far in that I've finished drafting the paper I'm delivering this Friday so all I've left to do for it is to polish and practice it, and I'd finished mounting the digital tracing paper prints I'd had made for the Gothic Creative Showcase on the Thursday night before the showcase on Saturday morning. I really hate running around doing stuff at the last minute - though I worry I might be adding more stress for myself by panicking if things aren't done ahead of schedule as opposed to on schedule. Mmm might need to rethink my to do list so it's not quite as frantic - as after all I've built in enough lieu time to be able to take some...though I am also guilty of putting things off that I'm not looking forward to doing and so sometimes I have to force myself to do it - like the mounting of the prints for the Gothic Showcase.

It had to be done in the garage aka pop up meth lab as that has a big door that can be left open for more than adequate ventilation as I don't want to unintentionally intoxicate the cat on spraymount as she's goes mad enough on catnip and b) my workroom does not have a big enough space to lay things out flat to dry or c) give either me or my husband a cause for coughing.

It says on the side of the tin of spraymount (using the 3m repositionable stuff)  that working in a well ventilated space is very important. Mmm it might make you cough but spraymount does smell intoxicatingly lovely (as does developer, stopbath and fixer) and I'm glad I got the stuff that doesn't completely set straight away as positioning A3 size prints can be a bit tricky. In fact mounting them on white card made me realise and appreciate the skill of the professional framer all the more. More than once I had to peel them back off and put them back down again and I was feeling stressed that they might all go horribly wrong and wrinkle and just look rubbish. Understandable but thankfully not realised fears - there was a teeny bit of crinkling but they looked okay.

I knew the boards they'd be displayed on would be dark hence my mounting them on white card as otherwise the digital print on tracing paper would have been lost and too difficult to see. Plus I didn't want to put pins through the work itself but rather its mount - though these can still be trimmed so that they only show the image itself rather than a white border.

I bought both black and white card and different coloured paper to see which background would look best. Some of the positives looked okay against the black and one of the big ones I've had done of St George's Fields look positively malevolent (exactly what I had hoped) against the pink but all look good against white. And as I'll be exhibiting against dark boards for the next couple of weeks I decided the best thing to use is a white background.

I also made a list this time of the things I needed to bring - pins, sticky rather than sew on velcro, tape measure, mini spirit level, scissors, extra work just in case and put them in a bag by the front door ready and ticked each item off it so I knew I had packed them and so could just pick up the bag when it was time to leave. Undergraduate me would have thought I was being ridiculously anal and so would have been rushing round like a headless chicken having to scrounge things off others to complete the task. As it was it was a case of get up, wash - put on clothes and make up left out the night before and pick bags up and go. I hope I can always be this organised.


Plus being organised helps minimise my anxiety levels to just about manageable...and it is quite anxiety provoking (for me anyway) going to a strange place, and putting up my work on display.  Which of course begs the question - why else make it if not to show it as after all doesn't art need an audience to make it art or else it's just a private hobby. And I don't want it to be just a private hobby - I do want it to be seen and it was very gratifying to overhear someone just as I'd finished putting the board together say 'wow' which reassured me that as well as me thinking that it looked good - so did at least one other person.

Plus planning things in advance made me realise that all was not lost (though it may have felt like it for a few minutes) when I realised I'd not had every image I had planned on printing printed. I must have miscounted when I was putting all the images on the usb stick to take to the printing room and I hadn't added all the inverted and mirrored images I'd made and there wouldn't be enough time to get them redone. But as I had already got all bar two of the prints made I wanted I still had more than enough to make a creditable looking ensemble. But note to self - make actual list of images I want printing and tick them off said list before clicking button to safely remove usb stick and putting it in bag ready to take in.  

Thankfully this time I had my ever supportive husband with me who helped me both arrange the board at the other end and push in the pins as that was really difficult. So much so that next time when I will be doing this solo I am going to put velcro on the back of the prints (but leave the adhesive cover on) so that all I'll need to do once I've decided where I'm putting them is to take that bit of sticky off plus that way there won't be anything like a visible pin to potentially detract from the image. I'd been unable to source enough black or white headed push pins to pin all the images on the board with one or the other - hence the decision to pin printed material (it's thankfully getting much less difficult to write about my work and inspiration for this kind of thing) with black pins, along with negative images and use white on the positive ones.

It was lovely as ever to meet up with other gothicists and chat potential phd plans as well as hear about what they're working on and to hear about other potential opportunities. I am quite fortunate in that my work is interdisciplinary and so fits potentially within art, gothic, and history academic settings.

But although the Gothic Creative Showcase was the culmination of the week there had also been the excitement of getting my first experimental burial plot size printed image back from the digital print room and steaming it which was rather tricky as a) it's so big - approximately 2.14 metres by 1.06 metres wide or 7 foot long by 3 foot 6 inches wide in old money) and b) the hessian backing you wrap it up in to put it in the steamer is as a consequence very heavy. But I am well chuffed with how it looks - the image I had printed is of a lumen print I made of a head on a headstone from a graveyard in Chapel Allerton inverted back into a positive. And that cost £37.80 so now it is all systems go for the next three which I hope will form part of my piece for the MA degree show in late October.

Things I learnt from it are: how to use the steamer facility and don't be a numbskull next time and take in a bag to put it to bring it home and also beg/borrow/steal an old cardboard inner tube from either material or paper to wrap it round to store it once it has been washed so it doesn't get creased.

The other receipt pictured is for black bias binding and embroidery hoops as the experiments using coffin lining offcuts are continuing. Bias binding on the hoop helps grip the material more tightly, plus am thinking putting black around the outer hoop will look good for display purposes - once I've decided what it is I want to put on it and got both the embroidery and the image transfer techniques are good enough. Things I've learnt so far - embroidering straight onto the material puckers it regardless of width of needle used/amount of threads, covering it in gloss medium shows less than matte medium and it puckers less BUT you have to be very careful about placing the needle or else it leaves a hole plus if you pull the thread too tight it then tears through the material....room for more experimentation methinks.

I bought the hoops,bias binding and embroidery thread off the Habiknit stall on Leeds Market - the same place I go to for all my sewing stuff, it's opposite the wool shop at the entrance on Vicar Lane. The ladies that work on the stall are lovely and really helpful and the lady who sold me the hoops said she wanted to buy her daughter a cardigan like the one I was wearing - it's a Banned one with day of the dead skulls either side. Apparently her daughter now has her own room after having to share with her sister and wants to go all out skulls everywhere - and it was really nice to be able to tell her about the matte medium image transfer technique and she said she was going to try it out on some stuff for her daughter. She also said she'd like to come to the end of year show when I explained what I was working on.

So what else? also went to a really interesting talk at Kirkstall Museum on the Victorian Underworld and learnt all manner of titbits about crime and punishment during the Victorian era as well as a really interesting nugget re Victorian novels in that reading was much less of a solo activity then - and the long monologues often found in Victorian serialisations were to give the reader the chance to perform.  

Think that's enough for now - still to make notes on what I've been up to today but now it's time for some tea and a bit of my beloved Eurovision.


   
  

MA-Ness Week 4 (final term - eek!!!) Experimenting, Decisions Decisions, John Waters, To Do Or Don't Lists, Cat Hair and General Witterings....

Experiments with embroidery thread and fabric pens, top piece shows difference between embroidering straight onto the fabric - even with just one thread and the thinnest needle I've got it puckers, it puckers less if I've covered the fabric with matte or gloss medium and gloss is a little less obvious once it has dried.
I've also been looking at how to transfer the design I want to embroider onto the fabric - middle strip shows fabric pens and one of those 'this fades away pens' and it does but it also bleeds a bit which is difficult if you want something to be quite exact. The lower piece shows a piece I did by embroidering (simple backstitch) over a pencil line - it cvovers it up neatly but I need to get better at drawing my design evenly - the design is inpsired by hearts and flowers tombstones from the 18th century in Dewsbury

Not a v full post it note but lots of experiments on coffin lining offcuts, plus I've now wrapped my embroidery hoops with bias binding so that they'll hopefully grip the fabric better, it's slippery tricksy stuff....the patterned fabric didn't work at all well, the pale pink fabric worked okay-ish, used a print of a scan of a cyanotype I made and cut a bigger piece of paper than thew actual image to see if I could get it so it didn't break up so much around the edges but the colour seemed to bleed in a way the black and white prints don't but might experiment with it further....

So as you can see lots of experimenting rather than photograph taking this last week, still somewhat out of action with a poorly knee, saw a physiotherapist who reassured me that although it might take time to heal the injury to the 'medial collateral ligament' it will heal - and she gave me some exercises to try and it does seem to be getting a little easier and less painful and swollen. PHEW!! but getting down on one knee or kneeling is still too painful so it might be a while since I can take some more pictures.

So I thought I'd use my enforced limited mobility to sit down and do some image transfering and sewing instead. And you can see the results above - some I'm pleased with, some I'm not so pleased with and some I want to work further on and refine. I've also tried using different kinds of brush and spatula to put the matte medium on - spatula seems to really get it into the fabric so much so, I have to turn it over and almost put it back through but it does mean an even coverage with less obvious application marks. 

I also experimented making a kind of mud wash out of the small amount of soil I harvested from St George's Fields a while back, it looked okay-ish but still needs some refinement I think. I also won't be rushing to use the pale blue patterned material again as it's too uneven to absorb the matte medium equally and it's even shinier than than the other fabric and thicker. Still I might give it another go, other thing I need to experiment with is freezer paper and seeing if I can use that to print onto the fabric. That method does involve ironing though and I've a feeling that might just make the fabric shrivel up - some careful experimenting ahead then.

I also decided to actively take some time out and spent one afternoon watching kids telly - partly in the hope of seeing Hacker T Dog who never fails to put a smile on my face. He is a dog from Wigan with a love of meat paste, milky brews, puns, irreverence, Cotton Eye Joe, lucky withered legs and pink dresses. I believe his human handler is called Phil Fletcher.

I follow him on Twitter as well and he always makes me chuckle but alas he wasn't on when I switched on but Shaun the Sheep was and so was a new animated series featuring Zig and Zag created by Ciaran Morrison and Mick O'Hara. It wasn't quite as funny as their furry outings on the Big Breakfast and nowhere near as filthy,  scatalogical, lewd, chauvanistic as their creators other characters Podge and Rodge. But it did introduce me to the marvellous phrase 'what in the name of Sir Walter Raleigh's Hedgehog is that?'.

Podge and Rodge are somewhat of an acquired taste and they make me laugh a lot. Their late night 'Scare at Bedtime' halloween tales (which you can find on Youtube - along with their seminal work Colosto-Me Colosto-You) and their homage to Foster and Allen -Fester and Ailin are amongst my favourite things to watch. Though part of the appeal of Podge and Rodge like Zig and Zag is that they have irish accents and the way they speak, and use of  phrases like 'come here to me , you' make me think of my much loved and much missed grandparents. Though neither of them - ever swore either at all or nowhere near as much...

I have always loved puppets - of the cheeky and irreverent kind that is, so Sweep, Basil Brush, Zig and Zag/Podge and Rodge, Hacker T Dog are top of my list of  things to watch if I want to smile, as is Spongebob Squarepants. I often have things playing on youtube in the background whilst I'm working, though it has mostly been Victoria Wood this last week - her work is a never ending balm and source of laughter. I don't know how many times I have watched Julie Walters as the waitress badly serving 'one soup...... *pencil lick* and another one' to the couple played by Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston waiting for trains but I could never be bored by it and never fail to laugh at it. Comic observational perfection performed wonderfully.

Someone else whose work I could never tire of is John Waters - spent part of this weekend rewatching the last film he made in A Dirty Shame (2004) and then Cecil B Demented (2000) and Serial Mom (1994) . I am eagerly awaiting his next book releases too. I like his writing style just as much as I like his film making style. I am still working on my response to his '12 Assholes and a Dirty Foot' (mine is '12 Belle Ends and a Sock On The Door' though it may have to be scaled back to 9 Belle Ends and an Abandoned Pair of Boxers in a Doorway In Dewsbury as I'm struggling to find anymore Belle Ends and the parameters I set myself for the project were: it has to be done on my camera phone and I can't make any of the images, I can only take them....

I've also been experimenting with writing 'done lists' rather than to do lists, in an attempt to feel a bit more on top of things. It did counter the feeling of  either 'I've done feck all' or 'I've not done enough' when in fact I have done loads. But I still need a to do list - for fear of forgetting important things I need to do. Which reminds me I must update the big list I've got so I know what times I need to do what by. This month is especially busy - I have three conferences to attend - one I'm delivering a paper at, the other two I'm displaying work, as well as a talk and a couple of important meetings.

The other thing I'm experimenting with is doing/completing where possible just one thing per day - or rather trying to concentrate upon one thing at a time rather than having a whole list of things and only doing the easy things off them - I'm not above writing things on my to do list that I've already done just so I can tick them off....

Looking at my diary makes me feel a bit sick - partly because the next few weeks are crammed full but then it all calms down again and then it'll be the end of the course....and I still haven't got quite to grips with organising a phd place yet, other than deciding I defintiely want to do one.

It is also coming up to the anniversary of the death of my beloved Lucia - I still miss her so much and I want to find a way to completely distract myself on that day. Anniversaries and dates have such power and significance don't they? or rather we invest them with such - even if we try not to. I can remember taking a flight on September 11th - they first year after the Twin Towers were hit and even though I knew that rationally there was no difference between that day and any other in terms of being on a plane I couldn't shake the  extra feeling of dread - on top of all my usual fears re flying. Fears which after a spectacularly turbulent flight have left me reluctant to take a plane unless I absolutely have to...and so far I haven't had to and long may that continue.

I attended a really interesting talk on Victorian Turkish Baths by Malcolm Shifrin at Leeds Library last week. It was part of the series put on by the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies - all of the lectures are free and anyone can attend them. It was especially lovely to hear one amongst the splendour of the Leeds Library though as opposed to a modern purpose built seminar room.

But as ever I digress Baths as in Turkish/Roman Steam Baths were primarily promoted in this country by David Urquhart (1805-1877) who was a diplomat and member of parliament and his colleague Dr Richard Barter in Ireland. I had realised that bathing was somewhat of a difficult task to accomplish prior to the time of mains water and sewage, I hadn't realised how difficult. Water not only had to be heated but also carried from the pump. And water is really heavy. He was promoting the use of steam baths as opposed to just ordinary bathing. And there was no end of ailments it could help with according to the advertising. Though he did face tough opposition as well as some medics were firmaly against bathing of any kind - especially for the lower classes as it made them weak apparently.

There was also much made of the class differences - in both access to bathing facilities and attitudes towards them, not to mention the sexes. Male and female bathers were kept separate at all times and modesty protected with either towels or curtain arrangements that dropped from the ceiling as you emerged from the pool. It seems the that the the middle and upper classes were horrified when baths were opened on a Sunday - yet Sunday was the only day most working class people could attend and of course the working classes were equally being castigated for being dirty. (This in turn makes me think of the dreadful old jokes about people in the north using baths to store coal in) It was also fascinating to hear about some of the advertising used for baths at the time of the suffrage campaigns for women - apparently the effect of the baths on complexions were so 'beautifying' that women wouldn't need the vote as they'd be so beautiful men wouldn't be able to resist their requests for anything....and in the days before chemically treated water the fact that some baths only completely changed their water once a week and so it was cheaper to go later in the week when the water was less fresh...
Fascinating stuff.

I also read a bit more of Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management and so can pass on thse handy(!) housekeeping tips:
'wash well a saucepan but cleran a frying pan with a slice of bread' (hopefully you then eat the bread but that wasn't specified)
and the apposite:

'a good manager looks ahead' and 'clear as you go as muddle makes more muddle' - something which is especially true when you're working in limited space as I am - my workroom is fairly organised but very cramped and it would be lovely to have a bigger house with space for a proper darkroom in the basement...

I did toy with the idea of waiting til tomorrow to write this - seeing as it's a Bank Holiday but as it was raining I decided to do this instead as well as tidying round a bit, made a sausage casserole for later and I also did the ironing. And I'm glad I did as it means that is a few less jobs on my to do list for tomorrow...and fingers crossed by this time next week the big jobs on it will also have been done and my knee will be even more healed so I can take some more photographs. I'm getting shutter and lens withdrawl symptoms.....and reading a book by a papparazzi called Shooting Stars by Jennifer Buhl is making me want to go out and take pics. Not of celebrities and nor in an invasive manner but just that thrill of getting exactly the shot you want...

I did get some pics back this week though that I took in Skegness a while back. I used Kodak Tri X ISO 400 and my lovely ever supportive husband developed them in the garage (aka pop up meth lab) for me - we'd both been so busy we'd forgotten they needed doing but he found time this week and I scanned them in yesterday morning before going to see a really lovely uplifting heartwarming film at the Hyde Park - Eddie The Eagle. Even if it did give me vertigo looking at it at times - the footage of the careering down the take off jump was stomach churning...but back to the negatives - annoyingly I must have had a cat hair trapped in the back of the camera as there is a thin cat hair like line in the same place on all the pics (easily photoshopped out - ha! see last week's entry for my feelings photoshop) but that aside I've got some images I am well chuffed with which I hope to get printed in a couple of weeks when I'm next in the print room. For me the wait and delay with film is part of the joy of it - you forget what you've taken and then hopefully you're gloriously reminded of it, or sometimes you realise you didn't get them quite right or missed something or have just got a camera with not only cat hair on the lens but also in the back....

...adds clean and de cat-hair camera to to do list.....